Name:___________________________
Class:_________
Tombstone/Monument Project
Listed below are the names of some important Americans (and non-Americans) that we have studied. Select one
to research and conduct the itemized tasks.
George Washington
Abigail Adams
Paul Revere
Benjamin Franklin
King George III
Richard Henry Lee
Mercy Otis Warren
Robert Yates
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Jefferson
Crispus Attucks
Samuel Adams
Thomas Paine
John Adams
John Jay
George Mason
John Locke
Baron de Montesquieu
Dolly Madison
Alexander Hamilton
James Monroe
Daniel Shays
John Hancock
William Franklin
Benedict Arnold
Gen. Thomas Gage
__________________________ to ____________________________
Year of Birth
Year of Death
Place of birth:___________________________________________________
Three most important accomplishments in life:
a.________________________________________________________________________________
b.________________________________________________________________________________
c.________________________________________________________________________________
Two interesting things or unusual happenings in this person’s life:
a.________________________________________________________________________________
b.________________________________________________________________________________
Write a paragraph that explains this person’s involvement in the Constitutional Period.
Write a paragraph that describes how this person positively or negatively impacted America.
Create a tombstone which contains the person’s name, dates of birth and death, one major
accomplishment, and a one-sentence epitaph (humorous or serious) which shows this person’s
importance in America’s history. You must also include at least two different images. Be prepared to
explain why you selected these images.
Sample Epitaphs
The mortal remains of Ethan Allen,
fighter, writer, statesman, and philosopher,
lie in this cemetery beneath the marble statue.
His spirit is in Vermont now.
Ethan Allen
(Greenmount Cemetery; Burlington, Vermont)
"He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for
neither, he found happiness and honor in being
helpful to the world."
George Washington Carver
I had A Lover's Quarrel With The
World
Robert Lee Frost
(Old Bennington Cemetery,
Bennington, Vermont)
GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE
FORBEARE TO
DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED
HEARE.
BLEST BE YE MAN YT SPARES
THES STONES AND
CURST BE HE YT MOVES MY
BONES
William Shakespeare
He made us laugh,
he took my pain away.
I love you, Lauretta.
Marty Feldman.
(Forest Lawn; Hollywood Hills, California)
The Body of
B. Franklin, Printer
Like the Cover of an old Book
Its Contents turn out
And Stript of its Lettering & Guilding
Lies here. Food for Worms
For, it will as he believed
appear once more
In a new and more elegant Edition
corrected and improved
By the Author
Benjamin Franklin
(Christ Church Burial Grounds; Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania)
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson,
author of the Declaration of American
Independence, of the statute of Virginia
for religious freedom,
and father of the University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson
(Monticello, Virginia)
{self-written}
Quoth the Raven,
"Nevermore."
Edgar Allan Poe
(Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery; Baltimore,
Maryland)
"The Entertainer"
He did it all
Sammy Davis, Jr.
(Forest Lawn; Glendale, California)
A tomb now suffices him for
whom the world was not enough
Alexander the Great
In testimony of their
Respect
For The Patriot of
incorruptible Integrity,
The Soldier of approved
Valour
The Statesman of
consummate Wisdom;
Whose Talents and Virtues
will be admired
By Grateful Posterity Long
after this Marble shall
have mouldered into Dust
Alexander Hamilton
(Trinity Churchyard; New
York, New York)
I was Henry the King
To me Diverse realms were subject, I was
duke and count of many provinces. Eight feet
of ground is now enough for me, whom many
kingdoms failed to satisfy. Who reads these
lines, let him reflect, upon the narrowness of
death. And in my case behold, the image of
our mortal lot. This scanty tomb doth now
suffice, For whom the Earth was not enough."
King Henry II
"Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I'm Free At Last."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Go Tell the Spartans, Stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
The 300 Spartans
Liberty, Humanity, Justice, Equality
Susan Brownell Anthony
(Mount Hope Cemetery; Rochester, New York)
Stop Traveller! Near this place lieth John
Locke. If you ask what kind of a man he was,
he answers that he lived content with his own
small fortune. Bred a scholar, he made his
learning subservient only to the cause of truth.
This thou will learn from his writings, which
will show thee everything else concerning
him, with greater truth, than the suspect
praises of an epitaph. His virtues, indeed, if he
had any, were too little for him to propose as
matter of praise to himself, or as an example to
thee. Let his vices be buried together. As to an
example of manners, if you seek that, you have
it in the Gospels; of vices, to wish you have
one nowhere; if mortality, certainly, (and may
it profit thee), thou hast one here and
everywhere." (translated from the orginal
Latin)
John Locke