Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
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graveyardarch.bsky.social
Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
@graveyardarch.bsky.social
Adjunct prof, PhD in Historical Archaeology ✨️
Mortuary Archaeologist & Museum Educator. I like graves, the C17th, landscapes, & protective magic. I preserve gravestones, write books, & paint pictures (she/her)

https://linktr.ee/RLacy
Here is the title page in my draft! I've got to go through now and find any notes I left to myself to fill in later...later is now! Deadline is Feb! #amwriting
January 27, 2026 at 7:22 PM
My editor copy is finally here from @berghahnbooks.bsky.social ! I'm so happy to see it irl, & I'm so proud of everyone's hard work! 🎉
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Spinel...
January 23, 2026 at 7:44 PM
I also was super into Jane Tocque's grave, which has a skeleton & various #mementomori symbols! She died at age 71 in 1788, the same year the first Methodist church was built on this site! She was buried by her husband who died in 1768, & his stone has no cool skeletons. #archaeology #nfld
January 21, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Guys I got sucked into book writing this evening & what was meant to be a short blurb on a site in Carbonear became a whole thing about a Rev's wife because she was cool & has a sick gravestone 💁‍♀️ She filled in for her husband when he was away on his preaching circuit! 🏺
January 21, 2026 at 2:54 AM
So excited to receive my contributor copy of @drmaryclary.bsky.social & @carolyndillian.bsky.social 's new edited volume! My first PhD work to see publication is inside! 😍🏺 #Pubarch #archaeology #publication
January 8, 2026 at 11:21 PM
In the vein of using fancy things while you have them & not saving them for a mystery occasion, today I'm wearing a lucite bracelet my husband bought me a few years ago, but Ontario artist Corey Moranis. I never wear it because it's 'fancy' but fancy can be for now!
December 30, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Mark Critch, Nfld comedian & author, is at The Rooms launching his new book! It does feel like the Who's Who of St. John's in here tonight! #yyt
December 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Friends, the book is out!! If you are interesed in #deathstudies from an interdisciplinary perspective, please consider checking it out:
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Spinel...

ALSO we have a 50% off discount code! Use SPIN2909 for 50% off the print version of the book, til Jan 31st! Yay! 🏺
December 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM
At the book launch event for @storiedselves.bsky.social & Vicki Hallett's new book, 'Dear Mr. Smallwood'! The letter readings is amazing so far! 👏👏
November 26, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Postdated for those burials, that's pretty normal. BUT! As I was writing this info into our report, I went hunting & actually found Moses Power's digitized will from 1845! He wrote that he wanted to be buried "beside [his) loving wife in the grave yard of Torbay". 3/
November 18, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Writing a conservation & care recommendations report for a cemetery & I think we just pushed the known age of burials at the site back 2 decades?? Let me weave you a tale! 1/
November 18, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Hello yes, coming to the end of Remembrance Day & we have immediately put up our tree 💁‍♀️
The lights combat the fact that its dark at like 4:30pm now!
November 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
I assisted my colleague with a Remembrance Day embroidery workshop yesterday, & made this!! I learned most of the stitches during the workshop so I could assist participants, & made this in between actually helping :) #embroidery
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Please admire my Pierrot costume, based on Derain's painting! ✨️ #halloween #halloween2025 #costume
November 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Day 31, Memento Mori: the last day of #31DaysofGraves, we have this ledger in the floor of the Domkerk, Utrecht! Note the reclining skeleton with Memento Mori below it, the cherubs with their hourglasses, & another cherub on a smaller plinth reading 'Pavi Atim', or 'I was so happy'.
October 31, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Day 30, Colour: This is the limestone grave marker of the Honourable John Kent, 2nd Premier of Newfoundland, who died suddenly in 1872. He is buried in the Belvedere RC Cemetery in St. John's, NL. Someone keeps repainting John's face on the stone 🫠
#31DaysofGraves
October 30, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Day 29, Occupation: The grave of Reverend William Dutton, a Methodist minister in Greenspond, NL, who died in Dec 1870. He had only arrived in July of that year, before dying of typhoid fever. His stone is detailed, with an open book on top, a rose laying on the pages.
#31DaysofGraves
October 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Day 27, Tree: The gorgeous forested graveyard in Elliston, NL, featuring me!
Day 28, Column: This gravestone in Trepassey Old RC Cemetery is so ornate! The columns on the side frame a detailed central IHS with vines and blossoms.
#31DaysofGraves
October 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Day 26, Figure: Here we have the extremely pre-Reformation burial of historian Jean Juvenal des Ursins and Michelle de Vitry, his wife. They are praying, suggesting to the viewer to offer prayer to help their souls from purgatory. They are buried in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
#31DaysofGraves
October 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Tonight was @ohfolkthat.bsky.social 's traditional pumpkin carving night! @stgiles.bsky.social & I went for the dynamic duo 💁‍♀️✨️
October 26, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Day 25, graveside ornament: A beautiful family grave with a scotty dog sculpture at Pére Lachaise cemetery, Paris. The front says 'Concession a perpetuite', meaning that they have paid to own that plot in perpetuity!
#31DaysofGraves
October 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Day 24, Unique Animal: A flatfish on a ledger in the floor of the Domkerk in Utrecht, Netherlands. The stone is too worn for hundreds of years of feet to see the name or date, but the fish on the crest endures!
#31DaysofGraves
October 25, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Day 23, Cross: Today we have an elegant Celtic Ring Cross with lead lettering, at the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's, NL. It is the grave of John Anderson, a member of the Legislative Council of Newfoundland. He died in 1930.
#31DaysofGraves #yyt
October 24, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Day 22, Landscape: This is the L'anse Amour burial mound in southern Labrador. It it the oldest known burial monument in North America, at 7700 years old, & was the burial of a young person associated with the Maritime adapted peoples in Labrador. 😍
#31daysofgraves
October 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Day 21, Bronze: The beautiful and tragic monument of auronauts Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel, lying side by side holding hands. They died in their hot air balloon in 1875 at 28,000 feet from lack of oxygen, and are buried together, recognized as 'martyrs to science'.
#31DaysofGraves
October 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM