Zerubbabel Collins

Zerubbabel Collins
Schist headstone carved by Zerubbabel Collins in the Old Yard of Columbia, CT
Born	(1733-07-10)July 10, 1733 Columbia, Connecticut, Connecticut River Colony, British America
Died	December 22, 1797(1797-12-22) (aged 64) Shaftsbury, Vermont, United States
Occupation(s)	Tombstone Carver, Stonemason.
Years active	1755−1797

Zerubbabel Collins (1733–1797) was a carver of stone gravestones in New England in the 18th century. He has been called "one of the most important carvers represented in Vermont in the years after the American Revolution"[1] and "one of the most talented [gravestone carvers] of his time".[2]

Life and work

Collins was the son of Benjamin Collins (1691–1759), a cabinet maker and prolific gravestone craftsman.[2] Collins' older brother Julius Collins (1728–1758) was also a gravestone carver and later a military man. Collins learned and worked under his father during the early 1750s, but by 1755 had begun carving full stones on his own.[2] He carved his father's gravestone when he died in 1759.[3]

Through the 1760's his style rapidly advanced with sculpting ability highlighted with various designs often with deep relief. In 1778 he moved to Vermont as former carving competitor Gershom Bartlett had several years earlier, though he worked in white marble of the Shaftsbury Quarry rather than dark slate. He continued carving stones around Vermont, as well as adjacent towns in New York and beyond until his death in 1797. He carved around 300 gravestones through his career, spread as far away as Nova Scotia.[2]

Cemeteries with gravestones by Zerubbabel Collins

• Columbia, Connecticut - Over 60 gravestones by Collins
• Bennington Centre Cemetery, Bennington, Vermont - over 40 gravestones by Collins
• Shaftsbury, Vermont - over 30 gravestones by Collins
• Mansfield Center Cemetery, Mansfield Connecticut. Over 4 gravestones by Collins
• Salem, New York

See also

• Funerary art in Puritan New England
• Gershom Bartlett

References

1. "William E. Harding Collection, 1972-2003". Archivegrid. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
2. "Collins Family Carvers". Connecticut Gravestone Network. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
3. Shapleigh-Brown, Ruth. "The Cemeteries of Hebron, Connecticut: Their Historic Monuments, Stone Carvers and Care" (PDF). The Hebron Historic Properties Commission & The Hebron Historical Society. Retrieved 24 October 2023.

Further reading

• Harding, William E., 1972, “The graveyard at Old Bennigton, Vermont, and the gravestones of Zerubbabel Collins”, B.A. thesis, Williams College.
• Benes, Peter and Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 1977, Puritan Gravestone Art, Dublin, New Hampshire: Boston University and the Dublin Seminar.
• Hosley, W.N., 1985, The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820, Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum.
• Slater, James A., 1987, The Colonial Burying Grounds of Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them, Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books.
• Ludwig, Allan I., 1999, Graven Images. New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650–1815, Wesleyan University Press.

External links

• Bennington Centre Cemetery, Vermont
• Youtube video of Zerubbabel Collins' gravestones in Salem, New York
• Youtube video of Zerubbabel Collins' gravestones in Shaftsbury, Vermont