photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Many people traveled across the state to hear a presentation about gravestone preservation from Atlas Preservation on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 at Oak Hill Cemetery.

It’s hard to miss some of the big names buried in Oak Hill Cemetery — Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the first woman to graduate from dental school; many victims of Quantrill’s Raid; and even KU coaching legend Phog Allen.

But there are plenty of names that you might overlook, because their headstones are covered in thick layers of lichen and pollutants that can be hard to remove.

It’s a problem that Jonathan Appell of monument restoration company Atlas Preservation has seen across the nation. He and fellow restorer Alicia Williams have been touring the 48 contiguous states this summer to hold workshops on their techniques, and he said most cities can’t do enough to preserve these vital historic sites.

“One of the challenges that cities, municipalities and even big cemeteries have is they usually don’t have the budget or the resources to work on the stones,” Appell said. “The collective history of the community is often in the older cemeteries and they’re irreplaceable artifacts. It’s something that should be funded because sometimes it can be hard for volunteers.”

A crowd of people were at the cemetery for Tuesday’s workshop, including some who drove here from several hours away. They got an overview of historic preservation, cemetery safety, stone identification, and the types of damage that are present throughout Oak Hill. Then, Appell and Williams had a hands-on demonstration of their techniques for cleaning gravestones, letting people in the audience pick their own stones to clean.

The cleaning method involves a handheld pump that sprays a biological solution called D/2 on the stones. It’s a biodegradable liquid that removes lichens and air pollutants, and you can either leave it on the stone or spray the stone down with water and scrub it with a non-wire brush after application.

Appell said the best way to think about how the D/2 solution works is that every gravestone is like a sponge, and it absorbs everything you put on it. Leaving the gravestone alone after you spray it with D/2 is just as effective, if not more effective, than immediately scrubbing it down.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Members of the Oak Hill Cemetery Committee hosted the event at the cemetery to get the community involved in gravestone preservation on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

Throughout his career, Appell has worked in some of the oldest graveyards in America. He worked as a monument installer in the ’80s and eventually as a grave digger and cemetery contractor. The history of these landmarks fascinated him and sparked his interest in working on stones that were knocked down by a tree or vandalized. He said one thing led to another, and he transitioned into specializing in the preservation of these cemeteries.

“As time went on, I started to travel more widely and do the restoration and preservation work,” Appell said. “And then, I started to do more teaching because I discovered there were very few (resources) and ways to learn about it.”

He decided to start a company in 2016, Atlas Preservation, with his children to share his knowledge with others interested in engaging with preserving cemeteries like Oak Hill. The nationwide tours started in August 2020 — his goal was to have a workshop in each of the lower 48 states in 48 days. He succeeded, then decided to do it again in 2022; this year’s tour is the third one.

Williams met Appell on a stop on the 2020 tour in Virginia. She has 2.6 million followers on TikTok, where she not only cleans headstones and teaches people how to preserve them in local cemeteries, but shares the stories of the person beneath them.

As the Journal-World has reported, Oak Hill Cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The 60-acre cemetery is located on the eastern edge of Lawrence and continues to be used for burials. It is one of three cemeteries the city owns and maintains.

In addition to the Atlas Preservation demonstrations, the Oak Hill Cemetery Committee assisted the public in cleaning and fixing up many gravestones on Tuesday. The committee is accepting volunteers, and those interested can reach out to the Watkins Museum at info@watkinsmuseum.org.

As for Atlas Preservation’s tour, Kansas was the 38th stop, and the next will be in St. Joseph, Mo. The tour will extend into the middle of August. You can find out more about Atlas Preservation’s work at 48statetour.com.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

People learned how to fix up gravestones safely and effectively at Oak Hill Cemetery on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.