While reading the book, when you came to page 15 you immediately noticed that it's dominated by a picture
which looked like this:
The most distinguishing feature of the image is the QR (Quick Response) image associated with the Pitkin
Family Vault. It looks like it might be big enough to translate in, say, you smart phone; and so you tried
to read it to see what was to be found there.
Alas, when you tried this you found that either you couldn't read it or it came back with a message
essentially saying that the file was not available or was otherwise not usable.
In looking into why this was happening, we uncovered the fact that that QR image, as well as many others,
had been installed to facilitate walking tours of the Cemetery (Center Cemetery of East Hartford). However,
since the book's photo was taken, the Cemetery had undertaken a complete redesign of their web site ... which
meant that, among other things, the web addresses of the podcasts encoded in the QR images had all been
rendered unusable.
Since then, however, the rewrite of their website had been completed; but it then became part of the East
Hartford Public Library website. Its new address is now available. You can access the talk on the Pitkin
Family Vault by clicking
If you'd still like to try accessing it via your QR scanner, the following QR image reflects its new
location:
This is all well and good, but in fact there are a total of 30 such Podcasts, associated not just with
family tombs but also with individual headstones. Rather than repeat them all in this website, it would make
considerably more sense to simply give you the opportunity to bring up the appropriate East Hartford Public
Library's "Center Cemetery" page and access the podcasts from there. You can do so by clicking
Why? Well, as one of the people giving testimonials for the new website put it, "I don't think we can
allow any of the remaining symbols or examples of our history go to ruin. If we don't have a history, how can
we properly understand the present or as an informed citizenry help mold the future?"
And as Nick can attest, having a knowledge of the past is critical in Archaeology, whether engaging in an
excavation going back millenia or, as was the case here, restoring a vault enclosing the remains of those who
came rather more recently before us. In fact, in such situations, it's all but mandatory.