The Puritans of New England were a people very well acquainted with death, and their idiosyncratic relationship with it led to a rich funeral culture that persisted for years after the collapse of the Puritan movement. A ritual that involved copious alcohol, but no sermons, the 17th Century funeral is at once very similar and completely different from the funerals of today. Click here for a 57-minute presentation recorded on January 11, 2025.

Carl Schultz begins his March 15, 2024 talk at the historic Pickman House in Salem, MA, by talking about the Puritan attitude toward death, a much more common event than it is today.

Bodies were rarely embalmed in the Puritan world, though the procedure was known. Instead, bodies were placed in a woolen shround, wrapped in a winding sheet, and placed in a wooden coffin.

Funeral processions followed the ringing of a bell and followed a prescribed order. Burials were done mostly on private land, though public cemeteries became increasingly available.