
Take Me to the River: A Virtual Tour
From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories by Joe Lex
May 14, 2026 · 1h 27m · Episode 488
About this episode
An audio guided tour of the River Section of Laurel Hill West, highlighting notable historical figures and their stories.
River Section starts at the BODE plot Join me on an audio guided tour of the River Section of Laurel Hill West, one of the original four segments when the cemetery opened in 1869. You won't miss and of the fancy mausoleums or Tiffany studio stained glass, since they came later. You will meet the Father of Scientific Management and the Mother of Mother's Day, the man who literally changed two sports and his sister who wrote for The New Yorker, a man who decorated several rooms in City Hall and Masonic Temple, and a woman whose work is primarily at The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the first doctor to take care of Phineas Gage after the tamping bar incident (it wasn't a crowbar), and a bride who wore her dress for the first time in her coffin. Plus ... oh, I don't know, maybe a couple of dozen more. I promise you at least two or three stories you will want to tell others.
People in this episode
Host: Joe Lex
Topics covered
- virtual tour
- Laurel Hill Cemetery
- historical figures
- audio guide
- mausoleums
- stained glass
Keywords
- Laurel Hill
- River Section
- historical tour
- mausoleums
- Tiffany stained glass
- Phineas Gage
- Mother's Day
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Smithsonian
Places: Laurel Hill West
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- Hilery Baker: Philadelphia's First "Officer Down" · June 5, 2026 · 26 min
- Alexander Murray: A Forgotten Commodore · June 4, 2026 · 22 min
- Thomas Godfrey: A New Way to See the Horizon · June 3, 2026 · 25 min
- Invitation to an Exhumation · June 2, 2026 · 19 min
- Mobile Corpses from the 18th Century · June 1, 2026 · 2h 22m
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