Calgary's Historic Union Cemetery: A Walking Guide

Kathy E. Zimon is a fine arts librarian (emerita) at the University of
Calgary. She is the author of Alberta Society of Artists: The First 70
Years and coeditor of Art Documentation Bulletin of the Art Libraries
Society of North America.

Union Cemetery, Calgary’s “oldest existing burial ground,”
intended in 1890 to serve Protestants, is today multidenominational, and
a graveyard whose “occupants” include some of the city’s
celebrated leaders as well as the indigent in unmarked plots.

Local historian Harry Sanders has organized his material in 10
self-guided walking tours, each accompanied by a detailed map of the
area covered. An introductory chapter provides a full history of the
cemetery, its origins, the Victorian “garden cemetery” concept it
represents, a description of the site as it is today, and practical
advice on what to look for on markers, what to wear, and even
appropriate behavior for visitors. Besides a comprehensive map of the
site, there are drawings of monument types, a key to common symbols on
gravestones, some archival photographs documenting the evolution of the
cemetery, and photographs of a few notable funerals, processions,
gravestones, and monuments. The bulk of the book consists of the
“tales of over 100 personalities from among the tens of thousands
buried in Union Cemetery”: for example, that of parks superintendent
William Reader, whose vision informed the design of the cemetery and
transformed the grounds of his official residence into the Reader Rock
Garden; and Alberta’s political patriarch, Sir James Alexander
Lougheed, grandfather of Peter Lougheed, Alberta’s premier during the
1970s and ’80s.

Sanders’s familiarity with and keen interest in his subjects make for
lively reading, with each person’s story capped by a reference to his
or her gravestone to return the reader to the tour’s objective.
However, even with index and maps, the cemetery’s layout may not
facilitate navigation of the site, and the few photographs of individual
monuments are not always adjacent to relevant text, or not always
accompanied by a story. Nevertheless, the guide provides a fascinating
introduction to personalities who shaped Calgary and to the civic pride
that shaped the cemetery where they are interred.