Events
Visitors are welcome to step back into history and experience eighty acres of stately trees and statuary in the beautiful blend of nature and art that is Elmwood Cemetery.
Please come by the Victorian Carpenter Gothic Cottage which serves as our Visitor Center for maps, audio tours, picnic tables and handicap accessible restrooms. Research assistance is also available in the cottage, and security is on the grounds during business hours.
There is no charge to visit Elmwood.
Tickets purchased for any of the events below are not refundable.
Elmwood 101
Elmwood Cemetery was founded in 1852 as a "park for the living and a resting place for the dead." Winding carriage paths, a canopy of 1,500 trees, and Victorian-age monuments are all featured during this 90 minute walking tour. The history of Memphis is found at Elmwood!
We recommend that you bring a camera and wear your best walking shoes. Registration is available for $15 per person. This tour begins at 10:30 AM. For more information, call 901-774-3212.
Pawing Through History: A Dog-Friendly Tour
Bring the pups to Elmwood! We ask that all dogs remain on a leash while a docent takes the group around the cemetery for an all-walking history tour focusing on the Victorian animal symbolism found on the headstones at Elmwood.
This tour starts at 10:30 AM and will last approximately 90 minutes. Space for this tour is limited to 25 people and advance registration is required. The cost for this tour is $15 per person.
For information, please call 901-774-3212.
We kindly ask that you leave grumpy pups at home.
Civil War Veterans of Elmwood Tour
Join long-time Elmwood volunteer Donald Harrison for this special, 90 minute walking tour of the Elmwood grounds. This classroom-type experience will enhance the history of the lives of the men and women whose lives were touched by the Civil War in an in-depth way. Questions are encouraged.
Good walking shoes and weather-appropriate clothing are required for a wonderful tour experience.
This tour begins at 10:30 AM. $15 per person.
Read In Peace
In 1918, a World War was raging and a lethal strain of influenza was circling the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it would spread across the world, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Asleep, set in 1920s and 1930s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and insane asylums as they try to solve the mystery behind this worldwide epidemic.
Join Elmwood Cemetery for a Read In Peace Book Club meeting at 10 AM in the Lord's Chapel. The book being discussed this month is "Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries" by Memphian Molly Caldwell Crosby. The Read In Peace Book Club is free and open to all. To reserve your seat, please email cookie [at] elmwoodcemetery [dot] org or call 901-774-3212.
This book is available through the Memphis Public Library.
Read In Peace
A new mystery series starring a Memphis crime scene photographer with ghostly assistance. Jackie Lyons is a former vice detective with the Memphis Police Department who is trying to put her life back together: her husband has sent divorce papers, she's broke, and needs a place to live. But a failed marriage, unemployment, and most recently a fire in her apartment aren't her only problems: she also sees ghosts. As Jackie works to separate natural from supernatural, friend from foe, and light from dark, the spirit world and her own difficult past become the only things she can depend on to solve the case.
The Read In Peace Book Club meets this month to discuss "The Sleeping and the Dead" by Jeff Crook. This is the book club experience you aren't soon to forget, and newcomers are welcome. Book club meetings begin at 10 AM in the Lord's Chapel at Elmwood. Free and open to all, meetings last about 90 minutes.
To save your seat, please email cookie [at] elmwoodcemetery [dot] org or call 901-774-3212.
This book is available through the Memphis Public Library.
Modern Memphis & The Civil War by Jimmy Ogle
Historian Jimmy Ogle has delivered hundreds and maybe thousands of presentations on the history of the city of Memphis. His work has focused on the Gayoso Bayou, the Commercial Appeal, the wreck of the Sultana, and the story of the Civil War.
"Modern Memphis & The Civil War" will focus on historic sites that relate to Elmwood Cemetery, as well as the locations and stories behind the historical markers dotting the landscape of our city.
Jimmy is a beloved storyteller and public speaker; advance registration is highly recommended. This presentation will begin at noon. Costs $7. Bring a sack lunch; cookies and drinks are provided. For more information, call 901-774-3212.
Read In Peace
A powerful new novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most reviled, celebrated, and legendary, of Civil War generals. We see Forrest on and off the battlefield: courting the woman who would become his wife; battling a compulsion to gamble; overcoming his abhorrence of the army bureaucracy to rise to its highest ranks. In battle we see his knack for keeping his enemy unsettled, his instinct for the unexpected, and his relentless stamina: a vivid portrait comes into focus of a rough, fierce man with a life full of contradictions.
Join the Read In Peace Book Club as they review "Devil's Dream" by Madison Smartt Bell on Wednesday, August 21st. The Read In Peace Book Club is a diverse group of enthusiastic readers who welcome you to join them!
Book club meetings begin at 10 AM in the Lord's Chapel at Elmwood. Meetings last about 90 minutes and are free and open to all. Save a seat by emailing cookie [at] elmwoodcemetery [dot] org or call 901-774-3212 for information.
This book is available through the Memphis Public Library.
Willy Bearden's Delta
Willy Bearden is a musician, writer, historian, lecturer, and Mississippi native. His creative work includes the following films: Visualizing The Blues, The Story of Cotton, A History of Memphis Garage Bands, Overton Park, Elmwood Cemetery, Horn Island Journal, Project 366, and The View From Adams Avenue. He is a founder of the Delta Symposium at the University of Memphis and producer of the Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards.
Willy will deliver a presentation called "Willy Bearden's Delta" on Wednesday, August 28th. The topic? All things Delta from the perspective of a native son.
Advance reseervations are strongly recommended. Bring your lunch; cookies and drinks are provided. $7 per person. Call 901-774-3212 for information.
The Voices of Yellow Fever
Yellow fever (also known as Yellow Jack, the American Plague and the Saffron Knight) decimated the city of Memphis for much of the 1870's. So many died of the fever or fled that the city lost its charter, becoming a taxing district under Nashville. This plague would claim thousands of lives. Many of the individuals who tried to help stop the scourge of yellow fever rest at Elmwood.
Join the Elmwood Players as they present a first-person narrative account of what life was like during the yellow fever. You'll meet costumed characters with stories of triumph and tragedy that will leave you breathless.
Lunch is served with this event, which begins at noon in the Chapel. The cost is $18.78 per person. Advance registration is required. Call 901-774-3212 for information.
Yellow Fever: A Tour of the Plague
The history of the Yellow Fever epidemics of 1873, 1878, and 1879 can be found at Elmwood Cemetery. The Howard Association, the Citizens' Relief Committee, the Sisters of St. Mary's, and individuals who fought valiently against the spread of the scourge rest at Elmwood. Join us for an all-walking tour through the cemetery grounds and learn their stories.
This tour lasts 90 minutes, starts at 10:30 AM, and registration is required. The cost is $15 per person. To register, call 774-3212.