The following was passed along on the OHGEN Mailing List (for Ohio Genweb Co. Coordinators) and i thought some of you might find it interesting. I know that a lot of people use shaving cream and that aids to the distruction of the tombstone. You might want to send this on to your mail lists. The following is from an information release that we did following a widespread article promoting the use of shaving cream for the reading of inscriptions on stones: You may have read recently in your local newspaper about the restoration of a slave cemetery in Denton County. It is certainly a good idea to catalogue this type of cemetery as well as every cemetery in the State of Texas. In the article, however, mention was made of using "a large blob of shaving cream on a tombstone and then remove the excess with a squeegee" to aid in the reading of inscriptions. It is our recommendation, along with that of art conservators, that this is not a good idea. The exact formulas for shaving creams are trade secrets but most contain emollients to soften the skin; the use of these creams introduces oils into the recessed letters of the porous stone which will not be washed off by the next rain. Besides introducing these oils, the soap will produce an uneven surface of cleaned and uncleaned stone. For these reasons, we do not recommend using shaving cream on gravestones. One method that we do recommend to read old gravestones is by the "mirror" method. Sometimes gravestones are not oriented to receive sunlight across the face at a raking angle, that is, from the side or tip of the stone at an angle of about 30 degrees. To eliminate the dependence on the position of the sun, a mirror is used to reflect the sun's light. Moving the position of the mirror alters the angle that the light strikes the stone. If a large mirror is used (available from discount department stores) the whole stone can be photographed to provide a permanent record of this information on the stone. Ned Coleman ned.coleman@thc.state.tx.us History Programs Division (512) 463-5427 Texas Historical Commission FAX (512) 463-7002 P.O. Box 12276 Austin, TX 78711-2276 Look under "Projects" at <www.thc.state.tx.us> for information on historic cemetery preservation.