Hi Friends & relatives, We have just read and signed the petition: "Florence's English Cemetery" There are some famous artist buried there such as Eliz Barrett Browning. If you go to this link you will be amazed by the beauty of this cemetery. www.florin.ms/americantombs.html<http://www.florin.ms/americantombs.html> In the cemetery is buried a man by the name of Allen Francis Woodall was from or born in Lexington KY. (jpeg of his tombstone below) He died 1864 or 1865 in Florence, Italy, 37 years old. He married Norma Pierucci from Italy. She died in 1864, 22 years old. they also had a small son who died and is buried there. Hiram Powers was one of the earliest of the pioneering American sculptors who journeyed to Italy because of vital resources that were absent in America: skilled artisans, live models, abundant supplies of marble from the quarries at Carrara and Seravezza, and, in the case of Florence, a city where the tradition of studying human anatomy had been alive since the Renaissance. When he set up a studio there in 1837, Lorenzo Bartolini urged him to reject the neo-classical approach in favour of the new doctrine of verismo, which attempted to capture the spontaneity and truth of nature by working from live models rather than copying from the antique. Powers settled with his family in an area of sculptors' studios and remained in Florence for the rest of his life. His home and studio became a focal point for the Anglo-American community, so that his vast correspondence gives us valuable insights into a city and a society that underwent profound changes during his life-time. In many ways he acted as unofficial consul, an aspect of his career that is given due weight in Clara Dentler's unpublished biography, and in this role one of his duties was to answer queries from relatives of Americans who had died in Florence. "A more beautiful spot could hardly be found," he wrote of the cemetery at Porta al Pinti; "It is against the outer wall of the city & it looks more like a beautiful garden than a place of the dead. But tell Mrs.Woodall that all this is nothing, for her dear husband is not there now, nor are my children there. Earth has received her own but the soul is not here." (1) 1) HP to Rev. C. George Currie, 1 September 1864 (Dentler typescript, p.126). I am grateful to Jeffey Begeal for allowing me to quote from his transcription of Clara Dentler's unpublished work White Marble: The Life and Letters of Hiram Powers, Sculptor in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Please help by signing this petition. It takes 30 seconds and will help greatly. Please follow this link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471134975<http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471134975> http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com/<http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com/> Thanks! Jeff & Cherylyn Woodall >From the website: 1864 Algernon Swinburne visits Walter Savage Landor; Tombs of ? Walter Savage Landor, ? Severinus Goedke, who has died in Florence from his wounds fighting for Poland, ? Ivan Leontevic Levickij, ? Henri Schneider, ? Georgij Dmitrievic Renesov, ? Allen Frances Woodall, ? Norma Woodall and ? their son, Hiram Powers caring for the Woodalls, Isa Blagden and Lily Wilson for Walter Savage Landor; Burial of ? Dorotea Frederikovna De Thom; Isa Blagden and Charlotte Cushman in Rome; ? Leonard Horner, buried at Woking; John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, because of asthma, settles in Florence, paints his Christ in 'The Winepress'; Jean Henri Dunant founds the International Red Cross ALPHABETICAL REGISTER OF THE AMERICAN BURIALS IN THE SWISS PROTESTANT CEMETERY OF FLORENCE, CALLED 'THE ENGLISH CEMETERY', 80 ENTRIES, 87 BURIALS Because the Swiss owners wanted to close and abandon the 'English' Cemetery, we have created a weblog at http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com<http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com/> and set up a petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471134975<http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471134975> The petition reads: 'That the Swiss-owned, so-called 'English' Cemetery in Florence be kept open, be restored and be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site' 'Che il Cimitero 'degli Inglesi' a Firenze di proprietà Svizzera possa ancora essere visitabile, sia restaurato e sia dichiarato dall'UNESCO Patrimonio Mondiale dell'Umanità' This Cemetery in Florence is a way of studying the history in exile of Americans, British, Russians and Swiss. We seek your help in saving this treasure. Please help! And thanks. R ALLEN FRANCIS WOODALL/ AMERICA/ Woodall/ Allen F. / / America/ Firenze/ 12 Agosto/ 1864/ Anni 37/ 876/ Allen F. Woodall, Lexington, Amerique R* NORMA (PIERUCCI) WOODALL AND SON/ ITALIA/KENTUCKY/ Woodall nei [nata] Pierucci/ Norma/ / America/ 29 Settembre/ 1864/ Anni 22/ 880/ Norma Pierucci née Woodwall, l'Amerique/ WIFE AND SON/ OF/ FRANCIS WOODALL/ BORN IN KENTUCKY, U.S.A./ DIED IN FLORENCE/ AUGUST 12 1865/ B19O Hiram Powers writes about this family's deaths. We are seeking help to restore their tomb. www.florin.ms/americantombs.html<http://www.florin.ms/americantombs.html>