Zerubbabel Collins (1733–1797) was a carver of stone
gravestones in
New England in the 18th century. He has been called "one of the most important carvers represented in Vermont in the years after the American Revolution"[1] and "one of the most talented [gravestone carvers] of his time".[2]
Life and work
Collins was the son of Benjamin Collins (1691–1759), a cabinet maker and gravestone craftsman.[2] Collins' older brother Julius Collins (1728–1758) was also a gravestone carver and later a military man.[2]
Collins first worked in eastern
Connecticut. He carved his father's gravestone.[3] In 1778 he moved to
Vermont, where he worked in white
marble and in
granite.[2]
Cemeteries with gravestones by Zerubbabel Collins
Hebron, Connecticut
Columbia, Connecticut
Salem, New York
Bennington Centre Cemetery,
Bennington, Vermont - over 40 gravestones by Collins
Harding, William E., 1972, “The graveyard at Old Bennigton, Vermont, and the gravestones of Zerubbabel Collins”, B.A. thesis,
Williams College.
Benes, Peter and Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 1977, Puritan Gravestone Art, Dublin, New Hampshire:
Boston University and the Dublin Seminar.
Hosley, W.N., 1985, The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820, Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum.
Slater, James A., 1987, The Colonial Burying Grounds of Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them, Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books.
Ludwig, Allan I., 1999, Graven Images. New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650–1815, Wesleyan University Press.