The Oakwood Chapel Winter 2021 exhibit "To Remember" explores the various types of grief, loss, and love across cultures. This exhibit shows many different forms of remembrance including burial and funeral practices, memorial anniversaries, cemetery maps, and genealogy research. “To Remember” features photo, video, oral history, and digital map content to describe how cultural traditions help us hold the space for grief and loss. 

Oakwood Cemetery was situated just northeast of the city limits. Now, after decades of city expansion, the cemetery is in the heart of Austin. The cemetery holds the namesakes of many Austin buildings, streets, and beloved parks. The final resting place for more than 23,000 people, Oakwood Cemetery remains an enduring link to the community, cultures, and life stories that built the great city just beyond its gates.

The Oakwood Cemetery Chapel was created in 1914, 75 years after the cemetery was founded, to host funeral and memorial services on site. The cemetery is evidence of the changing city and the past century’s shifting attitudes about mortuary services. Reopened in spring 2019, the Chapel is part of the Museums and Cultural Programs Division of the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Austin. The Chapel is a visitor center where we can, as an act of remembrance, learn about our cultural heritage through the people who were buried in the surrounding cemetery. Genealogy reveals our forebearers' influence on the past and future. We share and collect individual narratives to create a framework for the collective human story.

Oakwood Cemetery Chapel's digital history exhibits are published here:

www.austintexas.gov/page/oakwood-cemetery-chapel-resources