New England carvers between the 1720s and the 1750s transformed, step by step, the winged skull into the winged face, adding flesh to bare bone and turning the toothy grin of death into the blissful smile of a saved soul.
1983, James Hijiya, “American Gravestones and Attitudes toward Death: A Brief History,”, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 127, number 5, page 349