From inside a half-globe of clear Lucite, Harry Begler stares straight back at us. The young man’s image is amazingly intact and undistorted by the odd curvature of the material that protects his photograph. The clear casing has suffered somewhat over time, but is still in terrific condition considering it’s spent the last hundred years living through as many freeze-and-thaw cycles, the corrosive air produced by heavy industry, and the inevitable presence of no-goodniks. Centered below Beglar’s photo and cut into his long granite grave marker is the depiction of three chain links making an ever-so-graceful arc downward.
Chains are a not-uncommon symbol to find etched into gravestones and they appear in great frequency here at Workmen’s Circle Branch 45 Cemetery. Begler’s three links match the totem of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows whose symbol—standing for Amicitia Amor et Veritas (English: Friendship, Love, and Truth)—is its own standalone thing.
The rest of Workmen’s Circle’s linked chain imagery takes an entirely different form. For these, an unbroken chain encircles the deceased’s portrait.
Google the subject and you’ll find a whole lot more information around grave marker carvings that feature a broken chain—with its last link either missing or severed. There even appears to be a common twofer plan where the first half of a couple to die would have the broken link with her or his partner following it up with a connected chain to symbolize the pair united in the afterlife. We don’t see any of this at Workmen’s Circle, though—all chains are perfect circles and completely intact.
That the residents of Workmen’s Circle are all Jews may or may not be significant with regard to the symbolism of chains on grave markers. This goy couldn’t find anything connecting the two, but perhaps our O.T. brothers and sisters can help us out here.
Last week we took a look at the ghostly half-there posthumous portraits at little Workmen’s Circle cemetery in Shaler. Today, we’ve linked together [har har har] a very different theme from the same pool of ceramic grave marker photographs from the early 20th Century.
Speculation aside, it’s always interesting to see how these patterns emerge at certain cemeteries—it’s almost fad-like. So gander away at these terrific combos of grave marker photographic portraits and the wreath-like protective chains that wrap them up both as design elements and symbols.
Pittsburgh Orbit 
I’ve been to this cemetery a few times and was just there yesterday – this is the first time I noticed what seems to be especially heavy membership branding (for lack of a better term) in the back right corner. I think that what you are interpreting as a symbolic gravestone decoration is actually just the logo for the Workman’s Circle aka Arbiter’s Ring. So while you see it on their gravestones, it’s not because they are dead – it’s because they were members of this particular group in life. Sort of like how you will see a Mason’s symbol or similar on other graves.
Here is the logo on a membership card:
https://jewishbuffalohistory.org/sokolivka-exhibit/beginning-again-photographs/max-pozarny-workmens-circle-certificate-1932/
There are versions of the logo that don’t have the chain – your second picture has a picture of a man, with a star of David behind him and a chain around both – you can also see, beneath the star, something that looks like – well, like when you draw a sphere in geometry class and add those curved lines to indicate that it has three dimensions? Sometimes the logo just has detailing like that. Sometimes it has the chain as well. Sometimes it has other ornamentation. I’m guessing the chain is meant to indicate all workers of the world are or should be united together.
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