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News & Events, June 2010
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the June 2010 edition of our electronic
newsletter. We invite you to join our email list to receive this mailing on a monthly basis. To
address book today.
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 Friends of Mount Auburn June Programs
Join us this spring to learn more about the history, horticulture, art, architecture, and wildlife of Mount Auburn Cemetery!
Here are just a few highlights from our June program schedule: Visit the Mount Auburn Cemetery website for our full list of programs and register online today! You can now register for one or several programs in a few easy steps.
And, because you've asked, we're making our online program registration even easier and more efficient. You can now register for multiple programs in one transaction. Click on a month, select the events you plan to attend from the list, enter the number of spaces we should reserve for you at each program, and then proceed to checkout. Register online today and see just how easy it is! ____________________________________________________________________ |
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 Special Event: An Evening with Douglas Tallamy
Join us on Thursday, June 10 at 6:30 PM for this special community event with entomologist, native plants expert, and Bringing Nature Home author Douglas Tallamy at the main Cambridge Public Library on Broadway. Seating in the is first-come first serve for this event. No preregistration. For complete event details, please visit grownativecambridge.org.
This event is being co-sponsored with Grow Native Cambridge, Cambridge Plant and Garden Club, Ecological Landscaping Association, Friends of the Cambridge Public Library, Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation, and Somerville Garden Club. _____________________________________________________________________________________ |
 Birds and Birding at Mount Auburn
"Nearly 50 species of birds nest within Mount Auburn's 175 acres...
In June the last Blackpolls and Mouring Warblers pass along to the North and a summer calm sets in, presided over by Mount Auburn's breeding birds. These include the permanent residents, of course, but also those species that rear their young in the Cemetery - feeding on insects - but retreat to the south when their prey succumbs to winterkill: Chimney Swift, Belted Kingfisher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, Yellow Warbler, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Common Grackle, Baltimore Oriole, and a few less common or less conspicuous species." - Birds and Birding at Mount Auburn Cemetery: An Introductory Guide.
This month we celebrate the birthday of Ornithologist Ludlow Griscom (6/17/1890 - 5/28/1958). Known for his brilliant field identification skills, encyclopedic memory and enthusiasm for "birding" - Griscom attracted a host of followers and created generations of birders. He produced a series of distribution guides: The Birds of Nantucket (with E. Folger, 1948), Birds of Concord (1949), Birds of Massachusetts (with D. Snyder, 1955) and Birds of Martha's Vineyard (with G. Emerson, 1959). He insisted on careful records of locations, dates, and numbers that provide an invaluable historical picture of species distributions in the state.
Of course Mount Auburn Cemetery was one of the places Griscom frequented and according to Norman Hill in "Ludlow Griscom and Mount Auburn Cemetery" (Sweet Auburn, newsletter of the Friends of Mount Auburn, spring 1988) he worked with others to create a list of 158 species seen here.
Biographer William E. Davis Jr. describes Griscom's funeral at Mount Auburn in his book, Dean of the Birdwatchers - a Biography of Ludlow Griscom (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994) as a sunny day with spring migrating birds still flying. Griscom is buried in Lot 7370 on Palm Avenue where his memorial stone is surrounded by a thicket of falsecypress.
Check the Bird Chalkboard in the Egyptian Revival Entrance at Mount Auburn the next time you visit!
Birds and Birding at Mount Auburn Cemetery: An Introductory Guide is regularly available on our website for purchase at any time and for purchase at the Cemetery from 8:30 AM to 4 PM everyday (except holidays). The cost is $8.00. Copies are available by mail order by sending payment to the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery, ATT: Bird Guide, 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Please include the cost $8.00, plus $2.00 for mailing and handling (total $10) for each copy ordered (Friends members receive a $2 discount off of the total cost, so the book is $8 for members including shipping & handling).
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 Horticultural Highlight: Rhododendron maximum By Jim Gorman, Mount Auburn Cemetery Docent
"Rhododendron maximum... a magnificent flowering shrub..."
- Jacob Bigelow
Dr. Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879) Lot 116, Beech Path, the visionary founder of Mount Auburn wrote the above encomium in his expanded second edition (1824) of Florula Bostoniensis, his seminal flora of New England.
Rhododendrons are a vast genus of plants with over one-thousand deciduous and evergreen species worldwide and more than 10,000 cultivated varieties. In 1753 Carl von Linne (1707-1778), who we know as Linnaeus, published Species Plantarum, the archetypic manual of plant taxonomy. Therein the genus name rhododendron was botanically formalized using the Greek words rhodon (rose) and dendron (tree).
The rhododendron Bigelow described was Rhododendron maximum, the rosebay. For those who complain of the use of scientific names as too complicated be reminded that in Mark Catesby's (1683-1749) Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731-1743) this same rosebay was originally known as Chamaerhododros lauri-folio semper virens floribus bullatis corymbolis. One of Linnaeus's great legacies was the acceptance of binomial nomenclature which forever ended such cumbersome polynomials.
Rhododendron maximum's largest natural range is in the central and southern Appalachians although disjunct populations have been found in all the New England and Middle Atlantic states as well. This shrub grows 4 - 15' tall. Each white, purplish-pink or rose colored , bell-shaped flower has five petals. The three upper petals are slightly larger than the lower pair and the middle of the upper three petals is always marked with green spots. A truss of multiple flowers occurs clustered at the end of stems creating massive floral displays above great mounds of greenery. The dark evergreen leaves are 4-8" long. The curious winter curling of these leaves reduces their exposure to desiccating sun and wind when the frozen ground cannot readily provide additional water.
An even more commonly used native evergreen rhododendron is Rhododendron catawbiense, catawba rhododendron. Six to ten feet in size, with leaves 3-6" long and flowers normally purple, this species has provided the parentage of countless cultivated varieties. Horatio Hollis Hunnewell (1810-1902) Lot 3799, Iris Path, in the latter-half of the nineteenth century created at his Wellesley home the largest rhododendron garden in New England, and undoubtedly the United States. His collection was the destination of countless visitors each June. An entry from his diary from the late 1890's:
"and on 11 June... Rhododendrons, if possible, finer than ever! All agree that there is no shrub to compare with them for grand effect..."
Bigelow in the 1820's, Hunnewell in the 1890's, and we at Mount Auburn today are in agreement that these extravagantly fabulous shrubs await your unbridled admiration.
For those who appreciate the early morning or who are looking for a quick walk before work, join us for Early Risers Horticultural Club - a brief excursion highlighting what's in bloom and other horticulturally interesting things - with Mount Auburn's Horticultural Staff. Walk begins promptly at 7:00 AM and will last approximately one hour. No preregistration. FREE. Friday, June 4th. Join us on Sunday, June 6th at 2:00 PM for America's Arboreal Bequest - a walking tour with Jim Gorman, Lecturer, Boston Architectural College, and Docent, Mount Auburn. From the 1530's onward, explorers and plant collectors reveled in the rich botanical diversity found in the newly discovered United States. Join us as we examine a sampling of trees and shrubs then craved for scientific, economic, ornamental, and medicinal uses as well as recall some illustrious plant collectors. $5 members; $10 non-members.
"Big Trees at Mount Auburn" and "Unusual Trees of Mount Auburn" maps are available for
purchase at the Mount Auburn Entrance Gate and in the Visitors Center.
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Preservation of Significant Monuments:
A Recently Completed Project
The marble statue of Reverend Hosea Ballou has just been cleaned by Mount Auburn's talented preservation staff! We invite you to come take a walk down Central Avenue to look at this wonderful and imposing statue.
Hosea Ballou (1771-1852) was a renowned American Universalist minister, theologian, and author. His statue at Mount Auburn portrays him in the "full vigor of adulthood." A larger than life portrait, it stands on a granite base of about 6 feet high. The overall statue is a colossal 14 feet in height.
Carved by a local sculptor Edward A. Brackett (1818-1908), this statue is of particular significance because it is a portrait of a notable New Englander; it was crafted from New England marble; and it was carved by a New England sculptor who did not go to Italy to learn his craft.
Out of the approximately 45,000 monuments at Mount Auburn, there are a small number of highly significant monuments that contribute to the Cemetery's significance . The Ballou statue is one such monument and archival records in the Historical Collections support its significance:
The same week the statue was erected in July 1859, an article in the Boston Transcript described the "New Statue of Mount Auburn:"
"The statue of the late Rev. Hosea Ballou has been erected in Mount Auburn. It was executed by Brackett, one of the best of our native sculptors....It is of white marble, pure and serene, in the sunlight, calm and dignified in the shade...It varies slightly as you take a front or profile view -- the profile is perhaps the best."
An 1873 Guide through Mount Auburn, (Russell & Richardson) describes the statue:
"Those who from long familiarity with the departed are entitled to express an opinion of the artists' fidelity, are satisfied with the result of his labors, while viewed simply as a work of art, we think that a high rank will be accorded to this effort."
Mount Auburn staff is currently planning for the preservation and long term care of highly significant monuments. In doing so, we contribute to the overall beauty of the Cemetery landscape as a whole. View photos of the Hosea Ballou monument cleaning on the Friends of Mount Auburn Flickr page. The cleaning work on the Ballou monument was done in consideration of the Perpetual Care contract with the family which obliges the Cemetery to wash, point and plumb the monument. For further questions, please contact Curator of Historical Collections Meg L. Winslow at mwinslow@mountauburn.org.
*Image above: 1860 Engraving from the Guide through Mount Auburn, Boston: Bricher and Russell, p. 59
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You too can help us to preserve important historical information by participating in our Monument Inscription Workshops - held monthly throughout the spring, summer, and fall! Participants will learn, review, and practice techniques for deciphering inscriptions on Mount Auburn's 19th-century monuments - inscriptions that are disappearing as marble wears away and brownstone disintegrates. These workshops will be held outdoors in the afternoon sun. Please wear proper clothing and footwear and plenty of sunscreen. Meet at the Entrance Gate. FREE. Sunday, June 13th and Thursday, June 24th.
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 Person of the Month: Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney
This month we celebrate the birthday of writer-philosopher-reformer, Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (6/27/1824 - 11/19/1904).
At sixteen, Cheney was the youngest member of a group of women including author and reformer Caroline Wells Healey Dall (Lot 1804 on Gentian Path) to attend Margaret Fuller's (Lot 2250, Pyrola Path, memorial) "Conversations" - discussions on topics such slavery, transcendentalism, and the feminist movement.
A few years later she attended classes on Greek philosophy with Bronson Alcott, as well as several Transcendentalist Club meetings with Theodore Parker where she met and befriended Julia Ward Howe (Lot 4987, Spruce Avenue). Cheney later tailored her transcendentalist perspective to encompass her pluralistic view of religion and the majority of her philosophic writings about art.
In 1874 Cheney became the first woman faculty member of the Concord School of Philosophy, where she lectured on art for over ten years. While largely unrecognized, she formulated the first aesthetics (a branch of philosophy that evaluates the beauty and nature of art) by a 19th century American.
Cheney was also a founder and financial supporter of the New England Women's Club, which held its first meeting in the home of Dr. Harriot Kezia Hunt (Lot 2630, Poplar Avenue), in 1868. It was through this organization that Cheney became inspired to found a horticultural school for women.
An early member of the American Association for the Advancement of Women, Cheney later became vice-president of the Massachusetts School Suffrage Association. Throughout her life, Cheney, who was also friends with Harriet Jacobs (Lot 4389), Harriet Tubman, and Booker T. Washington, devoted herself to women's and abolitionist causes.
Cheney wrote a handbook for the Freedman's schools entitled A Handbook for American Citizens in 1866 and went to Readville to teach members of the 54th regiment how to read. When the New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded she became secretary of the institution and later its president.
In her spare time, Cheney also wrote many books on Louisa May Alcott, including Louisa M. Alcott, Life and Letters (1899) which is considered to be one of the best biographies on Alcott and is still studied today.
Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney is remembered on the Littlehale family monument at Mount Auburn (Lot 953, Fir Avenue).
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The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery was established in 1986 as a non-profit educational
Mount Auburn Cemetery is still a unique choice for burial and commemoration. It offers
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Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
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email: friends@mountauburn.org
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