____________________________________________________________________________________
 
                                        News & Events, July 2010
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the July 2010 edition of our
electronic
newsletter. We invite you to join our email list to receive this mailing on a monthly basis.  To
ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add [email protected] to your
address book today.
____________________________________________________________________
In this issue
Friends of Mount Auburn July Programs
Wildlife at Mount Auburn Cemetery
What Goes Around: The Ancient Symbol of the Circle
Growing Collections: Planting Ideas
Horticultural Highlight: Aesculus parviflora
Cenotaphs at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Person of the Month: Margaret Fuller Ossoli
______________________________________________________________ 
Note
: If you use Outlook 2007, you might see some formatting irregularities in your e-letter,
such as gaps of space between article headers and text. To correct this compatibility glitch,
select "View in Browser" from the "Other Actions" menu on your message toolbar.
____________________________________________________________________
 
greenhouseFriends of Mount Auburn July Programs  
 
Join us this summer to learn more about the history,
horticulture, art, architecture, and wildlife of Mount Auburn
Cemetery!   
 
Here are just a few highlights from our July program schedule:  
 
Visit the Mount Auburn Cemetery website for our full list of programs and register online today! 
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.   
 
_____________________________________________________________________________________
 
Painted TurtleWildlife at Mount Auburn Cemetery
 
"A raccoon waddles out from under the rhododendrons...a Milk snake moves out from its den in a rock crevice and  catches some rays...Five Painted turtles are sunning on a log in the pond... one of the resident Red-tailed hawks snatches a squirrel off its perch in a spruce tree, followed by a train of protesting grackles..." so it goes on a July day in Consecration Dell at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Consecration Dell has a rich history. It is the virtual soul of Mount Auburn--the geographical, historical, and metaphorical heart of this extraordinary landscape.  
 
* Photo by George McLean, Medford, MA.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
 
circle symbolismWhat Goes Around:
The Ancient Symbol of the Circle
 
Victorians loved the ancient symbol of the circle. Dating from pagan times, the image represented eternity, never-ending life, victory, and fidelity. The symbol was a natural choice flowing from daily life - surrounded by circles of family and friends, wearing wedding and mourning rings, and seeing the symbol adorn public buildings, they found it a reassuring motif for their cemetery monuments. 
 
Join Social Historian Dee Morris on Monday, July 26th at 6:00 PM, as the full moon makes its way into the night sky for What Goes Around: The Ancient Symbol of the Circle an early evening walking tour to explore some of the many variations of the circle displayed at Mount Auburn including wreathes, Celtic crosses, large spheres, and even circles with wings.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________
 
Histcol InvoiceGrowing Collections: Planting Ideas
A Cambridge Archives Tour
 
Mount Auburn's Historical Collections include 19th and 20th century records that document the changing landscape and horticultural diversity of the Cemetery.
 
On Wednesday, July 14, starting at 3 PM, Historical Collections will participate in the Cambridge Archives program Growing Collections: Planting Ideas, which will offer a chance to look behind-the-scenes and see examples of historic material from our collections of manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera.

Space is limited and registration before July 12th is required. For more information about the July 14th event, and to register, please visit the Cambridge Archives Project website.
 
Image: Superintendent's Invoice for plants and shrubs, July 1870, Historical Collections, Mount Auburn.
____________________________________________________________________________________
 Bottlebrush Buckeye
Horticultural Highlight: Aesculus parviflora
By Jim Gorman, Mount Auburn Cemetery Docent
 
"Dr. What is Summer in a fine brocaded gown!"
                                                                                -Amy Lowell
 
With our July landscape now in full lush greenery 
Aesculus parviflora, bottlebrush buckeye provides a
commanding display of contrasting white, eye-catching
flowers, brocade-like in our tapestry of green.
 
The genus Aesculus is comprised of 13-19 species (depending on taxonomic authority) of trees
or shrubs native to North America, Europe, and Asia.  Aesculus parviflora is a large spreading
shrub reaching 10-12 feet high and often that wide at maturity. The multiple suckering upright
stems form a shape with a central high point, often creating an appearance of a grove of small
trees.  The palmately compound leaves have five to seven leaflets, each 3-9 inches long by 1-4
inches wide. These leaves have no serious insect or disease problems - unlike the Aesculus
hippocastanum, common horse chestnut tree with leaves that turn unsightly brown and drop
early in September.

The species name parviflora, given by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), is from the Latin parvus
meaning little or small and flora meaning flower, hence "little flower." Each white flower has four
petals, one-half inch long surrounding pinkish-white, thread-like stamens topped with red
anthers standing out one-inch from the petals. Multiples of these flowers are arranged on
tapered, cylindrical 8-to-12 inch long upright panicles (the bottlebrushes). The effect is
outstanding, bold yet delicate at the same time. The plant will grow and flower in sun or shade
within USDA Zones 4-8.

It is native to the southeastern states of South Carolina to Alabama and south to Florida although
historically disjunct populations have been recorded in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Aesculus
parviflora was discovered in the 1770's by William Bartram (1739-1823) naturalist, artist, writer, and plant explorer. Early in his life William was referred to as "my little botanist" by his father, the famous Philadelphia-based plant collector, John Bartram (1699-1777) of whom Linnaeus called "...the greatest natural botanist in the world" who had also served as the Royal Botanist in the Colonies of King George III.

William Bartram published in 1791 Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc... which became a small classic of American literature. This natural history study had profound influence on English romantic poets Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) and William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Also John James Audubon (1785-1851) read the work with a "thrill of delight." Certainly Mount Auburn's visionary founder Dr. Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879) read this book and undoubtedly visited Bartram's garden while earning his medical degree from the University oof Pennsylvania (1810).You may ponder some of this when you seek out fine plantings of bottlebrush buckeye found in profuse flowering along Garden Avenue and Fountain Avenue on your July visit to Mount Auburn.
 ...
 
Enjoy an early morning walking tour on Wednesday, July 28th at 7:30 AM with Mount Auburn Cemetery's President, Dave Barnett to observe and learn about the Summer Blooming Trees and Shrubs that show off their flowers in late July and provide summer beauty and interest. The culture and use of these plants in your home garden will be discussed.  Rain or shine.
 
Or join us for Cut & Dried - a workshop on Thursday, July 29th at 10:00 AM about drying and preserving flowers at the Mount Auburn greenhouse.  Drying flowers is a wonderful way to preserve the beauty of your garden. There are a wide range of flowers that can be successfully dried, many growing here at our greenhouse gardens. Those of you who have attended our annual holiday decorating workshop will have an opportunity to see much of the material used in that workshop thriving in the garden.  We will walk through the gardens as we discuss cultivated and wild-crafted plants, their cultural information, as well as ideas for their use and care.
 
"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.
_____________________________________________________________________
 
WH Cary cenotaphCenotaphs at Mount Auburn Cemetery
 
                      CONSTANTINE F.
                         Adopted son of 
                           Joseph W. & 
                        Eliza W. Newell, 
                      died on a visit to his 
                      native City, Smyrna, 
                           Sept. 4, 1848, 
                            Aged 33 yrs.
 
*Constantine P. Newell's cenotaph at Lot 1971 Hibiscus Path
 
With so many rich layers at Mount Auburn, it can be easy to miss the subtle clues an inscription is sharing with you. In the inscription above, it is noted that Constantine died in Smyrna, but it does not mention whether he is interred at Mount Auburn. In truth, Constantine is not buried at Mount Auburn. The stone on Hibiscus Path which bears his name is a cenotaph, a monument commemorating someone whose remains are located elsewhere.
 
In a place like Mount Auburn, cenotaphs serve as a testament to the strong desire to honor loved ones in a way that is befitting of such a beautiful and inspirational landscape.  Through the Monument Inscription Workshops we continue to be surprised by the number of cenotaphs discovered. Oftentimes the cenotaphs commemorate people who died in battle or in a far away land, as a young child, at sea, or before the founding of Mount Auburn. 
 
Sometimes an inscription is forthright and explains that the person being
commemorated is not buried at Mount Auburn, as is the case for W.H. Carey's monument.  Whereas in other instances, there is no indication that the person memorialized is not actually buried at Mount Auburn.
 
                                   MEMORIAL.
                                 OF
                                  A BELOVED BROTHER.
                                WHOSE REMAINS
                                ARE DEPOSITED AT
                                 GREENWOOD CEMETERY.
                                A NATIVE OF BOSTON.
                               AN ADOPTED CITIZEN OF 
                                 BROOKLYN, N.Y.
                              OBT. FEB. 27, 1861
                                AGED 63
                                             
                                   * W. H. Carey's cenotaph, Lot 118 Beech Avenue pictured above                                     
 
Several cenotaphs at Mount Auburn are well known. For instance, the plaque at Lot 1286 Pine Avenue for Robert Gould Shaw, Jr., who commanded the 54th regiment in the Civil War, fell at Fort Wagner, S.C., and was consequently buried there on July 18, 1863 is an excellent example. Other notable cenotaphs are the Naval Monument for the U.S. Exploring Expedition that can be found at Lot 8999 Central Avenue, in addition to the monument for Benjamin Franklin that was erected by Thomas Dowse at Lot 1810 Gentian Path.  Perhaps one of the most highly visited cenotaphs is the one for Margaret Fuller Ossoli at Lot 2250 Pyrola Path which will receive preservation care in consideration of Mount Auburn's perpetual care obligation with the family and in preparation for the much belated Margaret Fuller Memorial Service paying tribute to this remarkable woman on July 18th at 1:00 PM.

....
 
The inscriptions on Mount Auburn's 19th-century monuments are disappearing as marble wears away and brownstone disintegrates. Help us to preserve this important historical information by participating in a Monument Inscription Workshop on Sunday, July 11th or Thursday, July 22nd at 2:00 PM.  At the start of each season, we will review and practice techniques for recording and deciphering inscriptions and assessing the condition of monuments. Participants will then work within a confined area to record the invaluable inscriptions on these monuments. These workshops will be held outdoors in the afternoon sun. Please wear proper clothing and footwear and plenty of sunscreen. Meet at entrance gate. FREE.
 
And on Tuesday, July 20th at 6:00 PM, Natalie Wampler will lead a walking tour exploring Clues in the Landscape.  The monuments, structures and buildings ornamenting Mount Auburn's landscape are visual reminders of the families and individuals that have placed them here over the past 179 years.   Beyond telling the stories of the families that they commemorate, these objects have other stories to tell about the Cemetery itself, such as a pedestal now missing its sculpture as a result of the devastating Hurricane of 1938. Join us for this tour to learn about the often overlooked clues in the landscape that shed light on the history of Mount Auburn's ever-changing landscape. 
____________________________________________________________________________________
 
Fuller CenotaphPerson of the Month: Margaret Fuller Ossoli
 
"By birth a child of New England, by adoption a citizen of Rome, by genius belonging to the world."
 
The elegant but brief inscription on the monument memorializing Margaret Fuller Ossoli (May 23, 1810 - July 19, 1850) on Pyrola Path seems to effortlessly sum up the otherwise complicated life of a complex and pioneering American spirit who sought to transform the world through her often controversial thoughts, actions, ideas, and words. 
In her short forty years of life, Margaret Fuller was an author, editor, social and literary critic, activist-journalist, socialist, and ultimately, a revolutionary. 
 
Born into a family of conservative New England wealth and stability, Fuller was educated in the classics by her politician father.  She actively sought out the company of other area intellectuals like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Frederick Henry Hedge, William Ellery Channing, and Bronson Alcott.  From these early relations with New England thinkers and Transcendentalists she formed some her initial ideas regarding personal independence and self-reliance, as well as individual freedom, morality, and responsibility.  She established a series of Conversations, a platform for discussing the most important ideas of the day with like-minded women, and ultimately penned her own treatise on the status of American women in her groundbreaking feminist text, Woman in the Nineteenth Century.  
 
At the end of the 1840s Fuller found herself in Italy, on the forefront of the Roman Revolution, where she was working as a correspondent for the New York Tribune.  There she met and fell in love with Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, who was deeply involved with the liberal cause.  The two married and had a son, Angelo Phillp Ossoli.  After the revolution was crushed, Fuller, her husband, and young son set sail for America aboard the Elizabeth.  The three died aboard the ship in July of 1850 when it sank off the coast of New York's Fire Island.  The bodies of Fuller and her husband were never recovered.   
 
The Fuller family purchased a lot at Mount Auburn on Pyrola Path and buried young Angelo, who was recovered from the shipwreck, beneath a monument erected in the memory of all three Ossolis.  The monument became an important site of pilgrimage during the 19th century by all who wanted to remember and pay tribute to Margaret Fuller. 

Though a monument was erected in her memory, recent research suggests that a memorial service honoring the life of legacy of Margaret Fuller was never held.  Now, during the year to celebrate the bicentennial of her birth, we invite you to join us in Bigelow Chapel on Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 1:30 PM for a much-belated Margaret Fuller Memorial Service in honor of this significant figure.  Following the service, we will walk to the Ossoli memorial for a wreath-laying ceremony.  The chapel doors will open at 12:30 for refreshments. FREE.
 
Image of Fuller's cenotaph is from the "1860 Guide Through Mount Auburn."

This event is co-sponsored with the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee.  
____________________________________________________________________________________
 
Find us on Facebook logo
Visit us online at: www.facebook.com/mountauburncemetery 
and become a "fan" of our page!           
 
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
 
Mount Auburn Spring
 
View Friends of Mount Auburn photos on Flickr.  Flickr is a free
photo hosting website - we are now sharing our photos with the world
through Flickr.

 
The Friends of Mount Auburn Electronic Newsletter Archives Homepage is your source for links to earlier issues of our e-newsletter that date back to January 2007.
 
Tower Logo 2
 
Think green.
 Do not print this email and you will help to conserve valuable
resources.  Thank you!  
 
______________________________________________________________________ 
You can now join or renew your membership in the Friends of Mount Auburn
quickly, securely, and easily online! 
 
The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery was established in 1986 as a non-profit educational
trust to promote the appreciation and preservation of Mount Auburn.  Join the Friends of Mount Auburn.  Learn about volunteer opportunities at Mount Auburn.
 
Mount Auburn Cemetery is still a unique choice for burial and commemoration. It offers
a wide variety of innovative interment and memorialization options for all. Learn about
Mount Auburn's many burial and memorialization options.
 
Constant Contact All-Star Logo
 
Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
____________________________ 
email: [email protected]
phone: 617-547-7105
web: http://www.mountauburn.org
______________________________________________________________