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News & Events, December 2010
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the December 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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 Mount Auburn Candle Lighting Service
Thursday, December 16th at 3:30 PM
We cordially invite you to join us for our annual Candle Lighting Service. We hold this service each year to bring light into the darkness as we remember the loved ones no longer with us. During the service, participants are invited to light candles in honor of those that they wish to remember.
Candles will be available at cost before the Service. Free.
The program will be held in Story Chapel and will feature words and music by:
Reverend Fr. John P. Prusaitis, Pastor, Saint Bridget Church, Maynard
Reverend John K. Stendahl, Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Newtons
Reverend Amy McCreath, Pastor, Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown
Glenn Goda, organ
Tim Macri, flute
Chamber Players
Boston Gay Men's Chorus
Immediately following the Service, join us in Bigelow Chapel for conversation and refreshments. Pastries will be generously provided by Jules Catering (Somerville). View photos from previous Candle Lighting events at the Cemetery.
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 Friends of Mount Auburn December Programs
Maps, self-guided brochures and audio tours are available for purchase at our Visitors Center daily from 9 AM to 4:30 PM.
Stop at the Egyptian Revival Gatehouse and check the Bird Sightings board for the most recent wildlife sightings. And, while you are there, make sure you take some time to explore our new interactive kiosk!
From history to horticulture to notable figures, our December schedule of events offers something for everyone:
Visit us online to see our entire schedule and register for any of these upcoming programs. ____________________________________________________________________ |
 Wildlife at Mount Auburn Cemetery: Dark-eyed Junco
By Robert H. Stymeist
The Dark-eyed Junco is a very common winter visitor to our area; the first appearance is usually in mid -October when these "snowbirds" arrive reminding us that winter is fast approaching. The Junco is a member of the sparrow family and at one point it was thought to be five different species!
The species we see here in the east is the "slate-colored" subspecies. It is a very common bird at Mount Auburn - sometimes one can see up to 100 individuals foraging on the ground in flocks and mingling with other sparrow species. The juncos scratch for food, usually hopping from place to place. They are very social and often quite tame though if startled the flocks will explode into the air.
Flocks can be found anywhere in the Cemetery, generally moving as a flock as they cover a wide area each day. When the first snow falls, the juncos can be seen scratching - hopping forward and then back with both feet at once moving the snow and hoping for that buried seed. You can also find them at the feeder at Auburn Lake, though they seldom fly up to the feeder preferring to forage on the ground under the feeder and under the shrubbery to be safe from the many raptors that have used the bird feeder as a dining room. The Dark-eyed Junco will return to its breeding grounds in April.
Check the Bird Sightings board in the Entrance Gate area for recent sightings! _________________________________________________________________ |
 December History Highlight: 30th Anniversary
of the Willow Pond Knoll Sculpture by Richard Duca
Is it a flame, a sail, a lily or a leaf? Over the past 30 years, many interpretations of the sculpture on Willow Pond Knoll have been suggested. The large iron sculpture,standing nineteen feet tall and weighing over nine tons, has become one of Mount Auburn's iconic images, a landmark for providing directions and an uplifting work of art to behold.
The project of developing the Knoll overlooking Willow Pond was initiated by Cemetery Trustees in 1979 and called for a large sculpture as a focal point. The young and talented artist, Richard Duca, won the design competition, and on December 12, 1980, the untitled sculpture was set on its granite base overlooking Willow Pond. On June 3, 1981 the new Willow Pond Knoll sculpture was dedicated before a crowd of 300 guests, friends and employees.
Although the Willow Pond Knoll Sculpture was cast in malleable iron, the initial designs were created in Styrofoam. Working in Styrofoam to create the initial pattern, Richard Duca designed the full-scale model in foam and cast it using the "foam vaporization process." Duca's final Styrofoam design was packed in specially prepared sand, and liquid metal was poured into the mold causing the Styrofoam to evaporate, creating a "one of a kind" sculpture.
Six years ago, in the fall of 2004, Fine Arts Conservator Barbara Mangum was hired to conserve the sculpture and remove some graffiti. The sculpture's original coating had worn very thin in places and areas of the surface were unprotected, leading to imperfections known as pitting. The overall surface of the iron also showed some corrosion. The sculptor Richard Duca was consulted and worked with the conservator and Mount Auburn's Chief of Conservation David Gallagher on the project. After conservation work was completed, Duca commented "It looks better than it ever did."
View photos of the Willow Pond Knoll Sculpture by Richard Duca over the last thirty years. _________________________________________________________________
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 Horticultural Highlight: Sciadopitys verticillata
All afternoon there has been a chirping of birds.
And the sun lies, warming and still, on the Western sides of puffed branches.
There is no wind,
Even the little twigs at the ends of the branches do not move,
And the needles of the pines are solid,
Bands of inarticulated blackness,
Against the blue-white sky.
-Amy Lowell
When is a pine not a pine? Sciadopitys verticillata the Japanese umbrella pine actually is not botanically a pine. It is not even classified within the pine family Pinaceae but rather is found in the Taxodiacae which includes the bald cypress, giant sequoia and arborvitae, among numerous other genera. Common name confusion aside this is a true "connoisseur's choice" conifer. The distinctive lustrous bright green 3 to 5 inch-long needles are many times wider and thicker than pine needles. Upon close inspection each needle is really two needles fused together at the center. These needles are arranged around the stem in whorls of 10 to 30 radiating like the unopened ribs of a parasol. The growth habit is often a dense pyramid which holds its lower branches creating an effect that horticulturist Ernest Henry Wilson (1876-1930) termed an "unmistakable aristocrat of ancient lineage."
The Japanese umbrella pine has a history going back to the dinosaurs, with paleobotanists dating fossils to 230 million years ago. Native to the forests of southern Japan it was first described to Europeans by Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) in his 1784 Flora Japonica. Half a century later the 1842 work by German-born Phillip Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) also titled Flora Japonica attracted the attention of notable American botanist Asa Gray (1810-1888, Lot 3904 Holly Path). Gray famously referred to Siebold's work in his research of plant geography that supported pre-publication Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) On the Origin of Species.
On your next visit to Mount Auburn look for our Japanese umbrella pines found growing opposite the administration office, on Lawn Avenue, Central Avenue, Willow Avenue, Story Road, and Meadow Road among other locations. View photos of Mount Auburn's remarkable conifers.
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Join us on Sunday, December 5th at 1 PM for New England Champions- a walking tour with Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman to view Mount Auburn's largest tree specimens. $5 members; $10 non-members.
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 Person of the Month: Clara Endicott Sears This month we honor preservationist, historian and author Clara Endicott Sears, born in Boston on December 16, 1863. Although historic preservation was uncommon during the early twentieth century, especially amongst women, Sears nevertheless had the resources, tenacity, and interest in history to make preservation her career.
In 1910 she purchased 35 acres of land in Harvard, Mass. in the Nashua Valley and soon discovered that a connecting property was the site of philosopher Bronson Alcott's failed utopian experiment. With the help of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, she researched and restored the Alcott farmhouse in 1914. She established the Fruitlands Museum and published Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands (1915) to record and preserve evidence of this 19th-century utopian experiment.
Around this time, Sears also befriended members of a small Shaker community living in the town of Harvard. Realizing in 1916 that their community was dwindling in size, the Shakers asked Sears to write a book on the history of their community and preserve their oldest building. In doing so she created the world's first Shaker museum.
In 1928 Native American artifacts surfaced during the plowing of Sears's land, which inspired her interest in Native American history. She collected artifacts from tribes across the nation and consulted with tribal leaders to confirm the authenticity of the objects for her anticipated museum. In 1930 Sears, then 67 years old, incorporated her three museums and selected a board of trustees to secure their future. In 1940 Sears opened a Portrait Gallery, which exhibited her personal collection of 19th-century folk portraits.
Into her late 70s, Sears continued to plan for a new an addition to the Portrait Gallery to house her collection of Hudson River School landscape paintings. The New York Sun mused, "Sears seems to regard the past as having been lived chiefly for the benefit of the future. The present she regards as a convenient work season arranged for her by Father Time in which she can make the future still more aware of the past."
In the early 1940s restrictions imposed during World War II affected Sears's museum work and she surrendered 200 acres of her Fruitlands property to the military for the opening of Fort Devens. Construction for the new gallery wing was hampered by poor weather and limited labor, however, Sears persevered and her Hudson River School exhibit opened to the public in 1945.
Sears received many awards for her literary contributions - Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands (1915), Some American Primitives (1941), Highlights Among the Hudson River Artists (1947), and Gleanings from Old Shaker Journals (2003) among them - as well as her efforts in historic preservation including the Medal of Honor of the National Society of New England Women and the first Annual Author's Club Citation of Distinction. Her final book, Early Personal Reminiscence, was published in 1956.
She died in Boston in March 1960. She is buried in her own lot on Lupine Path at Mount Auburn. If you were not able to make it to the Fruitlands Museum during Friends of Mount Auburn Members Week, you still have time! The Fruitlands Museum has extended its offer of free admission for our members through the end of the year. To receive free admission, you must show your Friends membership card at the time of your visit. If you are not already a member of the Friends, consider joining today! * Photo of Clara Endicott Sears, courtesy of the Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Mass.
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Support the Friends of Mount Auburn with a gift of membership
Still searching for the perfect holiday gift for someone on your list? Membership in the Friends of Mount Auburn is a perfect gift idea for any lovers of history, horticulture, or nature on your list. Visit our website to purchase a gift membership or to browse the publications currently offered for sale through the Friends of Mount Auburn. We are happy to send gifts directly to the recipient complete with a personalized note. Just leave a message in the notes field during checkout and we will handle the rest! |
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 Friends of Mount Auburn programs are funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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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. |
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resources. Thank you!
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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
a wide variety of innovative interment and memorialization options for all. Learn about
Mount Auburn's many burial and memorialization options. |
Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
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email: friends@mountauburn.org
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