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News & Events, August 2011
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the August 2011 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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Cambridge Discovery Days
Saturday, August 13, 3 PM
In the Face of Conflict - a walking tour
Many Cantabridgians now buried at Mount Auburn can be called "activists" or "reformers." From rioting for better food in the Harvard dining halls to fighting for emancipation, these individuals stood up to injustices and created change. Join us for this special Cambridge Discovery Days walk to learn more about some of these different revolutionaries and the causes they championed. Free.
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 Additional Friends Programs in August
Join us in August for one of our other Friends walks or lectures:
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Wildlife at Mount Auburn
August is a wonderful time to visit the lakes and ponds of Mount Auburn in search of several resident species of dragonfly. In the Dell you might come across, "...a Common Whitetail patrolling its territory, a 5-inch Green Darner hunting for prey or a delicate Eastern Forktail or Bluet skimming just above the floating duckweed. Several summer butterflies - Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple, Clouded Sulphur and Little Wood Satyr... may also be seen flitting across the water."
- A Guide to Consecration Dell at Mount Auburn.
Join us In Search of Butterflies and Dragonflies - a leisurely walking tour in search of various types of butterflies and dragonflies found around the pond edges and wildflower patches of Mount Auburn with Jeremiah Trimble, Curatorial Associate, Ornithology, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. From Swallowtails to Skippers, Skimmers to Bluets, there should be plenty to hold our attention during this learning adventure! $5 members; $10 non-members. Wednesday, August 10, 10 AM
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 Preservation History Highlight
Conservation Underway for
the Robert Gould Shaw Monument
A generous gift from S. Parkman Shaw, a descendant of Robert Gould Shaw, has ensured the long-term preservation of the Shaw monument, one of Mount Auburn Cemetery's celebrated memorials. Over time extensive deterioration has occurred with losses and cracks in the brownstone enclosure; crumbling slate, which has rendered the inscription illegible; and corrosion on the bronze plaque.
The monument clearly required more than the cyclical maintenance as provided for in the original care agreement. Conservation of the Shaw monument is now well underway. View images of the monument being gently washed and the conservators from Building and Monument Conservation Inc. filling joints with mortar, replacing missing pieces, and repairing breaks.
In 1848 Robert Gould Shaw, a Boston philanthropist and merchant, commissioned noted architect Hammatt Billings and stone carver Alpheus Cary to build a monument on the family plot (Lot 1286, Pine Avenue). Robert Gould Shaw died in 1853. Seven years later a bronze plaque added to the front of the monument in commemoration of Shaw's grandson, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, would transform the memorial into one of national significance.
Colonel Shaw was the noted officer who led the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War. African Americans were initially denied the right to enlist in the military, and the Massachusetts 54th was one of the most notable regiments of free blacks to fight in the battle. "You know how many eminent men consider a negro army of the greatest importance to our country at this time," Shaw wrote. "How fully repaid the pioneers in the movement will be, for what they may have to go through!" On July 18, 1863 Shaw led 600 men towards a Confederate fortification at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, a critical defense for Charleston. Shot through the heart, Shaw lost his life, and nearly half his soldiers were wounded, killed, or captured. The Colonel's body was laid to rest with his fallen men in a mass grave at Fort Wagner.
"To this Massachusetts 54th was set the stupendous task to convince the white race that colored troops would fight," the New York Tribune reported in 1865, "and not only that they would fight, but that they could be made, in every sense of the word, soldiers." Over the years, the Shaw monument at Mount Auburn Cemetery has represented an affecting memorial for veterans, including those who served in Shaw's regiment. "Ever since there have been Memorial Day services, the colored members of the Robert Gould Shaw Veterans' Association . . . have loving tended in his memory an untenanted grave at Mt. Auburn Cemetery," the Boston Daily Globe noted in 1922.
The front centerpiece of the Shaw monument includes an ancient Greco-Roman marble relief, dating from the first century, which Robert Gould Shaw (the Colonel's grandfather) imported from Athens. Two winged boreads from Greek mythology face each other, and relief work depicting poppy seed heads (associated with sleep) decorates the top of the monument. The piece is surrounded with a 15-foot high edifice, styled on a classical Roman temple, in Ionic marble and brownstone. The entire lot includes nine individual markers, an underground tomb, and portions of the original cast-iron fence. The back of the monument, carries inscriptions of the names of deceased family members, that continue onto a slate panel added to the base at a later date.
The generosity of S. Parkman Shaw has made possible a comprehensive conservation plan that will preserve and protect the cherished memorial. In addition to the treatment described above, long-term care will include replicating the original iron fence surrounding the lot, inspecting the underground tomb, working with the horticultural department to create a planting scheme and finally treating the bronze plaque that reads:
This tablet is in Memory of
Robert Gould Shaw
Colonel 54th Masssts. Infantry
Fell at Fort Wagner S.C.
And was there buried, July 18th, 1863.
Aged 25 years 9 months.
"Greater love hath no man than this,
That a man lay down his life for his friends."
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Would you like to learn more about monuments at Mount Auburn Cemetery? Sign up for one of these Friends programs today!
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 Horticultural Highlight
Grasses have always graced the natural landscapes of the earth. Now they are coming into our gardens, bringing sound, movement, lush volume and abiding color.
- Carol Ottesen
Look in any direction and you are likely to see grasses. True grasses belong to a family known as Poaceae,which is comprised of more than 600 genera, and 9,000-10,000 species. This is one of the largest and most successful plant families. It has been estimated that at least 20% of the earth may be covered by grasses. Undeniably important to humans, all the cereal grains; rice, oats, wheat, rye, barley, corn, and sorghum are members of this plant family. All the various species have certain similarities - narrow leaves with parallel veins, and mostly hollow, and jointed, round stems.
Of course all of our lawns are composed of members of this family. Additionally, Mount Auburn Cemetery in keeping with a desire to perpetuate a more sustainable landscape has incorporated many varieties of ornamental grasses. These come with a wide variety of size, form, texture, and overall color to enhance the grounds year-round. In addition to beauty, they provide durability, as most are pest and disease-free, and drought tolerant. Grasses bring movement to the landscape, swaying sensuously with the summer breeze. A stronger wind rustling their leaves may provide a natural orchestral accompaniment to a visitor's contemplation.
Many different kinds of ornamental grasses may be found throughout our landscape. A fine planting design using numerous grasses is located at our flagpole on Meadow Road. Other areas with beautiful grasses are Birch Gardens, Auburn Lake, Willow Pond Knoll, as well as at numerous family lots. To list all of our grasses would be beyond the scope of this article, but we mention here one colorful example.
Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola', golden Japanese fountain grass is an elegantly, 12 to 18-inch tall, mounded plant, with a cascading habit. Its yellow leavesare ½" wide, with a narrow green stripe. The species is native to Honshu Island, Japan. It provides a colorful accent in our landscape, with undulating movements with any breeze. This plant was chosen as the Perennial Plant Association's 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year. You may see fine specimens of this at the Willow Pond Knoll.
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Join us for horticulture-related programming this month at the Cemetery:
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History Highlight:
180th Anniversary of Mount Auburn
(Installment 3 of a 4-part series)
By August of 1831, the founders of Mount Auburn had succeeded in selling 100 lots, the requisite for the Cemetery to become a reality. A board of managers was chosen that included Justice Joseph Story, Henry A. S. Dearborn, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, U.S. Representative Edward Everett, George Brimmer and others. A subcommittee was then appointed to acquire an accurate topographical survey of Mount Auburn and to report a plan for laying it out into lots and avenues. They employed Alexander Wadsworth, Civil Engineer to complete the task.Installment 1 Installment 2 ____________________________________________________________
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Notable Birthday: Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin
Civil Rights Leader, Author, Editor
In 1999 a bronze bust of Josephine Ruffin (8/31/1842 - 3/13/1924) was installed at the Massachusetts State House as part of the permanent exhibit "Hear Us," that honors six Massachusetts women who overcame adversity to make important contributions to society in the state and in the nation.
During the Civil War, Josephine and her husband George Lewis Ruffin (1834 - 1886) recruited African Americans for the Union Army as well as serving on the city's Sanitation Committee. After the war, George Ruffin became the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School and the first African American judge in the North, securing for himself and his wife an elevated social status. Josephine used her standing to help efforts related to civil rights, suffrage and Civil War welfare reforms. As a charter member of the Massachusetts School Suffrage Association, Ruffin became acquainted with fellow association founder and reformer Julia Ward Howe (Lot 4987, Spruce Avenue). Howe, along with suffragist Lucy Stone, had also founded the New England Women's Club in 1868 and invited Ruffin to become the first African American member in the mid 1890s.
In addition to social work, Ruffin wrote for the Courant, a weekly black newspaper, and became a member of the New England Women's Press Association. After her husband died in 1886, Ruffin founded the Woman's Era, the country's first newspaper published by and for African American women.
In 1893 Ruffin founded the Women's Era Club - governed by black women, but not a club for African American women specifically. The club's motto, "Make the World Better," expressed Ruffin's belief that African American women were a vital component of the fight for equal rights for all Americans - white and black, men and women. The club raised funds for scholarships, sponsored kindergartens, organized health clinics and hosted literary events and art exhibits.
Two years later, Ruffin organized the National Federation of Afro-American Women which later merged with the Colored Women's League to form the National Association of Colored Women. Ruffin served as vice-president of the new organization.
In 1900 Ruffin traveled to Milwaukee, WI, for the General Federation of Women's Clubs where she was denied a seat when the executive committee learned that membership in the New Era Club included African American women. Although she could have sat on behalf of the New England Women's Club or the New England Women's Press Club - the other two organizations she planned to represent, Ruffin refused on principle and was subsequently banned from the conference. The events were widely published around the nation and became known as the "Ruffin Incident."
In 1910 Ruffin became one of the charter members of the Boston Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In that same year, she founded the League of Women for Community Service, which still exists today.
Josephine Ruffin died at her home in Boston on March 13, 1924. Her funeral service was held at Trinity Church, where she was a member, and she was laid to rest next to her husband George in Lot 4960 on Indian Ridge Path at Mount Auburn.
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Beyond Our Gates: Programs of Interest in the Community
The exhibition explores Winslow Homer's prints, primarily those created for illustrated weeklies between 1858 and 1873. In this span of these 15 years, Homer evocatively portrayed rural life in America, the brutality of the Civil War, the changing roles of women, and the favorite pastimes of the American people. This exhibition, featuring more than 50 illustrations by Homer, captures an evolving artist and a changing America.
FACES & PLACES: Mid-19th Century Boston
Art Collections of the Boston Athenĉum
June 20 - September 17, 2011
Celebrating the city of Boston and the people who made it great, this exhibition features over eighty paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and artifacts that share the common genre of portraiture, whether they be portraits of people or images of the city itself. In the decades leading up to and encompassing the middle of the nineteenth century--a historical period that would end with the Civil War--Boston produced an impressive number of social reformers, political leaders, writers, and artists. Among these were a great many figures now interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery - Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, Annie Adams Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas H. Perkins and William H. Prescott. ______________________________________________________________________ |
Think green. Do not print this email and you will help to conserve valuable
resources. Thank you!
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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
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. |
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Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
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email: friends@mountauburn.org
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