News & Events, February 2013 |
African American Heritage Trail Launch
On February 11th at 10AM the Friends of Mount Auburn will launch an interpretive trail to celebrate the lives and legacies of several individuals significant in telling the story of the African American experience in Boston and beyond during the 19th and 20th centuries whom are buried at the Cemetery.
Learn about the Heritage Trail from the scholars who contributed to its development; enjoy a poem by the Poet Populist of Cambridge, Toni Bee, written just for the occasion; and participate in the wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of Harriet Jacobs.
Speakers at the event will include: Sydney Nathans, author of To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker and Melissa Banta, Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collections Consultant, among others. We hope that you will join us!
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 Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)
Born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina on February 12, 1813, Harriet Jacobs went on to become an author and abolitionist. In 1861 Jacobs published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - just two months before the start of the Civil War.
At the time of its publication, Incidents was thought to be a work of fiction written by white abolitionists, but following the war Jacobs came forward as the author of the book.
During and immediately following the war, Jacobs and her daughter provided relief aid to freedmen and established schools and orphanages throughout the South. She moved to Cambridge...
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 Horticultural Highlight: Sequoiadendron giganteum, Giant Sequoia
Also referred to as Big Tree, and Wellingtonia, the Sequoiadendron giganteum, Giant Sequoia was called the "king of all the conifers in the world", by John Muir (1838-1914), noted author, and preservation ecologist.
Native to California, these "kings" grow indigenously, at between 4,000 and 8,000-feet elevation, on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Over two dozen trees have been measured taller than 250-feet, and numerous trees have a single-trunk circumference greater than 100-feet! Imagine twenty of your friends, holding hands, barely encircling such a behemoth.
On your next visit to Mount Auburn, look for our young, diminutive, Giant Sequoias, on Fir Avenue, Spruce Avenue, Amethyst Path and...read more
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Conifers: Surviving Winter with Grace - Join Horticultural Curator Dennis Collins on Wednesday, February 6th at 1PM for a walk to learn about some of the many conifers that make up an ancient and sometimes under-appreciated group of plants... learn more
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Mount Auburn Book Club
Thursday, February 14th at 10 AM
In a mystery joining past and present, a skeleton is found in a present-day backyard garden in Boston is traced to the 1830's. The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen (2007) includes a young Oliver Wendell Holmes as a medical student. Holmes is buried on Lime Ave at Mount Auburn.
On the second Thursday of each month, the Mount Auburn Book Club meets in Story Chapel to discuss a selected work related to one of the Cemetery's many facets. Coffee and tea are provided. FREE.
And we are now on Goodreads - take a look at the past and future book selections, become a member of the group and join the discussion!
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The Common Redpoll by Bob Stymeist
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Wildlife at Mount Auburn: The Common Redpoll
The Common Redpoll is an erratic winter visitor to our area, a few will show up every winter in small flocks and every now and then we get hundreds descending from the north and then showing up at our bird feeders.
This winter is rather a mild one as far as numbers of individuals are concerned, although enough to be on the lookout for them at Mount Auburn Cemetery...
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Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass (consecrated 1840).
Photo by Brian A. Sullivan
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Lunch-Time Lecture Series:
"Wanderings in Local Landscapes Inspired by Mount Auburn"
Thursday, February 21st at Noon
Join Brian A. Sullivan, former Mount Auburn Cemetery Archivist, and Sara Goldberg, Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collections Consultant, for an illustrated journey through select rural cemeteries in eastern Massachusetts that they have visited over the past five years.
Brian and Sara will share contemporary views, notable connections, and a growing collection of consecration addresses relating to local rural cemeteries that were inspired by Mount Auburn, the first cemetery of its kind in America.
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Longfellow Birthday Celebration
Saturday, February 23rd at 10AM
Join us for our annual Longfellow Birthday Celebration in Story Chapel. This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Longfellow's collection Tales of a Wayside Inn.
Stephen Burt (Harvard University) will present "Music Against Itself," a discussion of the book and, specifically, its segment "The Saga of King Olaf."
Cambridge Poet Populist Toni Bee will also present a musical/spoken word piece inspired by the book.The program will conclude with the traditional wreath-laying at the Longfellow family plot. Co-sponsored with the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site and Longfellow's Wayside Inn (Sudbury). FREE.
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Emily Binney Monument by Henry Dexter, illustration from "A Concise History of and Guide Through Mount Auburn"
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History Highlight: "Little Emily" Monument by Henry Dexter
One of the most prominent sculptors in Boston in the mid-19th century was Henry Dexter.
Portrait sculpture comprised most of Dexter's work, but he also executed funeral monuments.
His first, and most famous, of these projects was the monument to Emily Binney on Yarrow Path (Lot 681) at Mount Auburn Cemetery. "Little Emily" was the four-year-old daughter of Charles J. F. Binney, a wealthy Boston merchant. Emily died in 1839. Soon after, the commission for her memorial was given to Dexter who created a life-size marble portrait of her lying as if asleep...read more
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Beyond Our Gates: Events of Interest to the Community
Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science
Tuesday, February 5th at 7pm
First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Square
Biographer Christoph Irmscher examines the life of this controversial figure in its Victorian cultural context. What can we learn from this 19th century life?
Co-sponsored by the National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters, and the Cambridge Historical Society.
Watertown Community Gardens Musical Fundraiser
Sunday, March 3rd from 2 to 5pm
Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery
Join us Sunday, March 3rd at 2PM for an afternoon of music as we present songwriters Mark Simos and Oen Kennedy. All proceeds support Watertown Community Gardens.
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Think green.
Do not print this email and you will help to conserve valuable resources. Thank you!
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Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
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email: friends@mountauburn.org
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