Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends A Landscape of Remembrance and Reflection | Page 19

sweet auburn | 2020 volume i
of Whitman. John Jay Chapman wrote that the Brimmer
household “was greatly warmed and caused to glow by [their]
presence.”
When Gemma died on May 26, 1890, Whitman wrote, “She
fought so long, my little Gemma, and this morning she went
forth in the sunrise.” For Gemma’s memorial (Lot 2424 Jasmine
Path, pictured center), Whitman
designed something like a stained
glass window in marble: a seven-foot,
finely proportioned slab depicting the
Lamb of God below a cross fleury, and
a border in Italian that translates “You
are far from steep pathways, you are far
from art; Now you see the sun shining
before you” (Dante).
Nearby is a small stone,
also designed by Whitman and
unfortunately greatly eroded, that
marks the grave of Gemma’s little
niece Minna, named for Gemma’s
older sister. Her parents were Herbert
Timmins, Gemma and Minna’s
brother, and his wife Catherine
Elizabeth Prescott. Little Minna lived
barely six months; her stone reads,
“Of such are the kingdom of heaven.”
The lettering and Roman numerals
of the dates are divided by a line of
intertwined flowers, and the last line is
bracketed by more flowers.
After the death of Whitman’s
friend Josephine Augusta (Peabody)
Prescott—mother of Catherine
Elizabeth Prescott (little Minna’s
mother) and of Edith Prescott,
who married Roger Wolcott (Governor of Massachusetts,
1896–1899)—Whitman designed a number of gravestones for
the Prescott Lot. They are all made of “Iowa marble,” which
unfortunately has degraded over time.
One of the finest examples of Whitman’s funerary
monuments, and one of the most personal, can be found in
Lot 4543 Oriole Path. In December 1889, the Evans & Tombs
Company delivered three “tablets” marking the graves of two
of Whitman’s siblings, who died in childhood, and her father’s
youngest sister, Sarah Adams Wyman, who died in 1841 at
the age of sixteen. These three had been reinterred in 1880
alongside Whitman’s father, William White Wyman, who died
two years earlier. The children’s stones are dark and rough,
and bear no decoration beyond their names and dates, but
the young aunt’s marker, created out of a soft, rose-colored
stone, is decorated with a central cross flanked by massed
leaves, above beautifully calligraphic lettering, including a line
from Proverbs: “They that seek me early shall find me.” The
attention given to the design and choice of stone suggest that
this memorial had great personal significance, and supports
the notion that Mrs. Whitman, who was born the year after
her aunt’s death, may have been named
for her.
A mystery is raised here. Whitman’s
parents—William Wyman and
Sarah Amanda Treat Wyman—were
interred in this lot in 1878 and 1885,
but their daughter never created or
commissioned monuments for them.
Nor did she choose to be buried with
them, although the lot plan shows
ample space for her and other family
members. We will probably never know
why.
Sarah Whitman’s own gravestone,
and those of her husband and brother,
bear none of the artistry and little of the
distinctive lettering that define so much
of her work (Lot 6084 Indian Ridge
Path). Her own marker bears no name,
only a cross and the words “Sursum
corda” (Lift up your hearts). The graves
are tucked into a corner along the
Indian Ridge Path, far from her family
but just across the path from her close
friend Martin Brimmer.
In October of 1889 Brimmer
delivered an address upon the opening
of the Farnsworth Art School at
Wellesley College, which was published
by Houghton, Mifflin with paper covers and an initial letter
designed by Mrs. Whitman. He concluded his address with
these words:
“[if] I were to sum up in a word the most fruitful lesson
of the past, it would be, Sursum corda! Hold high your
hearts. Keep high your aims. Give of your best to the art
you cherish, remembering its highest purposes, to reveal
the secrets of nature and the aspirations of man,
to interpret God’s work to the world.”
Sarah Wyman Whitman, who gave of her best to the art she
cherished, directed that these words be inscribed on her grave.
She felt nothing else was necessary.
To see more images visit: https://mountauburn.org/mountauburn-monuments-designed-by-sarah-wyman-whitman/
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