Avenue( a tall Celtic Cross) was the design of Chicago architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, known as one of the founders of the American skyscraper; he also designed the Flatiron Building in New York City. Another surprise was that the Moulton monument on Vesper Avenue was designed by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson. Mount Auburn also boasts two examples of collaborative work between architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens: the Nevins monument and the Booth monument.
Other times, mysteries would present themselves. While looking at invoices for the Longfellow lot, it appeared that the large sarcophagus that dominates the lot may have been replaced in 1924( it was originally installed in 1884). However, after reaching out to officials at the Longfellow House in neighboring Cambridge, Meg and I determined that the replacement was never more than a proposal. These kinds of puzzles( or snares?) lurk everywhere and it is important to understand and accurately interpret the material so as not to introduce errors into the record.
I included some rarer forms such as the stupa monument on Story Road, the Kepes“ fejfa” monument posts on Oxalis Path, and the Mountfort monument on Willow Avenue( a hillside tomb composed of varied pyramidal forms). These distinctive monument forms add important texture to the overall feeling of the Cemetery.
In addition to the significant monuments, I included a representative sample of more ordinary monuments. I chose notable persons such as Julia Ward Howe and Dorothea Dix( both on Spruce Avenue) to document monuments of this type. These stones tend to be unadorned and simple, but also tasteful and elegant in their own way.
Part of my project involved investigating sculptors, architects, artists, and other makers. The Carew brothers( Joseph and Thomas) were sculptors well represented here at Mount Auburn. We knew that they emigrated from England and were of Irish extraction, but research revealed that Joseph had a short career in England before
David Russo leads a tour about the topography of Mount Auburn in 2011.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Record, Form B.
he left. While his training remains obscure, research did turn up two of Carew’ s early English commissions: a memorial tablet for Sir John Floyd and a sculpture of Dick Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London, as a boy. Further research revealed that, in America, Joseph Carew was an“ Associationist,” that is, a member of the famed Brook Farm( a utopian experiment in communal living) in West Roxbury, who sought to combine Transcendentalism with social reform. Associationist connections likely served him and his sculpting business well.
A few personal insights occurred to me during my research. For example, I realized that Washington Tower and the Bigelow Chapel are both“ follies”; that is, they are fanciful embellishments to the landscape that emphasize the visual and imaginative pleasures of variety and irregularity.
For this project, the research resources at Mount Auburn Cemetery helped immeasurably. In addition to the paper records in the Archives that include lot cards, correspondence, work orders, and trustee’ s minutes, the human resources were immensely valuable. The assistance, motivation, commentary, best efforts, and even connections provided by the Curator made my work infinitely easier and more fruitful.
Whoever coined the phrase“ the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” must have been thinking about a place like Mount Auburn. The bits and pieces that I have captured on the inventory forms together paint a picture of cultural and historical life. But it’ s the layers upon layers of varied meaning when combined that ultimately create the significance of Mount Auburn.
2017 Volume 1 | 9