Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn An Oasis for Birds and Birders | Page 17

Highlight from our Historical Collections:
Bringing to light the Photographic Collections at Mount Auburn
By Melissa Banta, Program Officer for Photographs at Harvard University Library, Weissman Preservation Center;
Historical Collections Consultant at Mount Auburn
Curator of Historical Collections Meg Winslow
has spearheaded an initiative to bring to light and encourage
the use of Mount Auburn’s extensive photograph col-
lections. Accumulated for more than a century and a
half and currently housed in the Cemetery’s Historical
Collections Department, the photograph holdings offer
multiple perspectives of Mount Auburn’s varied and
changing landscape and the history of the rural cemetery
movement. The collection spans the history of the medium
from stereo views to digital images taken by noted
photographers, staff, and associates. The project included
completing a detailed inventory and description of the
holdings, cataloguing images into the collections database,
and taking critical steps to preserve the photographs. Re-
searchers will be fascinated to find evocative scenes of the
two chapels, monuments, and mausolea representing the
funerary artwork of celebrated 19th- and 20th-century
architects and artists; seasonal views of trees, horticulture,
and landscape design; and intriguing documentary shots
revealing the inner workings of the Cemetery. “I can’t
say how thrilled I am that we have accomplished this
exciting project,” Winslow notes. “As a result we have
created another portal into the extraordinary-and still
unplumbed-visual history of Mount Auburn.”
See a gallery of images and learn more about our Historical
Collections at:
www.mountauburn.org/photograph-collections
Mount Auburn’s Historical Collections includes several stereo views of
the Swan House and swans at Auburn Lake (above, top).
Spring/Summer 2012 | 15