Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Connecting the Present with the Past | Page 8

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Engraving by James Smillie, 1847.
The Samuel
Appleton
Monument:
Beautiful to Behold
By Meg L. Winslow
Curator of Historical Collections
6
e are delighted to announce the
completed conservation of the
Samuel Appleton Monument,
located in the heart of the Cemetery in Lot
464 Woodbine Path. One of Mount Auburn’s
thirty most significant monuments, the
miniature marble temple sits on the crest of
Cedar Hill framed by dark evergreens. From a
distance, the 12-by-6-foot memorial appears
much larger than its actual proportions, and
the picturesque setting recalls a classical
scene in a painting. A tiny door with
lions’ heads is carved into the front of the
memorial, and low-relief pilasters positioned
along the exterior walls provide impressive
architectural ornament. Above the door, the
pediment holds a large winged hourglass
ringed with a snake eating its tail, an
ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and
eternity. The inscription reads: “SAMUEL
APPLETON. DIED JULY 12, 1853. AGED 87
YEARS.” An ancient sepulchral lamp, symbol
of wisdom and eternity, tops the roof.
To obtain first choice for his lot location
within Mount Auburn, Boston merchant and
philanthropist Samuel Appleton (1766–1853)
paid a premium of $100 at an auction held in
November 1831. His choice was Cedar Hill,
one of the seven hills of Mount Auburn. In
1834, Appleton, who had toured the classical
sites of Europe, purchased the Grecian-style
ornamental temple of Italian marble and
had it shipped to Mount Auburn. On July
13, 1834, Appleton’s brother Nathan wrote
to his son that “Uncle Sam’s monumental
temple” had arrived by the brig Byron “and
is very beautiful.” The press recorded it as
the most expensive funerary monument at
Mount Auburn and the “richest gem in the
whole collection…which satisfies the eye, the
imagination, and the taste” (August 15,1838,
Columbian Centinel [Boston]).
The richly-embellished Appleton
Monument is considered one of the most
important early monuments at Mount
Auburn. As part of an initiative to document
and research the Cemetery’s significant
monument collection, the Appleton
Monument was inspected in 2014 by
conservators at Daedalus, Inc., and identified
as high priority for treatment.