Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Mosaic of American Culture | Page 8

interred at Mount Auburn, is a testament to many people’s
desire to honor loved ones in a place of beauty and inspira-
tion. We are currently learning about many people not
buried at Mount Auburn but commemorated here through
our annual spring Monument Inscription Workshops.
Caroline Frances Orne and Clara Endicott Sears both
had a talent for writing and safeguarded the history of
different periods for future generations.
Immortalizing Mount Auburn:
Caroline Frances Orne (1821-1905),
Librarian and Poet
Lot #2422, Mountain Ave
Caroline Frances Orne grew up
in Cambridge. She and the poet
James Russell Lowell (Lot #323,
Fountain Ave) were childhood
playmates. As a little girl, she
explored the hills, ponds, and
woods of the land that eventually
became the Cemetery. She later
wrote a poem, nearly 100 pages
long, “Sweet Auburn and Mount
Auburn,” celebrating the site
before and after its consecration.
Cambridge Public Library
Photo: Bob Coe
In 1858, Caroline Orne became
the first librarian of Cambridge’s
first public library. She expanded its collection from 1,400
books to 7,000 and increased the hours of operation.
Following her death in 1905, Orne was buried in her
family’s lot at Mount Auburn. The Orne lot, situated on the
Cemetery’s highest hill, is one of the spots she had recalled
in her poem:
“Where the green hills, rising abrupt and steep,
Guard that calm dell where peaceful waters sleep…”
Ahead of Her Time: Clara Endicott Sears
(1863-1960), Early Preservationist
Lot #1847, Lupine Path
Clara Endicott Sears—the descendant of two colonial gov-
ernors, John Endicott and John Winthrop—was renowned
for her beauty and intelligence throughout upper-crust
Boston. She made a pact with her cousins Mary Endicott
and Fanny Mason (Lot #3844, Fountain Ave) to remain
single, fearful of the restrictions of Victorian marriage.
In 1910 she bought land in Harvard, Mass., and designed
a spacious home she called “Pergolas,” after the Italian
columns she imported for its lush, extensive gardens.
Discovering that the adjoining property was the site of
educator/essayist Bronson Alcott’s failed mid-19th century
commune, she bought the land, founded the Fruitlands
6 | Sweet Auburn
Museum, and wrote
Bronson Alcott’s Fruit-
lands, published in 1915.
She later grew
intrigued by a nearby
Shaker village, wrote
a book on its history,
and moved its most
important building to
Fruitlands, thus creat-
ing the first Shaker
museum in the world.
Later, she helped
establish the American
Indian Museum in
New York.
Appropriate given
her interest in history,
Clara Endicott Sears, Published courtesy
Sears’ monument on
of the Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
Lupine Path is a slate
Neo-colonial head-
stone, a more contemporary celebration of the headstones
prevalent in historic graveyards.
Sarah Wyman Whitman and Charles Dana Gibson
were more than artists, but thoughtful creators
whose aesthetic values still live on.
A Renaissance Woman:
Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904),
Artist, Teacher, and Educational Philanthropist
Lot #6084, Indian Ridge Path
Sarah Wyman Whitman was a
Renaissance woman in the 19th
century: a painter, author, teacher,
poet, and the designer of every-
thing from book covers to interiors
to stained glass windows. She
persistently advocated that art
was an essential, not expendable,
component of all of our lives. In
fact, Whitman made herself into
a work of art, dressing in vibrant,
unconventional colors and adding
feathers and unique gemstones to
accentuate her wardrobe.
She married Henry Whitman, a
wool merchant, in 1886. Two years
later, she began studying in the
Boston studio of the famous artist,
William Morris Hunt. She soon
became the first female artist to
design book covers for the Boston