Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn: Chapters of Poetry & Prose | Page 17

Journey through the
arden
of
G
raves:
G
M ount Auburn ’s 19 th - C e ntury G u i de book s
By Melissa Banta, Consulting Curator, Historical Collections, Mount Auburn Cemetery
In the preface to the 1860 Guide
through Mount Auburn: A Handbook
for Passengers over the Cambridge
Railroad, Levi Merriam Stevens
writes that his goal is: “to lead the
visitor through the most interest-
ing portions of the Cemetery, to
call attention to every thing on the
route worthy of observation, and
thus enable him to view Mount
Auburn as it is—as Nature, Art, and
Affection have made it.” In the early
years of Mount Auburn, sightseers,
both familiar and unfamiliar with
the Cemetery, were introduced to the pastoral landscape
through a series of guidebooks. The volumes proved
immensely popular, with numerous re-printings and
revised editions; some were reissued annually. The guides
took visitors of the time on delightfully detailed tours
of Mount Auburn. Today they provide historians, book
collectors, and those curious about Mount Auburn with
a wealth of information about the 19th-century rural
cemetery landscape.
Engravings by well-known artists,
such as James Smillie and William H.
Bartlett, fill the volumes, illustrating
monuments, tombs, and scenic vistas.
The guidebooks often contain maps,
lists of lots and proprietors, and
instructions for the purchase and
care of lots. The little volumes,
easily held in one’s hand, include
descriptions of well-known sites
around the Cemetery as well as
sentimental language in the form
of poetry, moral essays, funerary
verse, and selected epitaphs. Opening
to the title page of The Picturesque Pocket Companion
through Mount Auburn (1839) readers could draw inspiration
from an illustration of the Egyptian Revival Gateway and
accompanying verse: “Yes, lightly, softly move! There is a
power, a presence, in the woods; A viewless being, that,
with life and love, Informs these reverential solitudes.”
Together images and text served as a practical roadmap as
well as a philosophical and spiritual guide to the garden
of graves.
Winter 2013 | 15