Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn The Art of Memory: Monuments Through Time | Page 19

People and Happenings Rev. Stephen Kendrick, Senior Minister of First Church in Boston with Bree Harvey, Vice President of Cemetery & Visitor Services at Mount Auburn Cemetery Council of Visitors, Bigelow Chapel Lawn Laura A. Johnson, President of Mass Audubon (1999-2012), Susan W. Paine, Founding mem- ber, Council of Visitors and Caroline Mortimer, Co-chair, Council of Visitors C ouncil of V isitors To assist Mount Auburn in defining its strategic direction and accomplishing its mission, we have expanded our inner circle with a newly created Council of Visitors, comprised of local leaders, friends, and supporters in areas of horticulture, historic preservation, educational programming, and landscape enhancement. The group’s inaugural meeting on November 15, 2012, was attended by 125 people and included an overview of Mount Auburn as well as in-depth sessions about this National Historic Landmark’s unique cultural, historic, and natural resources. Julie Moir Messervy, a landscape designer, author, lecturer, and creator of Mount On February 11, 2013, visitors braved the elements to join us in Story Chapel to celebrate the new African American Heritage Trail, a guidebook focused on the legacies of seventeen notable African Americans buried at Mount Auburn. The event also honored the bicentennial of the birth of Harriet Jacobs, a freedom- seeker, abolitionist, and author. The speakers included: Dr. Sydney Nathans, author of To Free a Family, The Journey of Mary Walker; Rev. Stephen Kendrick, author of Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America; and Melissa Banta, author of the Heritage Trail and a Consulting Curator in Historical Collections. This project was made possible by the generous contributions of: The 1772 Foundation, Mass Humanities, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Cambridge Arts Council and the Watertown Cultural Council, both local agencies that are sup- ported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as well as individual contributions. The Heritage Trail guidebook is available in our Visitors Cen- ter, on our website, and as a Mobile Tour at: http://mountauburn. toursphere.com. Auburn’s Spruce Knoll, delivered the keynote, which was followed by a reception. The 2013 meeting will be held on Thursday, September 26. We are pleased that our keynote speaker will be Aaron Sachs, professor of history at Cornell University and author of Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Envi- ronmental Tradition. Mount Auburn’s President Dave Barnett with Landscape Designer, Julie Moir Messervy L ead S ymposium On June 6th the Pre se rvation De partme nt organized and hosted a free symposium on the use of lead as a setting and pointing material in the monument trade. Lead has a long history as a construction material and was traditionally a widely available, durable and versatile choice for filling joints between the stones that comprise a monument or mausoleum. Its use declined during the 20th century due to the introduction of new materials and, more recently, to concerns over health effects when handling the metal. In the symposium we reviewed safe handling, and demon- strated how the metal is used in the conservation of historic headstones and monuments. The symposium was supported by a grant from the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, and drew a broad range of participants from around the region interested in historic preservation. For the digital version of the Heritage Trail, visit us online at: www.mountauburn.org/african-american-trail. Fall 2013 | 17