Jeff Meller
11 Dec 13
5 minutes recording time; 737 words
1. The Cemetery
In 1831 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society purchased 72
acres of woodland situated in Watertown and Cambridge to create of a “rural cemetery”
and experimental garden. The idea was to allow visitors to escape the
hubbub of Boston by traveling all the way to Cambridge.
By “rural”
they meant a “garden cemetery," that is a
rolling landscaped terrain, as distinct from the blandness of church graveyards set with classical monuments.
Today Mount Auburn Cemetery is
important both for this historical role and for its role as an arboretum. The cemetery has 1500 trees of a wide
variety of species and ages. When a landscape designer is planning a new
project and she wants to see what a 60-year-old dogwood will look like, she can
come here and see one at 20, 50 and 100-years of age.
Among the 93,000 residents, there
are many illustrious and unsung “proprietors,” as they are called.
2. Nathaniel Bowditch
One of my favorites is Nathaniel Bowditch, who lived from 1773
–1838. He was an early American mathematician and often is credited as the founder of
modern maritime navigation. His book, The New American Practical Navigator, was first
published in 1802 and it is said to be still carried on board every
commissioned U.S. Naval vessel, though
this may be an urban legend.
Bowditch was self-educated. At the
age of he had to leave school to work in his father's
cooperage, making wooden
barrels, in Salem, Massachusetts. At 12 he was
indentured for nine years as a bookkeeping apprentice. But he taught himself algebra, calculus, Latin and French.
In 1795, Bowditch went to sea on the
first of four voyages as a ship's clerk. His fifth voyage was as master and part owner of a ship.
Following that voyage, he returned
to Salem in 1803 to resume his mathematical studies and enter the insurance
business. In 1804, Bowditch became America's first insurance actuary. An actuary calculates mathematically the
probability of loss.
When Bowditch moved from Salem to
Boston about 1800 the move involved the transfer of his library of more than
2,500 books.
3. Harriot Hunt,
(Poplar Avenue, Lot 2630)
This statue of Hygeia was commissioned in
1870 by Dr. Harriot Hunt for her grave. Dr. Harriot Hunt helped design the
statue, the Greek
Goddess of Health and Hygiene. It was executed by Edmonia Lewis. Both Harroti
Hunt and Edmonia Lewis were African-American women.
Dr. Hunt was one of the first female
physicians in Boston. In 1853 she received an honorary medical degree from the
Female Medical College of Philadelphia. She had twice been refused admission to
Harvard Medical School. She practiced in Boston for 40 years.
Edmonia Lewis was the first non-white man
or woman to receive international recognition as a sculptor. Her father
was African-American. Her mother was of Chippewa descent.
Previously Edmonia Lewis had moved from New
York to Boston in the 1860s. In 1865 she opened a studio on via Canova in Rome.
After she settled in Europe she had an international career in Italy, France
and England. At the time of the Hunt commission, Lewis was the only black
professional artist living and working in Rome.
4. Anson
Burlingame (Spruce Avenue, Lot 4008)
Anson Burlingame lived from 1820 –
1870. He was a lawyer and opponent of slavery. Burlingame helped to found the
Republican Party, which was the anti-slavery party, in Massachusetts.
Burlingame achieved fames in 1856. In
that year Massachusetts’s Senator Charles Sumner made a speech against slavery in
the Senate. In that speech he ridiculed a pro-slavery senator, Andrew Butler.
In retaliation Butler’s nephew attacked Sumner with a cane. Burlingame
challenged the assailant to a duel. Dueling was illegal in the United States so
Burlingame chose as the location the United States Navy Yard on the Canadian
side of Niagara Falls. Burlingame chose rifles as the weapon. Perhaps because
of Burlingame’s reputation as a marksman, Brooks declined to appear. He cited
his inability to travel safely through “hostile country,” that is, “the North.”
After Abraham Lincoln was elected
President he appointed Burlingame as ambassador to China. The Chinese in turn
appointed him their minister to the major European countries. While on that
mission in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he contracted pneumonia and died. His body
was shipped all the way back to Mt Auburn cemetery for burial.
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