About Melissa Banta
Consulting Curator, Historical Collections & ArchivesPosts
Washington Tower: Landmark, Observatory, and Cenotaph
Above image: Washington Tower, Arthur Cushman Haskell, 1937. In 1831, the year Mount Auburn was established, its founders “proposed to erect on the summit of Mount Auburn, a Tower, after some classic model, of sufficient height to rise above the … Continue reading
Cornelia Wells Walter: Author of Mount Auburn Illustrated, 1847
Caption for above image: Cornelia Walter (Mrs. William B. Richards), oil on canvas by Thomas Ball, ca. 1850. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cornelia Wells Walter (1813-1898), the author of one of Mount Auburn’s earliest guidebooks Mount Auburn … Continue reading
Unfolding Views of Mount Auburn: Nineteenth-Century Souvenir Books
Among the many treasures in Mount Auburn’s Historical Collections & Archives are souvenir albums dating to the 1880s. Picturesque views of the Cemetery magically fan out from inside the accordion books. The colorful album covers, with tooled leather bindings and … Continue reading
ETHEREAL BEAUTY: A HISTORY OF BIGELOW CHAPEL
One of the striking features you see when entering Mount Auburn is a Gothic chapel on a hill. Bigelow Chapel was named after its designer Jacob Bigelow, a principal founder and second president of the Cemetery. While the building has … Continue reading