Cemetery reaches 100,000 interments
In March 2017, Mount Auburn Cemetery reached the 100,000 interment milestone.
In 1993 the Cemetery published a ground-breaking Master Plan to shape how the Cemetery was managed and developed. In it was a startling revelation “If the Cemetery continues to rely primarily on its past practices of developing traditional, in-ground body burial space, it has less than eight years of land left before it ceases to be an active cemetery.” But through creative development of new areas and an increase in the popularity of cremation, Mount Auburn has surpassed that projected date of capacity and continues to have room for new interments. Over the past 5 years the Cemetery averaged 475 burials per year, evenly split between casket burials and cremation burials, and through strategic planning Mount Auburn will be an active Cemetery for many years to come.
First Corps of Cadets Memorial Dedicated
Greg Heins, 2014
On November 16, 1867, the First Corps of Cadets memorial was dedicated. At the ceremony Governor Alexander Bullock remarked, “There is something not altogether sorrowful in our assembling upon these sacred grounds…to pay the offering of our hearts to the memory of these citizens and soldiers whose names are sculpted here. For this is a fitting place for a soldier’s rest.” (“Cadet Memorial Monument,” Boston Daily Advertiser, November 18, 1867) (more…)
Celebrating the Completed Conservation of Martin Milmore’s Coppenhagen Monument
by Meg L. Winslow and Melissa Banta
In 2013, Mount Auburn was honored to be the first cemetery ever awarded a Museums for America collections stewardship grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant provided conservation treatment proposals for thirty of the Cemetery’s most significant monuments, and since that time, the Friends of Mount Auburn has been working hard to raise funds to preserve those monuments most urgently in need of treatment. To date, an impressive list of projects has been completed by Daedalus Art Conservators of Watertown working with Mount Auburn’s preservation and curatorial staff: Conservation of the Binney Monument was completed in 2014, the Magoun Monument in 2015, and the Channing Monument in 2017. (more…)
Fall at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery attracts over 200,000 visitors per year, and they visit for many different reasons. Families and friends come to pay tribute to loved ones every day, as we continue to do about 500 new burials per year. Others come to enjoy the beautiful landscape, the magnificent trees, the birds and other wildlife, or the amazing collection of funerary art and architecture. Many attend our educational programs and tours, and still others come to study history and learn about the notable residents of Mount Auburn. Some do all of the above.
It is the diverse collection of over 5,000 spectacular trees that no doubt attracts many people to the Cemetery. Nevertheless, it is the combination of the topography, the plants, the wildlife and the monuments and other built structures that make Mount Auburn the unique landscape and National Historic Landmark that it is.