July24: Mt. Auburn Cemetery and Harvard University

Muggy day today, and even hot, which Marthe and I noticed as we strode around Mt. Auburn Cemetery.  When we finally returned to the car after our saunter through the garden park of a cemetery, we noticed that the temperature recorded was 105, which was probably so because the car had been sitting in the direct sun for a while, but which was nevertheless impressive!

Let’s back up!  After breakfast, Josh went to work and Marthe and I left for Mt. Auburn Cemetery, within the city limits of Cambridge, itself a suburb of Boston.  Since its founding in 1831, Mount Auburn has retained its original purpose of being a natural setting for the commemoration of the bereaved and the general public.  Its grounds offer a place for reflection and for observation of nature—trees, shrubs, flowering plants, ponds, gentle hills, and both resident and migratory birds.  There are graves of noted Americans and a great variety of monuments and memorials.  Mount Auburn Cemetery began the rural cemetery movement out of which grew America’s public parks.  It is a National Historic Landmark and remains an active, non-sectarian cemetery offering a wide variety of interment and memorialization options.  

Its gateway stands at the ceremonial entrance and is in the Egyptian Revival style. The Egyptian theme is also carried on in the Sphinx, commemorating the preservation of the Union and the destruction of African slavery.  Story Chapel, built in 1896-98, is used for memorial services.  The Asa Gray Garden, named after a botanist, is an ornamental garden and features many interesting tree plantings and a fountain.  The Washington Tower, standing at the highest point in the Cemetery, offers incredible views of the city of Boston.  And then there are several lots enclosed with cast-iron fences, which were once used in about half the lots of the cemetery, but which are now down to about 60.  These remaining symbols of a bygone age are now given special attention and protective treatment. And finally, there is Bigelow Chapel, a Gothic Revival Chapel that is now being restored and which will feature a state-of-the-art crematorium when it opens this fall.  It is not open to the public at this point in time, so we only saw its tall towers under scaffolding.  As its stained glass windows were imported from Scotland, I am looking forward to seeing the chapel in all its newfound glory when I next visit this truly peaceful cemetery, away from and yet close to the campus of Harvard University, where we were headed next.  

Students were everywhere once we got to campus, but we had no trouble finding a parking place close to our next destination.  The Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums have been united in a state-of-the-art facility designed by Renzo Piano, who also designed the new wing of the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.  The building on the Harvard University campus provides spaces for research, teaching, and learning.  Collections galleries feature works from ancient times to the present, and from the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean, and West and East Asia.  The University Galleries are programmed for Harvard faculty to support their coursework and are also a site for curatorial experimentation.  Special Exhibitions Galleries present important new research on artists and artistic practice.  Two public entrances open into the Calderwood Courtyard, and it is there that you gain a first glimpse of the collections, tantalizingly displayed beyond the open design of the museum.

We purchased our tickets and then had a bite to eat (sandwich and salad).  After that we separated, Marthe heading off to the Fogg Museum and then to a 3:30-5:30 p.m.appointment on the Feldenkrais Method, while I stayed behind and viewed the works of art to be found in the Busch-Reisinger and Fogg Museums.  Photos of some of my favorite pieces are included in the July 24 FB blog/photo compilation:  works by Franz Marc, Kaethe Kollwitz, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Maddox Ford, Thomas Eakins, Tilman Riemenschneider, Rembrandt, Charles Wilson Peale, John Singleton Copley, Jacques-Louis David, Daumier, Gustave Moreau, and Richard Avedon, who had photographed the iconic Beatles in some of the best photographs I have ever seen of that fabulous foursome!  

As the museum closed at 5:00, I went to a nearby Starbucks to have some tea and then edit my photographs—it is a tough thing to go from 120 to 40 photos, but I did whittle things down to what I consider my best for the day.  Marthe came by at about 5:45, and we motored back to Hamilton in good time—slow going in Cambridge, but eventually we made up for lost time.  Arrived home to a complete meal prepared by Josh—lamb patties with herbs, mushrooms, spinach, and a fine red wine to accompany it.  After that, we all watched a Jean Renoir documentary on You Tube.  Now the others have retired for the night, while I finish this blog.  

One major aside:  Alexandra V called me to let me know that she had aced a very important computer exam, and that she, a person from Australia, and one from Finland were the only ones who had done so thus far!  Very proud of her for having accomplished such a prodigious feat!  That’s my girl!  With best wishes, SV