Boston Flora

Tag: Mount Auburn

  • Sunday, December 5, 1:00 pm – New England Champions

    Join Mount Auburn Cemetery Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman on Sunday, December 5 at 1:00 pm for a walk through Mount Auburn, an arboretum of national importance, to view its numerous trees that have been measured as the largest specimens of their respective species found within New England.  Rain or shine.  Admission is $5 for Friends of Mount Auburn, $10 for non-members.  Mount Auburn Cemetery is located at 580 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, and more information may be found at www.mountauburn.org, or by calling 617-876-4405.  Photo below of Camperdown elm by Monkeyfilter.

  • Thursday, November 18, 12:00 noon – Darwin’s American Champion: Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, and The Debate over Evolution

    Following Darwin’s breakthrough on the theory of evolution in 1859, two of Harvard’s leading men of science squared off.  Biologist Louis Agassiz rejected evolution, keeping to his theory of multiple divine creations, while botanist Asa Gray (pictured below,) whose bicentennial is November 18, became Darwin’s chief champion in America.  Mount Auburn Cemetery Docent Robin Hazard Ray and Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman will discuss the  history of this conflict, and Gray’s research on the plants of eastern Asia that convinced him of Darwin’s theories, on Thursday, November 18, beginning at 12 noon.

    This program is part of Mount Auburn’s “Brown Bag Lunch Series.”  Bring your lunch and enjoy this lunch and learn opportunity.  During the fall and winter Mount Auburn staff and volunteers will present a series of free hour-long talks to shed light on the lives of those buried here.  All talks take place in Story Chapel.  Coffee and tea are provided, and the program is free.  Mount Auburn is located at 580 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, and for more information, log on to www.mountauburn.org, or call 617-607-1981.

  • Sunday, November 14, 1:00 pm – Monarchs of Mount Auburn

    Deeply rooted in our cultural history, the oak tree is often equated with strength and permanency.  Join Mount Auburn Visitor Services Assistant Jim Gorman for a walk to survey some of these aged monarchs (some of them even pre-date Mount Auburn) and recount oak facts and lore.  This rain or shine event will take place Sunday, November 14 beginning at 1:00 pm.  Admission is $5 for Mt. Auburn members, $10 for non-members.  Mount Auburn Cemetery is located at 580 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, and for more information you may call 617-607-1981. Picture below courtesy of Vulgare.

  • Thursday, October 21, 9:30 am – Bulb Planting at Mount Auburn

    Get your hands in the soil alongside Mount Auburn Cemetery’s gardening staff during Mount Auburn’s annual fall bulb planting on Thursday, October 21 at 9:30 am.  Bulbs planted in the Cemetery each fall add blooms to Mount Auburn’s early spring season.  Bring your work gloves and trowels along with lots of energy and enthusiasm. Dress for garden work.  Rain date: Friday, October 22.  For information, please call 617-607-1981. Weather related updates: 617-607-1983.  For directions log on to www.mountauburn.org.

  • Sunday, June 6, 2:00 pm – America’s Arboreal Bequest

    Take a walking tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery on Sunday, June 6, beginning at 2 pm, with Jim Gorman, a Lecturer at the Boston Architectural College and a Volunteer Docent at Mount Auburn. From the 1530’s onward, explorers and plant collectors reveled in the rich botanical diversity found in the newly discovered United States. Join Jim and help examine a sampling of trees and shrubs once craved for scientific, economic, ornamental and medicinal uses and listen as he recalls some illustrious plant collectors. $5 members; $10 non-members.  For more information, log on to www.mountauburn.org.  The image below may depict the Japanese maples planted at the Boston Public Library main branch courtyard and later moved to Mount Auburn.

    http://www.frogsonice.com/photos/may-mt-auburn/japanese-maple.jpg

  • Thursday, April 15, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Mount Auburn Ecological Tree Care

    Enjoy a private Ecological Landscaping Association Eco-Tour of the beautiful 175 acre landscape of Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge on Thursday, April 15, beginning at 10 am.  Mount Auburn is one of the most historic landscapes in America and is on the leading edge of sustainable and environmentally sound land care practices.  This event features the more than 5,000 trees that are under Mount Auburn’s ecological tree care program.  $10 for ELA members, $15 for non members.  Paul Walker will lead the tour, and you may register on line at  www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1006114, or call 617-436-5838.  You may also email ela.info@comcast.net.

    http://www.gardenvisit.com/assets/madge/mount_auburn_garden_cambridge/600x/mount_auburn_garden_cambridge_600x.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21, 1:30 pm – American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted through the Lens

    The second of the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Landscape Visions Lecture Series will take place Saturday, November 21, in the Tapestry Room of the Museum, beginning at 1:30 pm.  Alan Ward, landscape architect and principal, Sasaki Associates, will present American Rural Cemeteries: Interpreted Through the Lens. Boston has two iconic garden cemeteries: Mount Auburn and Forest Hills. The Rural Cemetery Movement in America began with the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1831, and spread from there across the country. Often the first designed public landscapes in American communities, rural cemeteries represent major shifts in cemetery landscape concept and form, and continue to resonate with the modern sensibilities they helped shape. Tickets: $15 General Public; $12 Seniors; $5 Members; FREE for Students.  To purchase tickets, log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-566-1401. Image: Halcyon Lake in spring, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Alan Ward.The Landscape Visions Lecture Series is made possible by a bequest from Jeanne Muller Ryan

    Mt Auburn Cemetery Alan Ward lecture

  • Saturday, September 19, 2:00 – 3:30 pm – Modest Spaces: Mount Auburn’s Beautiful Public Lots

    Join Dee Morris, Social Historian, on a walking tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 19, from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm.  As Mount Auburn developed, it set aside four public lots containing single graves. Victorians of  modest means were then able to afford a final resting place in pleasant proximity to generous family lots. Named after Saints, these lots embraced such notables as Peter Banner, the architect of Boston’s Park St Church, Thomas Grundy, a hardworking brass finisher from Stoneham, and the genteel Austin sisters of Garden Street in Cambridge.  Join Dee on this late summer stroll to learn more about some of the fascinating individuals buried in these public lots. Meet at the Entrance Gate.  $5 charge for Friends of Mount Auburn, $10 for non-members.  For more information, you may call 617-547-7105, or email friends@mountauburn.org. You may register in advance at www.mountauburn.org by clicking on to Calendar of Events.