Humans have been using inhumation (i.e. burials) for disposing of their dead for many thousands of years. In 1831, New England’s most prominent botanist, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, came up with an idea to combine horticulture and graveyards. The result was the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Dr. Bigelow, who was also a physician and a poet, was concerned about the public health hazards of Boston’s church graveyards. As a solution, he came up with an idea for a new kind of graveyard, one not associated with a church. By 1825, he had financial backing for his novel idea and had begun searching for land. A 72-acre parcel along the Charles River attracted his attention. The parcel was wooded with varied vegetation. There were hills, paths, and streams. Rising to 125 feet above the river, there was a majestic view of Cambridge, Harvard, and Boston.
To create a new landscape for the dead, Dr. Bigelow turned to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Society members would be allowed to landscape the 72 acres for the benefit of themselves, the living, and the dead.
By August 1831, one hundred wealthy Bostonians had contributed money and purchased themselves final resting places in a well-tended garden. The grounds would be manicured and immaculately maintained by a permanent staff. Furthermore, the grounds would be fenced off from vandals, medical students, and grave robbers.
Everyone involved participated in the initial naming of all of the features, both natural and human-made. With this, America’s first garden cemetery was born. In September 1831, ground was broken and the new cemetery opened. Joseph Story, the first president of the Mount Auburn Association, dedicated the cemetery:
“Our cemeteries may be made subservient to some of the highest purposes of religion and human dignity. They may preach lessons, to which none may refuse to listen, and which all that live must hear.”
Since all of those who had initially reserved their burial plots were still alive, the first burial did not take place until nine months after the cemetery had opened. The first burial was the child of a Boston family.
Mount Auburn was not just for rich people: while the wealthy paid cash for their plots, poorer people were allowed to barter. For example, blacksmiths created ornate wrought-iron gates for the entrances in exchange for their burial plots. For $60 a family could purchase a plot measuring 15 feet by 20 feet which would accommodate four people.
The public was impressed with the new facility and soon some people ordered the exhumation of their relatives from the church graveyards and had them reinterred in Mount Auburn.
The New England Magazine reviewed the cemetery, emphasizing that it enabled people to view death as the natural and fitting end to life, and concluded:
“The circle of creation and destruction is eternal.”
In addition to providing a park-like final resting place for the dead, Mount Auburn also saw itself as an educational institution. The monuments of marble and bronze helped to inspire sculpture in America. Mount Auburn Cemetery has a Gothic chapel, a baroque tower, and an Egyptian entranceway.
With regard to inspiration from Egypt, people often requested the obelisk and the sphinx as gravestones. In answering the question about why the focus on Egypt, one commentator wrote:
“It is the architecture of the grave. Imposing. Mysterious. Particularly adapted to the abode of the dead.”
Mount Auburn was also a place for the living and throngs of people came in for outings, walks, and a quiet lunch. There were, of course, some rules for the living: no picking of flowers; no indecent behavior; horse-drawn carriages could go no faster than a solemn walk.
Dr. Jacob Bigelow graduated from Harvard in 1806 and from the University of Pennsylvania medical school in 1810. He taught medicine and botany at Harvard. When he died in 1879 he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Mount Auburn Cemetery inspired a number of other cemeteries, including Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia, 1836), Mt. Hope Cemetery (Rochester, New York, 1838), and Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, 1838).
The Mount Auburn Cemetery was also associated with an interesting political event. In 1852, the Democrats held their presidential nominating convention in Boston. There was a deadlock among the three presidential candidates—James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, and Stephen A. Douglas—and Franklin Pierce was selected as a compromise choice. However, Pierce was not present at the convention and runners were sent out to find him. Pierce, who would be elected president, was found in the Mount Auburn Cemetery seated under a shade tree beside an Egyptian sepulcher.