A Walking Guide to Angels in Mount Auburn Cemetery and their Role in Consoling the Human Heart
January 2017
Markers: the Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies Issue XXIV (2007) Embodying Immortality: Angels in American Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850-1900 by Elisabeth L. Roark * It is easy to dismiss cemetery angels as simply another example of the Romantic effort to beautify death. While this was part of their appeal, angel monuments are far more complex in meaning and can act to reveal manifestations of popular Christian belief. *page 57 Williams Lot #1697 Spruce Avenue The earliest monuments erected in the new, landscaped cemeteries tended toward the neoclassical- geometric stones, shafts, columns, sarcophagi. *page 57 This monument is commemorative in function and represented an attempt to create a landscape of memory or history for the new nation. *page 66 The Williams monument celebrates the life of Joseph Watson 1792-1831, a purser in the US Navy. It was placed here by his sister, Elizabeth Watson Williams, in grateful remembrance. A cherub adorns the monument.
After 1850, however, sculptured figures increasingly populated the rural cemeteries, indicating a growing emphasis on consolation rather than commemoration, on the future of heaven, rather than on the past and history. *page 57 The angel monuments found in America’s rural cemeteries in the second half of the nineteenth century divide into eight basic types determined primarily by task‌. Each type is consolatory and didactic, intended both to comfort the bereaved and to convey messages to cemetery visitors instructing viewers about the fate of the human soul after death, the safekeeping of the remains and the inevitability of resurrection. *page 77
Types and Examples in Mount Auburn Cemetery SOUL BEARING ANGELS One of the guardian angel’s primary responsibilities was to carry the soul to heaven. Most soul-bearing angels in early rural cemeteries are represented in bas-relief due to the complexity of rendering one or more angels and a full bodied human soul ascending. *page 78 Jones Family Lot # 2188 Central Avenue On the central marble monument an angel lifts the child from the coffin as a cherub watches. With this memorial George Jones remembered his wife Anna who died at twenty-seven in 1853, and their daughter, Alice, who died at seven months in 1852. A small monument of a sleeping child on the left is dedicated to "Our Angel Boy.” Mr. Jones remarried and his young son who died at two in 1860 is remembered in this monument. Hurlbert Family Lot #135 Willow Avenue East Two angels bear a woman heavenward in this brownstone monument. The earliest burials here are Samuel Hurlbert who died at 35 in 1845 and his mother, Polly, who died at 69 in 1849. Also here are his wife, Sophia, who died at 68 in 1889 and her second husband at 42 in 1853; a daughter, Sarah who died at 35 in 1879, and a son who died at 52 in 1896. The artwork is from an image by the sculptor, Edward Brackett, 18181908, whose folio of drawings in 1844 states: "There are few ways in which Sculpture can better satisfy our wants, or more nearly touch our hearts, than in rearing monuments for the dead." Pettengill Lot #3502 Garden Avenue An angel carries a baby and helps the mother ascend to heaven. Sarah Pettengill died in childbirth at 36 in 1864. The egg-anddart, life-and-death, symbol is poignant. Sarah’s father and mother, Joshua and Hannah Kendall, are buried in the adjoining lot #3503. Sarah's husband, Samuel, remarried and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York in 1891. The monument is signed by the Graef firm of New York.
PRAYING ANGELS Brown Family Lot #787 Cypress Avenue Lucy C. Parker, granddaughter of William and Lucy Brown, died at age 9. She is remembered by this marble angel, gazing heavenward and rising from the earth with hands held in prayer. Lucy’s parents commissioned the monument from the New York firm of Casoni & Isola after Lucy’s death on December 20, 1877. The stone was placed in the Cemetery in May 1878. Donaldson Lot # 1267 Pilgrim Path A striking, earthy angel wearing a free flowing robe, her gown tucked up showing her knees, adorns this lot. Her hands in prayer she fulfills the intercessory role of the guardian angel. * page 82 The inscription honors Major General James Lowry Donaldson, Colonel and Assistant Quartermaster of the United States Army, 1814-1885, and his wife Harriett, 1812?-1894.
DECORATING AND GUARDING ANGELS Brown-Frothingham Lot # 1690 Sedge Path An angel with a wreath gazes downward focusing attention on the gravesites’ sacredness and fulfilling the guardian angels’ responsibility of watching over the grave. *page 86 This monument is for Mary Otis Frothingham who died 1863, aged 48, and Joanna S. Frothingham, 1869, at age 84. Dunbar Lot #1009 Fir Avenue An angel stands on clouds holding a garland of flowers. The angel’s sculpted flowers suggest the parallels drawn at this time between the cyclical nature of plant life and human birth, death and resurrection. * page 86 This monument is to the family of Thomas J. Dunbar, Mary K. aged 29, and daughter, Mary Elisabeth, aged 4. Both died Oct. 17, 1840 and were buried here in 1854.
POINTING ANGELS Holbrook Lot #2697 Central Avenue Stock angels were created by Italian stone carvers in both Italy and America who produced numerous copies that were sold by American monument companies…. Duplicates proliferated...*page 67 Holbrook is a stock angel. In this monument a tall angel points toward heaven, fulfilling the angel role as messenger and affirming that the deceased soul now resides in heaven. Five young Holbrook children were the first burials in this lot between 1860 and 1879. Coppenhagen Lot #3733 Sycamore Avenue This monument depicts an angel raising one hand toward heaven and holding a trumpet in another. It is dedicated to "My Beloved Daughter, Maria” by her mother. The face is Maria’s. Maria Frances Coppenhagen died at thirty in 1869. Her mother died shortly thereafter in 1871. This commissioned monument was created in Rome in 1874 by the renowned American sculptor, Martin Milmore.
RECORDING ANGEL Knox Family Lot 295 Poplar Avenue The recording angel appears to offer a warning. In the Bible, recording angels hold open the books for God to judge the dead by those things which were written in the books, according to their works.* page 92. A marble angel writes in the Book of Life in this Knox family monument. The angel is youthful and wears a short knee-length tunic. The family lot is that of Robert Knox (1770-1857). Knox was a naval officer who commanded a gunboat in the War of 1812 and who later worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard until he retired. Nickerson Lot # 2142 Sylvan Path This monument is a duplicate of the Knox monument.
TRUMPET ANGELS See Coppenhagen Lot #3733 Sycamore Avenue The trumpet angel reminds people that Judgment is at hand. *page 92 Trull Lot #1285 Pine Avenue The bas relief image is of a winged cherub blowing a horn. The trumpet angel functioned as embodiments of resurrection. *pg 92 This monument is noted in Victorian Cemetery Art, Dover, 1972. It celebrates John W. Trull who died April 12, 1867.
SWORD BEARING ANGELS Tebbetts Lot #731 Iris Path An angel with a sword stands atop the Tebbetts family monument. There are two angels with swords named in the Bible: Michael, believed to weigh souls to determine their worthiness, to battle demons over the fate of the soul and to escort the soul to heaven. *page 96; and Raphael.
CHILD ANGELS See Brown Family Lot #787 Cypress Avenue Lucy C. Parker. The child angel is not to be confused with cherubs or putti, who are represented nude or lightly draped…and wear simple shifts. Like their adult counterparts, they usually gaze, pray, record or hold flowers. *page 99
The World I live in by Mary Oliver I have refused to live locked in the orderly house of reasons and proofs; The world I live in and believe in is wider than that. And anyway. what’s wrong with Maybe? You wouldn’t believe what once or twice I have seen. I’ll just tell you this: only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one.
Location of Memorials
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Williams Jones Hulbert Pettengill Brown Donaldson Brown-Frothingham
8. Dunbar 9. Holbrook 10. Coppenhagen 11. Knox 12. Knickerson 13. Trull 14. Tebbetts
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We invite you to participate in the programs of the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery. Membership information is available at the Gatehouse information rack and the Office. Since its founding in 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery has retained its original purpose of being a natural setting for the commemoration of the dead and for the comfort and inspiration 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 birds both resident and migrant. Visitors come to study our national heritage by visiting the graves of noted Americans and enjoying the great variety of monuments and memorials. Mount Auburn Cemetery began the “rural” cemetery movement out of which grew America’s public parks. Its beauty and historic associations make it an internationally renowned landscape. Designated a National Historic Landmark, Mount Auburn remains an active, nonsectarian cemetery offering a wide variety of interment and memorialization options.
This walk was prepared by Rev. Rosemarie C. Smurzynski, docent. I am indebted to Meg Winslow, Curator of Historical Collections, Mount Auburn Cemetery for sharing with me the article, Markers: the Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies Issue XXIV (2007), Embodying Immortality: Angels in American Rural Garden Cemeteries, 1850-1900 by Elisabeth L. Roark. This walk is based on research in that article.
friends@mountauburn.org The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery is a nonprofit charitable trust promoting the appreciation and preservation of the cultural, historic and natural resources of America’s first garden cemetery, founded in 1831.
©Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery, 2017
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