Grave of a Famous Person: Julia Ward Howe - Watertown, MA

Julia Ward Howe

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.178 W 071° 08.828

Short Description: 

The grave of poet, author, abolitionist, and women's rights activist Julia Ward Howe is located along Spruce Avenue opposite Pyrola Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

A simple stone marker facing Spruce Avenue marks the grave of Julia Ward Howe. The stone is inscribed:

JULIA WARD HOWE

Daughter of

SAMUEL WARD

Wife of 

SAMUEL GRIDLEY HOWE

Born May 27, 1819

Died October 10, 1910

Julia Ward was born on May 27, 1819 in New York City. She was educated by private tutors and in schools for young ladies until she was sixteen. She married physician and social reformer Gamuel Gridley Howe in 1843. Together the couple had six children.

She wrote essays on Goethe, Schiller and Lamartine which were published in the New York Review and Theological Review. She is most famous for writing the lyrics the the Union Civil War anthem The Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1861. After the War she became an activist for pacifism and women's suffrage. She helped found the New England Women's Club and the New England Woman Suffrage Association. In 1869, she became co-leader, with Lucy Stone, of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Howe was elected president of the Association for the Advancement of Women in 1881 and founded the Century Club of San Francisco. In 1890, she helped found the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in 1908. She was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. She was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 14 cent stamp in the Great American Series.

Selected works from Wikipedia:

Poetry:

Passion-Flowers (1854)
Words for the Hour (1857)
The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)
From Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New (1898)
Later Lyrics (1866)
At Sunset, published posthumously (1910)

Other works:

The Hermaphrodite, Incomplete (1846 to 1847)
A Trip to Cuba (1860)
From the Oak to the Olive (1868)
Modern Society, essays (1881)
Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli), a biography, (1883)
Woman's Work in America (1891)
Is Polite Society Polite? , essays (1895)
Reminiscences: 1819–1899, an autobiography (1899)

Civil War Monument: Bigelow Sphinx - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Bigelow Sphinx

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.396 W 071° 08.724

Quick Description: 

The Bigelow Sphinx was was commissioned and funded by Dr. Jacob Bigelow to commemorate the end of the American Civil War. It is located in a landscaped circle along Cedar Avenue in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

The Bigelow Sphinx is considered to be one of the most unusual Civil War monuments. A 6' high by 3' wide by 10' long sculpture of a sphinx with the face of an Anglo-American woman and the body of an African lion sits on a 5' by 5' by 15' base. The sculpture was commissioned by Dr. Jacob Bigelow and created by the famous Irish-American sculptor Martin Milmore. It was erected in Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1872.

On the right side of the base of the Bigelow Sphinx is the Latin inscription:

AMERICA CONSERVATA

AFRICAN LIBERATA

POPULO MAGNO ASURGENTE

HEROUM SANGUINE FUSO

On the left side of the base is the English equivalent:

AMERICAN UNION PRESERVED

AMERICAN SLAVERY DESTROYED

BY THE UPRISING OF A GREAT PEOPLE

BY THE BLOOD OF FALLEN HEROES

Grave of a Famous Person: Dorothea L. Dix - Watertown, MA

Dorothea L. Dix

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.397 W 071° 08.800

Short Description: 

The grave of teacher, author, nurse, and prison and mental health reformer Dorothea Lynde Dix is located along Spruce Avenue at the intersection of Columbine Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

The grave of Dorothea L. Dix is marked by a simple, unadorned headstone that is inscribed:

DOROTHEA L. DIX

Dorothea L. Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Massachusetts (now Maine). She grew up in Worcester MA. Around 1821 she started a school in Boston, serving well-to-do families. Soon she began teaching poor and less fortunate children. While teaching she was the author of many books for children. Ill health forced her to give up teaching.

She then traveled and witnessed the injustices of slavery and developed abolitionist views. Upon traveling to Europe she met reformers who inspired her to start working on equal rights for the mentally ill. Between 1840-41 she conducted a statewide investigations of care for the indigent mentally ill in Massachusetts. She published the first of several influential books titled Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts. She continued her crusade for the mentally ill in several other states. Her efforts were successful in the founding the first public mental hospital, the Harrisburg State Hospital in Pennsylvania. She also became an advocate for prison reform.

During the Civil War, Dix set aside her previous work to focus completely on the war effort. She was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses by the Union Army. In this capacity set guidelines for nurses that she personally trained and hired. At the end of the war, she resumed her crusade to improve the care of prisoners, the disabled, and the mentally ill.

Dorothea L. Dix died on July 18, 1887 in Trenton, NJ at the age of 85. She was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 1 cent stamp in the Great American Series.

Books by Dorothea L. Dix:

The Garland of Flora (botany)
Alice and Ruth
American Moral Tales: For Young Persons
Conversations on Common Things, or Guide to Knowledge: With Questions
Evening Hours
George Mills, or, The Little Boy Who Did Not Love His Books
Hymns for Children
Private Hours
The Trials of a School Girl
The Lady and the President : the letters of Dorothea Dix & Millard Fillmore

Books about mental health and prison reform:

On Behalf of the Insane Poor
Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States
Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts
Fifth Letter to Convicts in State Prisons and Houses of Correction, Or County Penitentiaries
Memorial of Miss D. L. Dix in Relation to the Illinois Penitentiary
Memorial of Miss D. L. Dix to the Hon. The General Assembly in Behalf of the Insane of Maryland

Grave of a Famous Poet: Frances Sargent Osgood - Watertown, MA

Frances Sargent Osgood

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.216 W 071° 08.727

Short Description: 

The poet Frances Sargent Osgood, née Frances Sargent Locke, was one of the most well-known women writers of the mid-19th century. Her grave is located along Orange Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

The grave of Frances Sargent Osgood, and her three children, is located within a low fenced-in rectangular area. A 6' tall stone base is topped by a lyre shaped bronze sculpture supporting a bronze wreath that was inspired by her poem "The Hand That Swept the Sounding Lyre". The stone base is inscribed:

FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD

died May 12, 1850

AEt. 38 yrs. 11 mos.

ELLEN FRANCES OSGOOD

died Aug. 31, 1851

AEt. 15 yrs. 11 mos.

MAY VINCENT OSGOOD

died June 26, 1851

AEt. 11 yrs. 11 mos.

FANNY FAY OSGOOD

died Oct. 25, 1847

AEt. 16 mos.

Frances Sargent Locke was born in Boston, MA on June 18, 1811. She attended the Boston Lyceum for Young Ladies and started writing poetry at a young age. She published her first poems when she was 14 years old in a periodical of children's poetry called Juvenile Miscellany. She continued writing for children throughout her life.

Frances Sargent Locke married the artist Samuel Stillman Osgood on October 7, 1835. Together they had three children. They moved to England where she published her collection of poems A Wreath of Flowers from New England and The Casket of Fate. She returned to Boston in 1839 and then the family moved to New York City where she sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms "Kate Carol" or "Violet Vane". In 1841 she published The Poetry of Flowers and the Flowers of Poetry in 1845 she began a public relationship with Edgar Allen Poe. Together they published several valentine poems they wrote to one another.

Frances Sargent Osgood reconciled with her husband and they and moved to Philadelphia where she became ill. She died of tuberculosis on May 12, 1850 at the age of aged 38.

Writings of Frances Sargent Osgood include:

THE HAND that swept the sounding lyre
  With more than mortal skill,
The lightning eye, the heart of fire,
  The fervent lip are still!
No more, in rapture or in woe,      
  With melody to thrill,
        Ah, nevermore!

But angel hands shall bring him balm
  For every grief he knew,
And Heaven’s soft harps his soul shall calm    
  With music sweet and true,
And teach to him the holy charm
  Of Israfel anew,
        Forevermore!

Love’s silver lyre he played so well    
  Lies shattered on his tomb,
But still in air its music-spell
  Floats on through light and gloom;
And in the hearts where soft they fell,
  His words of beauty bloom    
        Forevermore!

Poetry:

A Wreath of Flowers from New England  (collection)
"To My Book"
Elfrida, a dramatic poem in five acts
The Casket of Fate  (collection)
"So Let It Be"
"Echo-Song"
"Forgive and Forget"
"The Hand That Swept the Sounding Lyre"
"Little Red Riding-Hood"
"Old Friends"
"A Shipwreck"
"A Song"
"To S. S. Osgood"
"Why Will A Rose-Bud Blow?"
"The Violet's Love"

Books:

The Poetry of Flowers and the Flowers of Poetry
The Snowdrop: A New Year Gift for Children
Rose, Sketches in Verse
Puss in Boots
The Marquis of Carabas
Cries in New York
Poems

Grave of a Famous person: R. Buckminster Fuller - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

R. Buckminster Fuller

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.186 W 071° 08.753

Short Description: 

The grave of author, poet, designer, and inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller is located between Pyrola and Bellwort Paths in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

The grave of R. Buckminster Fuller and his wife is marked by a pair of granite markers. The ground level marker is a granite rectangle containing the image of the geodesic figure known as a buckyball or the organic chemical known as buckminsterfullerene and is inscribed:

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

"CALL ME TRIMTAB"

JULY 12, 1895 - JULY 1, 1983

MARRIED JULY 19, 1917

ANNE HEWLETT FULLER

JANUARY 9, 1896 - JULY 3, 1983

A second marker, a raised granite rectangle is inscribed:

"CALL ME

TRIMTAB"

BUCKY

A trim tab is a small device that helps stabilize an enormous ship or aircraft. He used the trim tab as a metaphor for his philosophy that one small person can make an enormous difference in society.

Richard Buckminster Fuller, more commonly known as Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was born on July 12, 1895 in Milton, MA. He attended Milton Academy and then Harvard College before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, as a radio operator. While teaching at Black Mountain College in NC he developed a form that would make him famous: the geodesic dome.

Buckmimster Fuller was also a prolific poet and writer. He published over 30 works of poetry, science, and fiction as well as an autobiography in which he coined or popularized terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetic. Wikipedia list the following Bibliography:

4d Timelock (1928)

Nine Chains to the Moon (1938)

Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization (1962)

Ideas and Integrities, a Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure (1963)

No More Secondhand God and Other Writings (1963)

Education Automation: Freeing the Scholar to Return (1963)

What I Have Learned: A Collection of 20 Autobiographical Essays, Chapter "How Little I Know", (1968)

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1968)

Utopia or Oblivion (1969)

Approaching the Benign Environment (1970)

I Seem to Be a Verb (1970)

Intuition (1970)

Buckminster Fuller to Children of Earth (1972)

The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller (1960, 1973) Earth, Inc (1973)

Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1975)

Tetrascroll: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, A Cosmic Fairy Tale (1975)

And It Came to Pass — Not to Stay (1976)

R. Buckminster Fuller on Education (1979)

Synergetics 2: Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1979)

Buckminster Fuller – Autobiographical Monologue/Scenario (1980)

Buckminster Fuller Sketchbook (1981)

Critical Path (1981)

Grunch of Giants (1983)

Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller (1983)

Humans in Universe (1983)

Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity (1992)

Grave Marker With Cause of Death: Arthur Buckminster Fuller - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Arthur Buckminster Fuller

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.192 W 071° 08.761

Short Description: 

The grave of Rev. Arthur Buckminster Fuller, who was killed during the Civil War during the Battle of Frericksburg, is located in the Fuller family between Pyrola and Bellwort Paths in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

A marble monument with two embedded bronze plaques marks the grave of Rev. Arthur Buckminster Fuller and his wife. The upper plaque contains a Maltese Cross in the center of a wreath and is inscribed:

ARTHUR BUCKMINSTER

FULLER

GRADUATED HARVARD COLLEGE 1843

GRADUATED HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL 1847

COMMISSIONED CHAPLAIN OF THE

16TH MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS

AUGUST 1, 1861

KILLED AT FREDERICKSBURG, VA

DECEMBER 11, 1862

"I MUST DO SOMETHING FOR MY COUNTRY"

The lower plaque for is wife is inscribed:

EMMA LUCILLA REEVES

FULLER

HIS WIFE

-----

BORN SEPTEMBER 30, 1833

DIED SEPTEMBER 29, 1904

-----

"SHE MADE SUNSHINE IN THE SHADY PLACE"

The Rev. Arthur Buckminster Fuller was the grandfather of architect Buckminster Fuller and the brother of poet Margaret Fuller-Ossoli. He joined the 16th Massachusetts regiment as a chaplain and was honorably discharged on December 10, 1862 due to failing health. The next day he volunteered to join a a group of soldiers crossing the Rappahannock River. He and was killed while attempting to drive the Confederate sharpshooters from the city.

Cenotaph/Grave With Cause of Death: Margaret Fuller-Ossoli, Husband and Son - Watertown, MA

Margaret Fuller-Ossoli

Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli

Giovanni Angelo Ossoli

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.192 W 071° 08.755

Short Description: 

A memorial cenotaph honoring American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller-Ossoli, her husband  Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, and which also the grave of her son Angelo Eugene Philip Ossoli is located between Pyrola and Bellwort Paths in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller-Ossoli and her Italian husband Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli along with her one year old son Angelo Eugene Philip Ossoli died in a shipwreck just a few yards off Fire Island, NY.

The marble cenotaph, which also serves as and grave marker for their son, honoring Margaret Fuller-Ossoli contains a cross on top, a relief sculptures of Margaret Fuller-Ossoli in left profile with a sword hilt and a book, and a bronze tablet which is inscribed:

IN MEMORY OF

MARGARET FULLER-OSSOLI

BORN IN CAMBRIDGE, MASS., MAY 23, 1810

BY BIRTH A CHILD OF NEW ENGLAND

BY ADOPTION A CITIZEN OF ROME

BY GENIUS BELONGING TO THE WORLD

IN YOUTH

AN INSATIATE STUDENT SEEKING THE HIGHEST CULTURE

IN RIPER YEARS

TEACHER, WRITER, CRITIC, OF LITERATURE AND ART

IN MATURER AGE

COMPANION AND HELPER OF MANY

EARNEST REFORMER IN AMERICA AND EUROPE

AND OF HER HUSBAND

GIOVANNI ANGELO, MARQUIS OSSOLI

HE GAVE UP RANK, STATION AND HOME

FOR THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

AND FOR HIS WIFE AND CHILD

AND OF THAT CHILD

ANGELO EUGENE PHILIP OSSOLI

BORN IN RIETI, ITALY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1848

WHOSE DUST REPOSES AT THE FOOT OF THIS STONE

THEY PASSED FROM THIS LIFE, TOGETHER

BY SHIPWRECK JULY 19, 1850

On the marble below is the inscription:

United in life the merciful father took them together

and in death they were not devided.

Sarah Margaret Fuller was born on May 23, 1810 in Cambridge, MA. She attended the Boston Lyceum for Young Ladies from and later the School for Young Ladies in Groton. She aspired to be a journalist. At age 23, she published her first work in the North American Review - a response to historian George Bancroft.

From 1840 to 1842, she served with Ralph Waldo Emerson as editor of a literary and philosophical journal, The Dial; for which she wrote many articles and reviews on art and literature. Her essay The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men, Woman versus Women was a call for women's equality.

After she published Summer on the Lakes, in 1844, she was invited to joined Horace Greeley's New York Tribune as literary critic, was the first full-time book reviewer in America, and the first female editor of the New York Tribune. In 1845, she published Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which is considered to be a classic of feminist thought.

On a trip to Europe, she met and married Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. Together they has a son, Angelo. All three died in a shipwreck only 50 yards off Fire Island, NY on July 19, 1850. Her body and that of her husband were never recovered. She was 40 years old.

Grave of a Famous Person: Edwin Booth - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Edwin Booth

Watertown, MA

N42° 22.197 W71° 08.772

Short Description:

The grave of the famous 19th century Shakespearean actor Edwin Thomas Booth is located along Anemone Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Long Description:

The grave of Edwin Booth is marked by a 5 ft. by 2 ft.by 6 in.granite monument with a bronze relief medallion showing the left profile of Booth.  The monument was sculpted by Frank Edwin Elwell in 1895. The architect for the monument was Sanford White. The front of the granite monument is inscribed:

BOOTH

{bronze medallion}

EDWIN BOOTH

BORN NOVEMBER 13, 1833

DIED JUNE 7, 1893

"I WILL TURN THEIR MOURNING

INTO JOY AND WILL COMFORT THEM

AND MAKE THEM REJOICE FROM.

THEIR SORROW" JER XXI 13 

From the Smithsonian Art Inventory, SIRIS, website

The back of the monument has a relief of the masks representing drama and comedy and the inscription from Shakespeare:

 "THE IDEA OF THY LIFE SHALL

SWEETLY CREEP

INTO MY STVDY OF IMAGINATION

AND EVERY LOVELY ORGAN OF

THY LIFE/SHALL COME APPARELED IN

MORE PRECIOVS HABIT

MORE MOVING DELICATE AND

FVLL OF LIFE/INTO THE EYE AND PROSPECT

OF MY SOVL

THAN WHEN THOV LIV'ST INDEED"                                      

                                       SHAKESPEARE

The fame of Edwin Booth has long been overshadowed that of his younger brother John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln.  Edwin Thomas Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland on November 13, 1833. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, and two younger brothers  Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. and John Wilkes Booth, were also Shakespearean actors. Edwin is considered by many theater critics to be the greatest 19th century American actor. Edwin Booth is also famous for construction of the glamorous Booth's Theater in Manhattan which opened on February 3, 1869,featured Shakespearean productions, and  operated until 1883.

Edwin Thomas Booth died on June 7, 1893. He was 59 years of age.

Grave of a Famous Person: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.350 W 071° 08.486

Short Description: 

The grave of poet, novelist, biographer, and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Is located along Lime Avenue in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA.

Long Description:

The grave of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and his wife Amelia Lee Jackson is marked by a five sided stone marker which is inscribed:

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Born August 22, 1809

Died October 7, 1894

----

AMELIA LEE JACKSON

wife of

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Born May 22, 1818

Died Feb. 6, 1888

Note: Someone took the trouble to lay a Chambered Nautilus by the grave; a reference his famous poem which is a staple of high school English classes.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was a polymath. He was a poet, novelist, biographer, essayist, and a physician. He was born on August 29, 1809 in Cambridge, MA, graduated from the Phillips Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He wrote poetry at an early age and his most famous poem "Old Ironsides" was published when he was only 21, in 1830. The poem was influential is the saving of the USS Constitution, now the oldest commissioned ship in the world.

Holmes, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James Russell Lowell were members of the Fireside Poets. A group of American poets whose works rivaled those of English poets. He often published his works in The Atlantic Monthly.

Selected list of works from Wikipedia:

Poetry

Old Ironsides
The Chambered Nautilus
Songs in Many Keys
Poems

Medical and psychological studies

Puerperal Fever as a Private Pestilence
Mechanism in Thought and Morals

Table-talk books

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
The Professor at the Breakfast-Table
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table
Over the Teacups

Novels

Elsie Venner (1861)
The Guardian Angel (1867)
A Mortal Antipathy (1885)

Articles

"The Stereoscope and the Stereograph", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 6 (1859)
"Sun-painting and sun-sculpture", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 8 (July 1861)
"Doings of the sun-beam", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 12 (July 1863)

Biographies and travelogue:

John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir (1876)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1884)
Our Hundred Days in Europe (1887)

Statue of Historic Figure: Nathaniel Bowditch - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Nathaniel Bowditch

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.424 W 071° 08.680

Short Description: 

A bronze statue of American mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch is located in a landscaped area at the intersection of Central Avenue and Chapel Avenue on the grounds of Mount Auburn Cemetery,

Long Description:

A 62" by 31.5" by 47.5" bronze statue mathematician and the founder of modern maritime navigation Nathaniel Bowditch rests on a 56" by 44" by 57.5" granite base. The statue was sculpted by Robert Hughes Ball and originally cast in 1847 and recast by Gruet Foundry of France in 1886.

Nathaniel Bowditch is depicted seated on a massive, arm-less chair. He is wearing a a long coat with a quilted collar which covers his clothing except for his knee length boots. over his clothing. He is holding a book propped against his right knee with his right hand. His left hand rests on his left knee. Several books are stacked on the floor by his right side. On his left side are a glove and a sextant. The sculpture is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. The front of the bronze plinth is inscribed BOWDITCH.

Nathaniel Bowditch was born on March 26, 1773 in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. As a youth he was an apprentice as a bookkeeper to a ship chandler. He taught himself algebra, calculus, Latin and French. When he was 18 he discovered many errors in John Hamilton Moore's The New Practical Navigator which led to the creation of his most famous work The American Practical Navigator, which is the most important book on navigation that is still used today by the US Navy. He also would be a translate Pierre-Simon de Laplace's Mécanique Céleste, a reference work on mathematics and theoretical astronomy. This translation was critical to the development of astronomy in the United States.

Among his works in print today are:

The American Practical Navigator

The New American Practical Navigator

The Marine Sextant: Selected from American Practical Navigator

The Complete Nautical Dictionary

Useful Tables from the American Practical Navigator

Methods of Computing the Orbit of a Comet Or Planet: Appendix to the Third Volume of the Translation of the Méchanique Céleste

Bowditch for yachtsmen: Piloting : selected from American practical navigator

Coastal Navigation

Waves, wind, and weather: Selected from American practical navigator

Bowditch's Useful Tables

Grave of a Famous Person: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Watertown, MA

N 42° 22.411 W 071° 08.590

Short  Description: 

The grave of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is located near the intersection of Indian Ridge Path and Catalpa Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, MA.
Location: Massachusetts, United States

Long Description:

The grave of is marked by a 8' by 4' by 6' stone tomb set in a landscaped area of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The tomb is set three steps up on a stone block platform at the edge of a steep down slope. The exposed face of the tomb is simply inscribed LONGFELLOW. (visit link)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, ME then a part of Massachusetts. He graduated Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, ME and became a professor at Bowdoin then Harvard Colleges. He is most famous for is lyric poetry although he also wrote several novels. His most famous poems include:

The Village Blacksmith (1840)
The Wreck of the Hesperus (1842)
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)
The Children's Hour (1860)
Paul Revere's Ride (1860)
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, along with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James Russell Lowell were members of the Fireside Poets. A group of American poets whose works rivaled those of English poets.

Longfellow died on March 24, 1882 in Cambridge, MA. In 1884, he was the first and only American poet to have his bust placed in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, London.

Famous Fictional Figures: Thing 1 & Thing 2 - Springfield, MA

Thing 1 & Thing 2

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.239 W 072° 35.173

Short Description:

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are twin brothers that appeared in the book The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss published in 1957. The sculpture is located at he newly opened (June 2017) Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum at the the Quadrangle, 21 Edwards St., Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

Thing 1 and Thing 2 were carried in a box into the home of  Conrad and Sally. When they were released  they created a great deal of mischief by flying kites in the house which knocked down everything in they bumped into. Eventually, Conrad was able to capture Thing 1 and Thing 2 using a net and the Cat in the Hat returned them to their box.

Famous Fictional Figure: The Lorax - Springfield, MA

The Lorax

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.239 W 072° 35.173

Short Description:

The Lorax is the protagonist of the eponymous book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. The sculpture is located at he newly opened (June 3, 2017) Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum at the the Quadrangle, 21 Edwards St., Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

The Lorax deals with the danger of the destruction of the environment.  The Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the those who would destroy the forest.

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” 

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Famous Fictional Figures: Yertle the Turtle - Springfield, MA

Yertle the Turtle

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.239 W 072° 35.173

Quick Description: 

Yertle the Turtle is the main character in Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss. The sculpture is located at he newly opened (June 3, 2017) Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum at the the Quadrangle, 21 Edwards St., Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

A 10' tall blue and black sculpture of Yertle the Turtle and the other turtles in the pond is the tallest of the sculptures of Dr. Seuss fictional characters featured in the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum. Yertle the Turtle first appears in the book Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories published in 1950.

Yertle the Turtle is depicted sitting on top of a stack of five other turtles. He is king of the pond. He commands other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see farther and thus expand his kingdom. The stack collapses under it's own weight, freeing all the turtles.

The moral is contained in the last stanza:

"And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be."

by Dr. Seuss

Famous Fictional Figure: Horton the Elephant - Springfield, MA

Horton the Elephant

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.239 W 072° 35.173

Short Description: 

Horton the Elephant is the main character in Horton Hatches an Egg and Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. The sculpture is located at he newly opened (June 3, 2017) Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum at the Quadrangle, 21 Edwards St., Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

An 8' tall gray and black sculpture of Horton the Elephant is the largest of the sculptures of Dr. Seuss fictional characters featured in the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum. Horton the Elephant first appears in the book Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940 and again in the 1954 book Horton Hears a Who! Horton is depicted hunched on his back legs and carrying a flower in his trunk. Another Seuss character, a monkey who is one of the Wickersham brothers is performing a handstand on Horton the Elephant's head.

Horton is a kind elephant who cares about others. In Horton Hatches and Egg he becomes the foster parent to an elephant-bird by taking on the nesting duties of Mayzie, a lazy and irresponsible bird. He famously says "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!" In Horton Hears a Who! he is called upon the protect the tiny citizens of Whoville. He proclaims "a person’s a person, no matter how small."