About Melissa Banta
Consulting Curator, Historical CollectionsPosts
To Have and To Hold: Nineteenth-Century Photographic Cards of Mount Auburn
When photography was introduced in 1839, only 8 years after the opening of Mount Auburn, the medium provided an entirely new way of seeing the Cemetery. Some of the earliest photographs of Mount Auburn were images taken by commercial photographers, … Continue reading
A Mid-Century Chronicle of Mount Auburn: The Photographs of Arthur Cushman Haskell
For 25 years, from 1937 to 1962, Mount Auburn Cemetery was beautifully chronicled through the eyes of photographer Arthur Cushman Haskell. The noted New England architectural photographer created an extensive body of photographs of Mount Auburn. A little known … Continue reading
Early Tours through the Garden of Graves: Mount Auburn’s 19th-Century Guidebooks
Today, sightseers to Mount Auburn might take a self-guided tour of the Cemetery by browsing through the Mount Auburn app on their hand-held device. In the 19th century, visitors could learn about the splendors of the Cemetery by leafing through … Continue reading
The Egyptian Revival Gateway: Mount Auburn’s First Iconic Image
Among the early illustrations of Mount Auburn’s Egyptian Revival Gateway is an 1834 lithograph. Behind the image lies the story of how the majestic portal to the Cemetery both evolved and endured as the iconic, granite structure we know today. … Continue reading