Mount Auburn Cemetery

In honor of Veterans Day and the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Mount Auburn Cemetery is pleased to announce a new self-guided tour highlighting Revolutionary War veterans buried at Mount Auburn.

This tour will be available on our Bloomberg Connects digital guide.

What do you think? Is it peak foliage season yet? 🍂

Our digital guide features:

-Four introductory walking tours, including one meditative audio-tour.
-Ability to explore points of interest by area of the Cemetery.
-Extensive information on notable figures, landmarks, significant trees and monuments.

How to access the app: On your smart phone's App Store download the free Bloomberg Connects Arts + Culture app. Once the app is downloaded, search "Mount Auburn Cemetery" to get started. No login is required to access our guide.

We are excited to announce that Mount Auburn Cemetery’s digital visitor guide is now live on the Bloomberg Connects app, an arts and culture mobile platform that helps visitors explore museums, gardens, and historic sites around the world.

Learn More: buff.ly/gDnnmbt

As we walk Mount Auburn’s paths today, we honor the enduring presence of the Massachusett, Pequossette, Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Pawtucket peoples.

The body was treated as sacred—a vessel that carried the spirit through life—and laid to rest with care. These customs reflect a worldview in which all beings are interconnected and the land itself holds memory.

Even though Mount Auburn is credited with establishing American views on burial and commemoration, Indigenous communities practiced burial traditions grounded in reverence for life, death, and the natural world.

For the Massachusett, Massachuseuck means “At the Great Hill.” Generations traveled footpaths through what is now Mount Auburn and along the Quinobequin—“the meandering river,” later renamed the Charles.

Today we honor the Indigenous peoples who have lived for thousands of years on the land we now call Cambridge and Watertown—especially the Massachusett and Pequossette Tribes, whose descendants continue to care for this region.

Welcoming Fall 🍂

Today, Joyce Chen Foods, run by her son, continues her legacy. In 2014, she was honored on a U.S. postage stamp.

Her popular Joyce Chen Cook Book (1962), PBS show Joyce Chen Cooks (1968), and line of cookware and sauces helped bring authentic Northern Chinese cuisine into American homes.

After moving to Cambridge in 1949, she began teaching cooking and in 1958 opened New England’s first Mandarin Chinese restaurant, introducing dishes like Peking Duck, Moo Shi Pork, and her famous “Peking Ravioli” (potstickers).

Happy Birthday to Joyce Chen! (1917–1994) — Born in Beijing, Joyce Chen became one of America’s most celebrated Chinese restauranteurs, authors, and TV hosts.

Here at Mount Auburn, a Peggy Martin rose thrives at our Pond Avenue signpost. Each spring, it bursts with pink blooms, feeding pollinators and reminding us that life can persist — and even flourish — after unthinkable loss.

Propagated and shared across the country, the rose now bears her name, honoring both her loss and her love of gardening. It has since been planted in gardens and landscapes nationwide as a living emblem of endurance.

Peggy Martin was an avid gardener in Louisiana whose home and beloved collection of 450 antique varieties of flowers were destroyed by the floodwaters. After two weeks under 20 feet of salt water, only one plant in her garden survived — a thornless climbing rose.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We remember the lives lost and the communities forever changed. Amid the storm’s devastation in 2005, one plant became an unexpected symbol of hope: the Peggy Martin rose. 🌹

A serene Sunday scene. Have you seen our beautiful hydrangeas yet this year? 🦋

Visiting Mount Auburn for the first time? Parking is available on Lawn Ave. surrounding Asa Gray Garden. 🚗

Appreciation post for all the dragon 🐉 and damselflies 🌼 in our landscape and beyond.

In 2024 our citizen scientists visited various sites to document dragon and damselflies that were present at each location as a part of our Adult Dragonfly Survey.

A serene Sunday scene at the Binney Monument.

Homer is buried on Lily Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery

A studio photograph, made while they were in Paris, mimics the conventions of marriage portraits. Kelsey inscribed the back of the photograph with the names "Damon and Pythias," famous ancient Greek heroes and lovers [...]."

One of his closest friends was Albert Kelsey, a fellow artist whom he initially met in 1858 in Massachusetts. In 1867, Kelsey traveled with Homer to Paris, where they lived together for the next two years.

Constructing Homer as a solitary eccentric, who virtually withdrew from human society, most scholars have overlooked evidence of significant, intimate associations with other men.

"Very little is known about Homer's "private" life. He consistently refused to answer personal questions from critics and potential biographers, and he left no revealing diaries or other personal papers [...]

According to the research of art historian, Richard G. Mann for the GLBTQ Archives, Homer, a lifelong bachelor shared close relationships with many men throughout his life, and seldom with women leading to speculation about his sexuality. Mann writes...