Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Values and Meaning in the Inceptive Responses to the Parisian Garden Cemetery and its American Interpretation
Jill Sinclair Independent scholar
First laid out at Pere Lachaise near Paris in 1804, the rural or garden cemetery was a distinctive landscape form, providing permanent family burial plots in a picturesque landscape designed for mourning. After its success in France, the form was transplanted in 1831 to Mount Auburn in Massachusetts. It inspired an intensely American tradition of naturalistic pleasure grounds, with Mount Auburn the progenitor of the rural cemetery movement in the United States, and a model for later nineteenth century public parks throughout the country.
Based on a comparative analysis of early responses to the two sites, this paper will demonstrate how, in its original French manifestation, the rural cemetery was principally a source of philosophical and sorrowful reflection, and a proud display of artistic mastery. Transplanted to Boston's Mount Auburn, it became transformed into a representation of the East Coast's disappearing natural scenery, an embodiment of distinctive new culture, and ultimately an expression of the hopes and ideals of the new republic. The paper will draw out the divergent practices and traditions-about history, urban life, the role of the state, religion and mortality, culture, art, and nature-that imparted such different meanings and values to these two seemingly similar burial grounds.