Mount Auburn Cemetery, Harvard

In tribute to Harvard’s founding fathers, graves from the original Harvard cemetery were relocated to Mount Auburn after the cemetery was established in 1867. The residents of Harvard contributed local stone to build the cemetery’s chapel in 1936.

This tranquil memorial burying ground encompasses a glorious landscape of gardens, shrubs, trees, and native prairie that has become home to a multitude of colorful songbirds.

There are many prominent figures buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, including the grandfather of President Gerald Ford. These are but a few of the signifigant interments at Mount Auburn Cemetery: Elbridge Ayer Burbank, the famous 1880 Old West artist; Edward Ayer, the founder of the world famous Field Museum in Chicago; and Elbridge Ayer, the grandson of Elbridge Gerry who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (and the source of the word “gerrymandering”).