this is a life-like statue of grace sherwood allen. she died before turning 5 years old, of the whooping cough (an awful bacterial infection still affecting nearly 50 million people each year, killing nearly 300,000), in 1880. the statue is made of marble, by sidney h morse. without the glass vitrine, it would not have been white like this, being exposed to harsh winters and hot summers for over 100 years. it would have been greenish from algae and what not, like all the other stones and statues. but.. to me it was a little eerie. poor little gracie. caged forever. even worse; during winter this glass cage is covered by a metal one to further protect this "historical object" that it now became.
this is at the forest hills cemetery, of which i showed you pictures earlier. early march, the trees were still bare and the grass was yellowish (normally covered by snow, or just recovering from snow during that time of the year). we had visitors this weekend (from texas), and they themselves wanted to see a cemetery! jeejjj! so we drove to this one, as i have decided it probably is the most beautiful/interesting cemetery in boston. had it been beautiful last time, it was even more amazing this saturday, with the grass so green and blossom trees full in bloom. that time i sort of searched for gracie, but could not find her. we did see some metal thing that we joked could be a rocket of some sort; she then was still caged! and we just had walked around and around and had no clue that gracie was patiently standing underneath. poor little girl.
her dress is very pretty, also from the back, but i now see i did not really take pictures of that side..... next time, as we will surely return to see how this cemetery looks like in summer.... (if i have the patience to wait till summer).
12 comments:
Goodness, as you say what an eerie memorial, I think it would be vastly improved by a little wind and wuthering. But then the family clearly wanted to keep her exactly as she was somehow. I am slightly surprised the cemetery allowed this statue in the first place. Interesting post.
What a nice statue, she looks like as if she rises from the grave. She is well protected all those years, a century even.
all that alabaster whiteness does give her a ghostly glow!
The marble looks almost like solid carved sugar! It's really beautiful. I'm wondering what's going on with Gracie's left leg. It looks very thin in the photo, and wrapped in something. . .?
Whooping cough is making a resurgence in Washington State. There's been something like a 10 fold increase in cases in the last year or so and they have no idea why.
@kay; i think its because of the angle this pic was taken. if you look at one of teh flickr images, you see thats not her leg, its a little behind!
her back is really pretty too, but i had the wrong lens on my camera, and really didnt make enough effort taking pictures. grrr... i usually realize that when im back home.
I like the outfit she is wearing (though it looks a bit uncomfortable). I bet it is what she wore for a family photograph.
It really does look quite macabre, all caged up like that... Quite an amazing find CaT!
Such a beautiful monument,I can understand why they would want to protect it, but it does give it that eerie feel.
I don't think its eerie at all; its a lovely tribute to a child who died much too young.
Maybe they coddled her in life, as they did in death. Or maybe it was not the doing of the family but of descendents who did not want to memorial to be blemished. I note that the detail of her life and death are also engraved on a more routine stone to left.
The entire think is a bit like a coffin made manifest.
yes, i do think the statue is beautiful! and just imagine that all marble statues looked like that, hundred years ago! all others are now green and weathered....
@julie; i also wonder who decided to pu the glass vitrine around her. indeed, the large obelisk kind of stone next to her is the family grave. i was somehow distracted and did not take enough pictures! all the more a reason to go back..., because i am curious about her parents, did she have brothers/sisters, etc...
never seen anything like this before, very beautiful!!
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