Margaret Fuller Ossoli - Mt. Auburn Cemetery - Watertown, MA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

In Watertown, within Mt. Auburn Cemetery, is this grave for Margaret Fuller Ossoli, one of the core people of the American Transcendentalist movement.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery is located off Mt. Auburn Street at the Watertown-Cambridge line. The best way to get to the grave is to stop at the office at the entrance and get a map. There are two sizes. The one I'm referencing is the smaller one. Margaret Fuller is not on this one, but a relative, R. Buckminster Fuller, is (No. 23 on this map). The grave is located along Pyrola Path, about halfway between Spruce Avenue and Walnut Avenue. Parking is difficult here - we parked at a circle at Laurel Street. The grave is on a gentle hillside on the south side of Pyrola Path. R. Buckminster Fuller faces Belwort Path and is close to Margaret Fuller's marker.

Margaret Fuller's site has a tall white monument. It is a marble structure on a granite base. On the side facing Pyrola Path is a bronze plaque and major details in the form of a pointed arch, a relief of her profile, a book, and the handle of a sword. The bronze plaque has the following:

"In Memory of
MARGARET FULLER-OSSOLI
Born in Cambridge, Mass, May 23, 1810
By birth a child of New England
By adoption a citizen of Rome
By genius belonging to the world
in youth
an insatiate student seeking the highest culture
in riper years
Teacher, writer, critic, of literature and art
In Maturer age
Companion and helper of many
Earnest reformer in America and Europe
And of her husband
GIOVANNI ANGELO, MARQUIS OSSOLI
He gave up rank, station and home
for the Roman Republic
and for his wife and child
And of that child
ANGELO EUGENE PHILIP OSSOLI
born in Rieti, Italy, September 5, 1848
Whose dust reposes at the foot of this stone
They passed from this life, together
by Shipwreck July 19, 1850"

At the bottom is the following:

"United in life the merciful Father took them together
and in death they were not devided."

Margaret Fuller-Ossoli, also known as Margaret Fuller, was born Sarah Margaret Fuller in Cambridge. She was initially tutored by her father, Timothy Fuller. She later had more formal teaching and became a teacher. She was the first editor of the American Transcendentalist publication, 'The Dial,' which was begun by Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was invited to the utopian community, Brook Farm, in West Roxbury (Boston), and though she didn't join the community, she frequently visited it. Later, she joined the staff of The New York Tribune. She published 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century,' in 1845. This publication was first printed in series in 'The Dial,' and it is considered one of the first feminist published works in the U.S. In 1846, she was sent as the first female correspondent for the Tribune to Europe. She became involved in the Italian revolutions, and had an affair with Giovanni Ossoli, and a child with him. All three perished on a ship in New York Harbor off Fire Island in 1850. Her body was never recovered (so this is a memorial).

Description: She was one of the core people of the American Transcendentalist movement. Date of birth: 05/23/1810 Date of death: 07/19/1850 Area of notoriety: Literature Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daylight hours of the cemetery Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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