Boston Public Garden

We actually first walked over to the Boston Public Garden that adjoins the Common shortly after we arrived at the Common in the morning.  Then at the end of our day we went back to explore a bit more of the garden.

Two centuries separate the creation of the Boston Common and the Public Garden, and what a difference that period made.  In 1634 the Common was created as America’s first public park; it was practical and pastoral with walkways built for crosstown travel. In contrast, the Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America. It was decorative and flowery from its inception, featuring meandering pathways for strolling.
--from the City of Boston's Public Garden site

 The grounds are quite lush and covered with many different plants, many notable trees are marked on the Garden map which you can view here.

 You can even walk over a lake.

The famous swan boats were also visible, though we didn't take a ride on them.  Until I read the history of the boats just now I didn't realize that the first swan boats made their debut in 1877.

The paths are well designed for wandering through the beautiful landscape.

We passed by a statue of George Washington.

The Ether Monument is the oldest monument in the Public Garden, dating from 1868.
This forty-foot-tall monument commemorates a medical breakthrough: the use of ether as an anesthetic, a pivotal moment in medical history. The first public demonstration of ether anesthesia was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 by Boston dentist William Thomas Green Morton and Doctor John Collins Warren. Morton administered the ether, and Warren then removed a tumor from an unconscious patient. Atop the Ether monument, two figures sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward enact a famous Biblical story about the relief of suffering: the Good Samaritan caring for an injured stranger he met on the road.
--from the Friends of the Public Garden website

One of the features in the garden on our must-see list was the statues of the ducks from Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.  I'd bought a collection of McCloskey stories in Richmond near the start of the trip that included both Make Way for Ducklings and One Morning in Maine knowing that I'd want to read the stories to the kids before we reached Boston and Maine.  It was definitely fun to see the statues, though it was difficult to get any clear pictures with our kids, let alone with nobody else in the frame.  There was someone else there trying to do a photo shoot with their toddler.

A few minutes later the girls enjoyed seeing live ducks in the lake.

Right near the ducks I spotted what turned out to be an Elm Bark Beetle trap.  A sign warned people that there are no pesticides or chemicals in the trap that is designed to trap the beetles that threaten the historic elm trees in the garden.

It looked like a ramp had been built for the ducks to walk upon to this island in the center of the lake.

There are a series of statues along the southern edge of the gardens.

Wendell Phillips was an early abolitionist.

Thomas Cass was the founder of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry that saw extensive service during the Civil War.

 Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a Polish military leader who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War.  There is even a national park site dedicated to him in Philadelphia.

Charles Sumner was a Senator from Massachusetts who was an abolitionist.  He is also famous as the person brutally attacked by the southern Senator Preston Brooks on the floor of the Senate before the Civil War.

On the western side of the Public Garden is a Garden of Remembrance dedicated to September 11, 2001.

On the western border of the garden is a statue of William Ellery Channing a prominent Unitarian preacher.


All of these pictures and more are located in this album that covers both the Boston Command the Public Garden.  Tomorrow we'll begin to explore the Freedom Trail across Boston.

~Matt