Fresh Pond: The History of a Cambridge Landscape [Hardcover]

Jill Sinclair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2009

The history of Fresh Pond Reservation--onetime summer retreat for wealthy Bostonians, center of the nineteenth-century ice industry, and stomping grounds for Harvard students--told through photographs, maps and plans, and stories.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sinclair's richly illustrated study traces the shifting cultural meaning of Cambridge's most important public landscape through generations of use and abuse. Well researched and eloquently written, this is landscape history at its best."--Robin Karson, author of A Genius for Place

Fresh Pond Reservation, at the northwest edge of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been described as a "landscape loved to death." Certainly it is a landscape that has been changed by its various uses over the years and one to which Cantabridgeans and Bostonians have felt an intense attachment. Henry James returned to it in his sixties, looking for "some echo of the dreams of youth," feeling keenly "the pleasure of memory"; a Harvard student of the 1850s fondly remembered skating parties and the chance of "flirtation with some fair-ankled beauty of breezy Boston"; modern residents argue fiercely over dogs being allowed to run free at the reservation and whether soccer or nature is a more valuable experience for Cambridge schoolchildren. In Fresh Pond, Jill Sinclair tells the story of the pond and its surrounding land through photographs, drawings, maps, plans, and an engaging narrative of the pond's geological, historical, and political ecology. Fresh Pond has been a Native American hunting and fishing ground; the site of an eighteenth-century hotel offering bowling, food and wine, and impromptu performances by Harvard men; a summer retreat for wealthy Bostonians; a training ground for trench warfare; a location for picnics and festivals for workers and sporting activities for all. The parkland features an Olmsted design, albeit an imperfectly realized one. The pond itself--a natural lake carved out by the retreating Ice Age about 15,000 years ago--was a center of the nineteenth-century ice industry (disparaged by Thoreau, writing about another pond), and still supplies the city of Cambridge with fresh drinking water. Sinclair's celebration of a local landscape also alerts us to broader issues--shifts in public attitudes toward nature (is it brutal wilderness or in need of protection?) and water (precious commodity or limitless flow?)--that resonate as we remake our relationship to the landscape.

"Jill Sinclair explores the history of Cambridge's most prominent natural feature, Fresh Pond, with amazing skill."--Charles M. Sullivan, Executive Director, Cambridge Historical Commission

(Charles Sullivan )

About the Author

Jill Sinclair is a landscape historian, writer, and lecturer now living in Paris.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (February 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262195917
• ISBN-13: 978-0262195911
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Lakes & Ponds

More About the Author

Jill Sinclair studied landscape history at Harvard's Landscape Institute. She has worked in the UK, US and France, and now researches, writes and lectures on historic landscapes from her home in New Delhi, India. For more information, visit www.jillsinclair.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, August 27, 2011

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mind doctor (Cambridge,, MA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Fresh Pond: The History of a Cambridge Landscape (Hardcover)

Sinclair's careful research and well crafted writing make for a superb read. The photos and maps supplement the text in a most useful way. She expertly ties the history of the Pond with social, economic, political, and ideological movements that served as the context for the Pond's history.