The opening battle in America’s war for independence took place at Concord’s Old North Bridge on April 19, 1775—an event later memorialized by Emerson as the “shot heard round the world.” On the 250th anniversary of that fateful day, we look back at the Emerson family’s connections to April 19th: from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandparents witnessing those first shots in 1775, to his role in Concord’s centennial celebrations in 1875.

An examination of the themes and context of Emerson’s momentous 1837 speech, "An Oration, Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge,” later retitled “The American Scholar.” At the time, Emerson was just embarking on his remarkable 40-year career as an essayist, poet and speaker. His mind was racing with new ideas designed to increase individual expression and promote the importance of nature to thought and literature, and the Transcendental Club was founded soon thereafter.

Remembering the historic Battles of Lexington and Concord that marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, and sharing Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” written for the 1837 dedication of a monument commemorating the battle at Concord’s North Bridge.

Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals, which he kept throughout his life and which served as the basis for many of his essays, lectures, and poems. The journals were a platform for Emerson to evaluate and make decisions; to react to news, good or bad; and to form a record of the people he met and the places he visited.

On July 24, 1872—150 years ago today—a fire started in the attic of the Emerson House and spread quickly. Neighbors rushed over to help, rescuing most of the family’s possessions and managing to save the house, although it was badly damaged. After the fire, friends raised funds to reconstruct the Emersons’ home, which still stands today with the structure intact and most of the original furnishings within.

A profile of U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, a noted abolitionist whose friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson strengthened around their mutual antipathy for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Through Sumner, Emerson met President Lincoln in 1862, and when Sumner died in 1874, Emerson was one of his pallbearers. A portrait of Sumner hangs on the second floor of the Emerson House.

Welcoming visitors back to the Emerson House for the 2022 season with a look back at the museum’s 92-year history and some memorable Emersonian events over the years.

In the 19th century as it is today, December was a time of celebrations and gatherings. For Ralph Waldo Emerson, it was also a month when he experienced many life changes. 

In the spring of 1857, a group of like-minded men met at Boston’s Parker House Hotel brainstorming ideas for a new magazine. The co-founders of what would become The Atlantic Monthly included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and several others. The magazine—now known as The Atlantic—has been published continuously since its first issue in November 1857.

On July 15, 1838, Emerson delivered what became known as the “Divinity School Address” to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School. Arguing that every person could have a relationship with the divine without the mediation of the church or clergy, Emerson’s speech sparked great controversy and he was not invited back to his alma mater for another 30 years.

Ralph Waldo Emerson met Abraham Lincoln on two occasions. First in January 1853, when Emerson was lecturing in Springfield, Illinois and a then-unknown Lincoln was in the audience—and again in February 1862, when Emerson was invited to the White House to meet with President Lincoln. Initially unsure of his feelings about the President, Emerson was soon won over. He conveyed his admiration in a moving eulogy delivered after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.

Reflecting on the Emersons’ December gift-giving traditions and the unexpected gift that a 15-year-old Ellen Emerson received from Louisa May Alcott on this day in 1854. The Emersons and Alcotts were neighbors at various times and the families were close.