Edward Waldo Emerson: A Sketch
A special exhibition of Edward’s paintings and sketchbooks is on display at the Concord Free Public Library from July 30-September 10, 2026. With many of the pieces held in private collections, “Celebrating the Art of Edward Waldo Emerson” presents a rare opportunity for public viewing of Edward’s art.
This portrait of Edward Waldo Emerson, by F. Tompkins, hangs in the Emerson House. Oil on canvas, circa 1878. Photo by M. Purrington.
Edward Waldo Emerson was the fourth child and only surviving son of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and his second wife, Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-1892). Born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 10, 1844, Edward grew up in a gifted family whose circle embraced many artists, writers, and civic leaders. Henry David Thoreau was like an older brother to him. Edward was tutored and educated privately; his father entrusted his children’s religious instruction to their highly literate and devout mother.
Early on, Edward showed himself an artist, emulating his older sister Ellen’s skills at figure drawing. At 16, Edward wrote to her while visiting a young William James in Newport, then apprenticed to the portraitist William Morris Hunt: “Ellen, I never was so delighted, I am perfectly wild about drawing.” After visiting Hunt’s studio, he wrote his sister Edith: “Went yesterday to Mr. Hunt’s studio and he showed me everything and let me stay and look around as long as I pleased.” [1] Edward also knew Abigail May Alcott and Daniel Chester French.
The need to earn a living, however, precluded a first career in art. He graduated from Harvard College in 1866, delayed by a year due to poor health. After a brief foray in business, and travels in the West, with his father’s encouragement he went on to Harvard Medical School. In 1874, after receiving his M.D., on September 19 he married Annie Keyes of Concord and opened his medical practice from their Monument Street home.
After his father’s passing in 1882, Edward turned to painting. He studied with Frederic Crowninshield in the Berkshires and William Picknell in Ipswich. He also took his easel to Monadnock and Naushon, abroad to Moret-Sur-Loing and Antibes in France, and Devonshire and London in England. In 1885, he began a 20-year tenure as the lecturer in anatomical art at Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Edward also lectured at schools, clubs, and societies on far-ranging topics, including Concord history, the Civil War, American life, his father’s poetry, and art.
While never a widely acclaimed artist, Edward became an accomplished painter, meriting a public exhibition of his “Pictures and Sketches” in 1896 at the J. Eastman Chase Gallery in Boston’s Back Bay. The horse was ever a favorite subject; Edward had learned to ride at an early age, as a country doctor relied on the noble animal to take him on his rounds, and as an equestrian enjoyed the legends of chivalry.
As the 100th anniversary of his renowned father’s birth approached, Edward began editing and annotating the twelve-volume Centenary Edition of Emerson’s Complete Works (1903). Edward’s own late and prolific career as a man of letters also included memoirs of his father, Emerson in Concord (1888), Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend (1917), and the lion’s share of contributions to the history of Boston’s Saturday Club. His nephew Edward Waldo Forbes, longtime Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, wrote the profile of his namesake uncle for their third volume (1958).
In service to his town, Edward served on Concord’s Board of Health; its Library, Cemetery, April 19th, and School Committees; and was a founding member of its museum. Following his wife Annie, who died in 1928, Edward passed away on January 27, 1930; both are buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Of their seven children, only their youngest, son Raymond (1886-1977), survived them.
Thanks to those who treasured his works, a legacy of light and beauty lives on in his art.
— R. Davis, Emerson House guide
This essay is based on Edward Waldo Emerson 1844-1930: “A Noble Picturing,” written for the Saturday Morning Club of Boston, March 1, 2025, and archived at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library.
WORKS CITED:
Edward Waldo Emerson. Letter to Ellen Tucker Emerson. Newport, March 18, 1861. Letter to Edith Emerson. Newport, March 20, 1861. Manuscript. Edward Emerson Papers, Concord Free Public Library, William Munroe Special Collections.
