Emerson’s Study
By the time the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association (RWEMA) took ownership of the Emerson House in 1930, a steady stream of pilgrims were traveling to Concord in hopes of visiting the room at the center of Emerson’s literary and intellectual world. It was from his Concord home that Emerson established himself as an essayist, lecturer and poet, writing many of his most enduring works at the round table in his study. In this room, he read from his extensive library and conversed with friends and visitors; frequent guests included Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Alcotts, Elizabeth Peabody, and Daniel Chester French.
In 1930, RWEMA transitioned the Emerson House into a seasonal museum and preserved year-round access to “Emerson’s Study” by moving the original contents across the street to an exact replica of the room in the Concord Antiquarian Society—now known as the Concord Museum. Today, both can be visited. The study in the Emerson House was refurnished with Emerson family pieces of the period and many of the books are from Edward Emerson’s collection; the round table is one that Emerson used for much of his writing earlier in life. The study replica in the Concord Museum contains the original furnishings and working library of Emerson’s home study as it was in the 1870s.
In May of 2020, the Concord Museum produced a short video tour of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home study in which Concord Museum Curator David Wood and Edward W. Kane Executive Director Tom Putnam discuss the importance of the study both to Emerson and as the intellectual center of mid-19th century America. The 13-minute video is available for viewing on YouTube or directly from this page.
