Frequently Asked Questions

Dec 27

Written By LoLC

We receive many questions from visitors to the Ralph Waldo Emerson House. Following is a sample of some of the frequently asked questions with our answers. Enjoy!

Why did Emerson choose to make his home in Concord after his marriage to Lydia Jackson?

Emerson’s ancestral connection to Concord went all the way back to its beginning in 1635, as he was descended from one of the founders, Reverend Peter Bulkeley. His grandfather William Emerson was at the North Bridge when “the shot heard round the world” was fired and eventually joined the Continental Army as a chaplain. As a child, Emerson spent some time in Concord when life in Boston was too dangerous during the War of 1812. Upon returning from travels to Europe to figure out his life’s direction after his first wife died, Emerson moved into the Old Manse in Concord. His connections to the town were extensive.

He wanted to get away from the “compliances and imitations of city society.” Concord, with a population of around 2,000—as compared to close to 100,000 in Boston—was very progressive, with a lyceum by 1828, a library started in 1794, a strong antislavery society, and a Mozart Society. By 1835, Concord had 66 college graduates and 6 school districts. And, of course, Concord provided plenty of natural surroundings.

What were some of the topics of Emerson’s lectures?

Emerson’s range of content broadened as his career developed. He lectured on historical figures; aesthetics and the arts; the great causes of his day; important characteristics of humanity, such as duty, ethics, and self-reliance; and the connection between the mind and nature. His lectures were very well attended. For example, his lectures in Boston often had 300-400 attendees.

What did the Transcendental Club members talk about?

The Club was a forum for new ideas, frequented by Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, William Ellery Channing, Elizabeth Hoar, a young Theodore Parker, and other ministers including Frederick Henry Hedge, George Ripley, Orestes Brownson, Convers Francis and Chandler Robbins, who succeeded Emerson at the Second Church in Boston.

Typically, each meeting would center on a single topic such as “American Genius;” “Education of Humanity;” or “On the Character and Genius of Goethe.” Meetings were held in members’ homes, including Emerson’s. The members produced a quarterly magazine entitled The Dial.

What languages did Emerson know?

Emerson studied Latin and Greek from an early age. Well-versed in the classics, he also knew Italian, German, and French.

In 1843, Emerson completed a translation of Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nuova, The New Life, from Italian. In addition, Emerson translated hundreds of lines of Persian poetry—from German sources—to his native English.

What is the significance of the painting of three women over the mantle in Emerson's study?

Known as The Three Fates, the work is drawn from Greek myth and is usually considered an allegory of the human condition in which the Fates are personified by three sisters, the Moirae, who govern our destinies. The youngest, Clotho, spins the thread of life; the second, Lachesis, determines the length; and the oldest, named Atropo, cuts it.

Emerson would have first encountered the original of Francesco Salviati’s 16th-century work at the Pitti Palace in Florence in 1833. Still grieving the untimely death of his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker, the image may have helped Emerson come to terms with the abiding loss. From another perspective, the painting may recall three women who nurtured and influenced him in youth: his mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson; his father’s sister, Mary Moody Emerson; and Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, an aunt by marriage.

An early Hudson River School artist named William Wall, whom Emerson had met on that first trip abroad, knew he admired the Renaissance painting and had a copy made for him.

— R. Davis and B. Ewen, Emerson House guides