When the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association (RWEMA) took ownership of the Emerson House in 1930 and turned it into a seasonal museum, the original contents of Emerson’s study were moved across the street to a replica in the Concord Museum to preserve year-round access for visitors. Today, both can be visited. In 2020, the Concord Museum produced a short video tour of Emerson’s home study, discussing its importance both to Emerson and as the intellectual center of mid-19th century America.

A talk given by Professor Gustavo A. Brandariz (University of Buenos Aires) on the idea of ‘nature’ in the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Sarmiento, Hudson and Martínez Estrada. Recorded in November 2024 as part of an international meeting honoring Argentinian writer Ezequiel Martínez Estrada on the 60th anniversary of his death. The linked video is in Spanish.

The friendship between two intellectual powerhouses of the mid-nineteenth century—Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson—began with a visit to Concord in 1836. Fuller later joined the “Transcendental Club” and her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century—the first major feminist work in America—grew from an essay published in The Dial magazine under Emerson’s editorship.

Continuing a series on the strong women in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life with a profile of his wife Lidian (Lydia) Jackson Emerson, who worked to relieve the suffering of people and animals while also managing a busy household and supporting her husband’s work. A co-founder of Concord’s Female Anti-Slavery Society, Lidian encouraged Emerson’s own involvement in the abolitionist movement.

Referencing Jeffrey S. Cramer’s book, Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to explore the question of whether the two friends called one another “Waldo” and “Henry.”

Emerson and Thoreau met in the spring of 1837 and became lifelong friends. In addition to their affinity for Concord, they shared a strong belief in the importance of nature in developing creative and independent thinking. Thoreau lived with the Emerson family for several years and built the cabin of Walden on land owned by Emerson.

The late Robert D. Richardson Jr.’s final book, Three Roads Back (Princeton University Press, 2023) explores how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James each coped with the grief of losing loved ones. Emerson lost his first wife, Ellen, to tuberculosis after less than two years of marriage, and his first child, Waldo, died of scarlet fever at the age of five.

Exploring the history of the ‘Concord grape,” developed by Concord resident—and Emerson neighbor—Ephraim Wales Bull in the 1840s. Henry David Thoreau first planted a scion of the original stock in the Emersons’ garden in the 1850s and a ‘Concord’ grapevine has grown there ever since.

Ralph Waldo Emerson had a lifelong association with the town of Concord, descending from one of its founders and periodically living with relatives there before making it his permanent home in 1835. Emerson was actively engaged in the town’s intellectual and civic life and both he and Lidian were involved in social reform movements. Nicknamed the “Sage of Concord,” one of Emerson’s greatest impacts on the town was drawing many of the leading writers, educators and reformers of the 19th century to his Concord home.

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.

A biographical profile of Ralph Waldo & Lidian’s youngest child, Edward Waldo Emerson. Trained as a doctor, Edward practiced medicine until his father’s death, after which he left the profession and spent his time writing, painting, and editing his father’s manuscripts.