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.

After she married and moved away, the Emersons’ younger daughter, Edith Emerson Forbes, was missed at home and the family looked forward to her visits. Born in late November, Edith’s birthday wishes included invitations to return to Concord for Thanksgiving, bringing her own growing family. The Emersons celebrated the holiday over two days and often hosted dozens of relatives for the occasion, preparing for weeks in advance.

On September 30, 1829, Ralph Waldo Emerson married his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker. Already ill with tuberculosis when they met, she succumbed to the disease in 1831. Emerson mourned her death deeply and left the ministry soon thereafter.

On this day in 1835, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lydia “Lidian”Jackson were married in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The following day, they moved into the house in Concord that they would call home for the rest of their lives.

On this day in 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s groundbreaking essay “Nature” was published, establishing the foundation of Transcendentalism.

On this day in 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famed address, “"An Oration, Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge," later retitled “The American Scholar.” Oliver Wendell Holmes called Emerson’s speech America’s “intellectual Declaration of Independence.”

On this day in 1854, Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden; or, Life in the Woods was published. Thoreau’s most famous work details his experiences living near Concord’s Walden Pond in a cabin built on a woodlot owned by his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson.