A 15-minute silent film about Ralph Waldo Emerson from the 1920s. Selections from his life and writings are illustrated with black-and-white footage from around the town of Concord, Massachusetts, including the Old Manse, the Emerson House, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and the Old North Bridge.

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.

A reflection on Emerson’s trip to the White Mountains in the summer of 1832 as he considered leaving the ministry after the death of his first wife, Ellen. Taking wisdom from his surroundings, it was there that Emerson made the decision to resign. Mountains continued to occupy a place in his imagination, itineraries, and poetry for the rest of his life.

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.

Remembering the historic Battles of Lexington and Concord that marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, and sharing Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” written for the 1837 dedication of a monument commemorating the battle at Concord’s North Bridge.

Excerpts on the wonders of winter from Emerson’s poems, essays, and other writings, accompanied by recent photos of the snowy landscapes around his Concord home.

Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals, which he kept throughout his life and which served as the basis for many of his essays, lectures, and poems. The journals were a platform for Emerson to evaluate and make decisions; to react to news, good or bad; and to form a record of the people he met and the places he visited.

After purchasing his Concord home in 1835, Ralph Waldo Emerson set about planting a variety of trees around the property. From stately pines and chestnuts near the house to an orchard with over a hundred fruit trees, Emerson’s efforts brought the nature he so loved even closer to home.

Well-versed in classic poetry and philosophy—a literature rich with heroic, mythic, and sacred figures—Emerson also admired Renaissance art, particularly works by Michelangelo and Raphael inspired by the vast iconography of the ancient world. Among the images of heroes, angels, and gods at the Emerson House are prints of five famous portraits of sibyls by Italian painters. 

On Christmas Day of 1832, Emerson sailed for Europe for the first time. He’d recently resigned as pastor of the Second Church in Boston and was still mourning the loss of his first wife, Ellen. In Europe, he hoped to find relief from an illness and to meet with writers he viewed as kindred spirits. He spent several months in Italy, was profoundly affected by the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and met the writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle, the last of whom became a lifelong friend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson gave more than a thousand lectures over 40 years, sharing his thoughts with audiences in the hope that they might reflect and learn. As we start this new year, hopeful of positive changes, we share a selection of some of Emerson’s most notable quotations. 

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.