If you’ve been Concord, you should be Worcestered

I take this title from the eminently quotable Thoreau, who once quipped to his Worcester friend Harrison Gray Otis Blake in April 1857, “Come & be Concord, as I have been Worcestered.” Thoreau had already lectured in Worcester several times and had been visiting the city for over seven years when he wrote to ...

The Thoreau Household in 1840

Daguerreotype of Sewall, 1847

We recently announced a new web resource consisting of four journals kept by Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. between 1837 and 1840, when Sewall was between nine and twelve years old. Of particular interest is a journal kept in March and April 1840, when the boy was a student at John and Henry David Thoreau’s Concord Academy ...

A New “Portrait” of Henry David Thoreau?

Carte-de-visite of Samuel Rouse

Last week we announced a new AAS web resource consisting of four journals kept by Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. between 1837 and 1840, plus an introductory essay.  The journals include a description of Edmund’s life in Concord, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1840 while he was attending John and Henry David Thoreau’s Concord Academy and ...

New Web Resource: The Journals of Edmund Q. Sewall Jr., 1837-1840

Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr

Thoreau scholars have long been aware of the journal kept in Concord, Massachusetts, during a period of seven weeks in 1840 when twelve-year-old Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. was attending John and Henry David Thoreau’s Concord Academy and boarding in the Thoreau household. One reason Edmund’s journal is of interest is that it contains one of ...

The Acquisitions Table: Moses Kimball’s Journal

Kimball, Moses. Journal, 1850-1851. Moses Kimball (1809-1895) was an active citizen of Boston throughout the 19th century.  After failed attempts at the newspaper and printing business, Kimball succeeded in the museum business, purchasing and expanding the New England Museum (which had been established by Ethan Allen Greenwood) in 1838, and opening the Boston Museum in ...

The Acquisitions Table: Waterman Journals

Waterman, Martha Elizabeth and Walter.  Journals, 1854-1880. Martha Elizabeth Drew was born in 1839 in Kingston, RI. She married Walter Waterman of Bridgewater, MA. This collection consists of three journals written by Martha, and one by Walter. Martha’s journal entries detail daily weather and daily activities such as calling on friends, and attending singing school and ...