Publications

An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum has a two-part purpose. The first is to make the Concord Museum's unique collection of objects related to Henry Thoreau and his family better known. Many details of Thoreau's everyday life in Concord can be discerned in these objects, and for this reason alone they are well worth study. The second purpose is to explore the role that objects - including some of these very objects - played in Thoreau's intellectual life. This might, at first, seem like a contradiction; why should a self-proclaimed idealist care about objects at all? But Thoreau did care about objects, and paid a close and particular attention to them. He was distinctively aware of the ability objects have to communicate. In this, as in his approach to natural history, his thinking is remarkably current.

Most of the household and personal objects that can reliably be associated with Henry Thoreau (1817-1862) and his family are in the Concord Museum. Remarkably, half of the 250 objects in the Thoreau collection came to the Museum, directly or indirectly, through one source, Henry Thoreau's sister, Sophia. Sophia Thoreau helped manage her brother's literary legacy in the years immediately following his death, and she is largely responsible for the preservation of his material legacy as well. An Observant Eye places this material legacy in context, underscoring the benefit of using objects to teach history and offers a more in-depth, accessible exploration of the collection than is possible in the Museum's Thoreau Gallery where many of the objects are exhibited.

Author David F. Wood researches and writes on colonial- and Federal-era Concord craftsmen, including cabinetmakers, silversmiths and clockmakers. He is the editor and a contributor to The Concord Museum: Decorative Arts from a New England Collection. He has been Curator at the Concord Museum for the past 20 years.

An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum has recently received two design awards. The American Association of Museums awarded the book honorable mention in their national Museum Publications Design Competition. The competition, which acknowledges excellence in the graphic design of museum publications, is the only national, juried event involving publications produced by museums of all kinds and sizes. Also, the New England Museum Association (NEMA) has awarded An Observant Eye second place in their annual Publications Design Award competition. NEMA's annual Publication Awards Program recognizes excellence in design, production, and effective communication. Entries are judged by a panel experienced in publication, design, marketing and communications. Awards are given to those entries which most effectively present their message to the intended audience. This award-winning book was designed by Gilbert Design Associates, Inc. of Providence, with 120 color illustrations by David Bohl. An Observant Eye was supported by a Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency; the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and several private foundations and individuals.

Copies of An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum retail for $39.95; $35.96 Museum members, plus 5% sales tax. Shipping cost is US/Canada $8.00 first book, $3 each additional book. To order a copy, call, email or stop by the Concord Museum Shop; (978) 369-5477; cm1@concordmuseum.org. The book is also available at www.amazon.com.