The Henry David Thoreau Collection

The Concord Museum's Henry David Thoreau Collection, the world's largest collection of objects related to Concord's native son, numbers over 250 artifacts—furniture, ceramics, glass, metalwork, books, photographs, manuscripts and textiles. The Museum is honored to be the steward of this national treasure.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is most often associated in the public's mind with his sojourn at Concord's Walden Pond and the book that followed. Yet as a cultural historian, abolitionist, naturalist, teacher, surveyor, poet, Transcendentalist, anthropologist, inventor and social critic, he used his keen eye, sharp mind, and sense of humor to "surveyî his world in myriad ways.

Thoreau's legacy to subsequent generations continues to shape and enrich our lives. His work has been translated into countless languages and is on the syllabi of most college level courses in American literature. He has influenced some of the most noted leaders of the 20th century, including Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His inspiration for the American environmental movement, including pioneers John Muir and Rachel Carson, is profound.

Henry Thoreau's relationship with Cummings E. Davis, an early collector of Americana and the Museum's founder, helped establish the ongoing tradition of local residents donating artifacts to the Museum. For more than 140 years, the Museum has served as the repository for Thoreau-related artifacts provided by his family, his neighbors, friends and admirers, and others.

In 2006, on the occasion of the Museum's 120th anniversary, the Concord Museum published An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum exploring for the first time in a fully-illustrated book the role that objects - including those in the Museum's extraordinary collection - played in the life of Henry D. Thoreau. Written by David F. Wood, Concord Museum curator, the 160-page, full-color, hardcover book opens with a ground-breaking essay, "A Common Sense Applied to the Objects: Thoreau and Material Culture," followed by seven chapters examining some 150 objects from the collection, each pictured in color. The book also includes a checklist of an additional 100 objects in the Thoreau collection.

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.

To learn more about An Observant Eye, click here.