Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts Ralph Waldo Emerso

The old manse is really a house of two revolutions. It watched the American Revolution through its windows, and later the second revolution , of intellectualism and thought. It is such a charming house. Every year, i find some new graffiti in the corner. I pull visitors and say, hey, come look at this thing we just found. Its a house that keeps on giving like i have never seen in my career. It is a house full of places to be discovered and for inspiration as well. It was built around 1760 by William Emerson and his family, one of the first occupants of the house and a minister. William emerson is the grandfather of the emerson, the writer we know and love. When he lived at this house, he and his wife phoebe had several children, the last of which was born just 10 days before he left to be part of the while he was here, he was one of revolution. While he was here, he was one of the town leaders. And like many reverends of the time, he not only led in church, but he would have gatherings here as they talked about the American Revolution. He was a philosopher. He started the houses really amazing book collection. The collection contains about 3000 volumes that started with the first ministers who lived at this house and continued to the early 20th century when later residents were collecting the books of the writers who wrote here in their lifetime. When we think about the books of old manse, this really is the heart and soul of the old house. So many people have touched these books, used these books, and so many have inscriptions. On the second floor, we have them in bookshelves with handles on the sides so they can be easily removed in case of a fire. We have many of them here and we just finished a conservation project to look at the books and take the 250 books that predated 1750 and rehouse to them. We are very proud of the books. Many of the books are inscribed. This book was inscribed from emersons friend sarah ripley. They were from the same family line. Sarah ripley was this amazing woman that lived here. She was a scholar, a mother. Some wonderful anecdotes talk about her, where she would be rocking a cradle with one foot and reading a book in sanskrit with the other. For emerson, their friendship was an important thing. They shared the intellectualism, the interest in the outdoors, writing and reading and learning. A book like this inscribed by emerson is one of many we have in the collection. Many books have little notes. People who have lived here have taken notes as they have gone through and given books back and forth to individuals. Its a collection that tells us a lot about the people who touched and used these books through history. When we are standing in the study you have to look at the , first, view. This is really about the landscape as well. It is actually from these windows that back during the revolutionary period, the emerson family first looked out and saw the commotion over bridge north with the shot heard round of the world. They talked about in their journals how they are standing here, looking out the window at the world. Think about that process. Standing in your home and witnessing the start of what would be a major event for our nation in its earliest roots. William emerson stayed at this house for about five years. Again, it was built around 1770, 1769. He and his wife moved in and lived here for a few years. He eventually went to fort ticonderoga, got ill, was trying to come back in 1776, and died. His legacy to the house was instrumental in laying the foundation of intellectualism, the house, the philosophy of the house. He only lived here for a short time period. William emersons wife found herself with small children living at the old manse as a young widow. And when she looked to what was next in her life she encountered ezra ripley. He was also a reverend in this local area, and they soon married. What began was the Second Generation of reverends who lived here at the house, phoebe and ezra would live at the house. When ezra came to the town, they had to vote if they wanted him to become the minister. Almost everyone said yes. One person voted no, saying he looked a little frail. They were not sure he would survive too long. In fact, he lived at the house for almost 60 years. He outlived everyone and was one of the longest residents. He was a prolific writer. When we took over the house from the trustees in 1939 and looked at everything that stayed here the whole time for generations back a standing desk , that was revealedopened hundreds of sermons he had written just stacked in there. He was known to write sermons that would last for several hours. A true intellectual scholar, philosopher if you will, and led this town for quite a while. Toward the end of his life, after his wife died and he was becoming elderly the room we are , in now, which we call the large parlor, became his bedroom. Going up and down stairs became too difficult for him, so this was a place where he would write, live, and accept guests to his house as well. Ezra really had a lasting impression on the house. Many of the books in the 3000 Volume Library are inscribed by him. The ripley name continues over the generation. You can see that influence that he had as a minister and town leader as well. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 in boston, massachusetts. He is a local boy. He spent his life in the city, but for a brief time, he also came over to the old manse when he came over when he was around 12. He continued to visit the property throughout his life. When he wrote nature in 1834 when he and his mother came for a visit, the reverend ezra ripley was here as well and he was becoming elderly. They cared for him for a brief time as well. Emerson, even though he was born he was in this area and it was a home for him. In 1834, he comes here and puts himself in the upstairs study, which at that time was also a bedroom he stayed in. And that is where he wrote the first draft of nature. He came briefly for nine months where he was here in the house and overlapped with ezra. This early vision of looking out continued with the people who lived and worked in this room, including with emerson who sat , in a chair just like this one. The original of the emerson chair is over at the concorde museum. And in a wonderful collaboration with them last year the , museum, the trustees of the preservation and the north , bennet Street School came together to reproduce the emerson chair so that visitors could sit in the chair where imris and wrote nature and look out over the landscape. One thing people always notice if they have seen the original and they look at this one that is reproduced, this one is green and the original chair is black. In fact, the green chair is what it would have been when emerson first sat in it at mary windsors writing desk, in this period, but later victorians loved to paint things black so the chair was changed. So what people notice is when they sit in it, it envelopes you. You feel very held when you are writing there. This wonderful wood piece of this writing surface is actually a natural color. This is a furniture piece of adaptive use. It started out as a green chair. Possibly ezra ripley, the tall gentleman, he wanted the writing surface a little higher. So they did this homemade mockup to create a higher writing surface. This is an important place for visitors to come and look out over the landscape. Right where the American Revolution started, later where the second revolution in literature and american writing and thought in this house this is the same view , that emerson had when he wrote nature. Nature is the work of emersons that is bestknown. Many look to it for american transcendentalism. Transcendentalism at that time was this growing idea of looking inward to the person. It was a philosophical and religious thought that was also grounded in social and political thought as well. An individual could look at themselves, look at nature, and look to that for inspiration, spiritual response. Transcendentalists really believed in equality of the individual and looking at everyone equally. The idea of abolitionism, trying to fight for the rights of all as well of a womans rights and education were really important. Social parts of transcendentalism. That can differ from some of the other writing at the time. When you look at romanticism and some other philosophical thought, it did look very inward and didnt have that social and political twist to it, too. Many of the people involved in the american Transcendentalism Movement looked to try to better their community. And the equality of everyone was really touted as something core to that. And so when emerson took pen to write this philosophy down in the book, nature, it set off a series of conversations and devotees that really wanted to subscribe to what emerson was saying. When he writes here and is living here, others start to trickle into concord at the same time. We have Margaret Fuller coming in, thoreau, the alcott family. They are all sort of mingling here. Emerson is loosely at the core of that. He didnt take the flag and run with it, but he was a quiet leader of this idea, the transcendentalism idea. And really, concorde, is so well placed for that. It was beautiful and continues to be so today. It was really this Perfect Place for inspiration to happen. And transcendentalism is very hard to distill down to one particular thought. There were volumes and volumes. Even today, written about what is at the core. But emerson believed the individual spirit capacity to think about the world. And anything as small as a leaf or a water droplet, or a person, really was you could see the world in that thing, that element, that person. And so, it was a very optimistic view. There was certainly a social awareness component to it that they wanted to make the world a better place at a time there was so much change industrially in the city. For emerson to write that, i often wonder how aware he was that he was about to change things. Nathaniel hawthorne is one of our great figures in this house too. One of the things i love about the old manse is it is so layered in history. There are these intellectual greats from the early ministers to emerson and thoreau and fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne, visiting and staying here. It is amazing we have not only one but several Great American writers central to the story. Around 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his new wife, sophia, came here to live. They rented the house from the family. They are newlyweds. In fact, the outdoor vegetable garden was planted by thoreau for them as a wedding present. And we have continued to maintain a garden in that spirit outside. In fact, even the windows tell a little history. There is an etching here from Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife sophia when they used this room. We have several of these throughout the house. Sophia and nathaniel took her wedding ring that had a Little Diamond in it and etched this in and said this is his study. And also said Nathaniel Hawthorne 1843 and by my wife and written with her diamond, inscribed by my husband at sunset on the gold light. You get this wonderful graffiti on a windowpane. I want to point out the idea of golden light in this room. It is so important to the history. We just installed and are so excited, this wonderful golden wallpaper. Nathaniel and sophia but gold. They used it in all their houses. They write in their letters there was a golden light here, a hanging astral lamp that shed beautiful light in the room and they put on a golden paper. We didnt really know what that looks like. Short of getting a ouija board and asking them, we had to use our best educated guess. We went with the color scheme in the period, they didnt have a lot of money so they didnt pick a wallpaper that had many colors, they went with something less expensive. We want with this vine pattern to bring the outside in. This is historic wallpaper that dates to about 1840 that has been reproduced for us and we had it put in this room recently. And when Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here, this was a study he and his wife, sophia, really loved. They talk about repeatedly coming to the study, they would read together, write together, they had a kid that sometimes played with a pin or sophias sewing that she was doing. This is actually the desk Nathaniel Hawthorne used. Its a ratchet desk. It is simple construction. But you can bring it up or down depending on the angle that you want. It is a form he really liked. In his later house, he used a similar desk to pretty standard size for the time. Very simple construction. It allowed him to face the wall. Not too many distractions. He could look out when he wanted. He was close to the fire. Ad he could sort of get little bit of the breeze that would into the room as well. But this was his desk as well. Hawthorne talked about the dingy , old antique furniture when he , was here in the 1840s. This idea that so many of the objects were older boston objects from the ministers when they first lived here in the 1760s and later. This is the environment hes writing in. He is actually very respectful of that. He loves the authenticity and the intellectualism of the ministers and what they did here at the house. He talks about it very fondly. And he looks back at this time as being one of the favorite moments of his life when he and his wife started out their life together here. Nathaniel hawthorne was a very good friend of emerson, although he did not fully agree with transcendentalism. He thought it was too optimistic and did not agree with all of the tenants, although as an intellectual, he respected it. Even though hawthorne was not a transcendentalist, he is socializing, writing and being part of that group. Its a really interesting relationship they had in this house. We had both gentlemen in the same upstairs study at two different desks writing end doing work that would become their capstone projects of their careers. Now we are going to go to the thirdfloor attic. It can get a little hot in the summertime. This was a great place at the old manse. At different times, it was used for a room for people who were boarding here, for studying, for overflow for people who worked here. We are going to take a great look at those graffiti upstairs. So when visitors come to the old manse, all the visitors will see the downstairs area. Only some of get a special look at the attic. There is so much to discover and so much graffiti on the walls from the early residents. If you follow me carefully, i will show you some of my favorites. So, this room has some beautiful artwork. With all of the wonderful scholars, intellectuals, and writers who lived here, we also had some wonderful artists that made the old manse their residence, including edward simmons, who was known for doing amazing murals in the early 20th century work. When he was a little boy, he actually stayed here. He wrote his autobiography. As a young child, he drew on the wall in pencil. See these great words and birds and botanicals in the area. My favorite is in this corner. Its a bee. When you think about kids today that take crayons and draw on the walls, to think that a young, aspiring artist that would one day make some of the murals that would be in some of the largest and most important buildings of our country started here as a youngster. He also wrote above the doorframe, good luck to all who come in or go out at the top. I will show you one more area that i love down the hall. The house was built in the late 1760s. This was one of the areas when ministers would come and they would stay here, they could come up and practice their sermons, including in a little room in the corner that we believe they used for this purpose. Around the fireplace are wonderful graffitis from hawthorne, emerson, the ripley family, all throughout the room, graffiti of those who came here before. We are still trying to solve the mystery of all of them, but there must be at least two dozen signatures around this particular fireplace in the attic. These are really wonderful bits of history. This was one of the areas where the old manse shines. I have never seen so much graffiti in one house. It really is the fingerprint of the people who lived here and wanted to leave their initials. This is really about people who lived here and went through all of the things that we go through. We have the newlyweds like the hawthornes who moved here struggling to make ends meet, create a family, live life as newlyweds. We have emerson trying to figure out who he was an think about his life in relation to the bigger picture. The objects in this house have been here for generations. It is a very authentic site. Thewill see objects from 1700s that have been recycled over the years and have the fingerprint of so many generations before. I think the very house is very approachable. People can come and see this history and feel the connection that they can be inspired by the people that lived here and thought here, at times struggled here. Emersons influence on concord has been lasting. When he lived here, people loved him. He was known to be this amazing writer and a local celebrity. The town embraced him throughout his life, even when there was a fire at his home and they raised money to help support him after that. He was really sort of a central town figure. To this day, concord is an amazing place that has always really understood the importance of the outdoors, of preserving the past, and of looking ahead to the future. It is great to see that spirit has continued from the time he have been talking about with these american writers and this idea of social justice, and preserving our landscapes. And it has really continued to this day. The people that come to concord today really can be transported back in time because the town has been wonderful at preserving the history, the buildings, the landscapes, the artifacts. So many people come to concord to find that inspiration as well. You are watching American History tv, 48 hours of programming on history every weekend on cspan three. On twitter to keep up with the latest history news. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. Cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and today byt to you your cable or satellite provider. Up next on reel america, its everybodys business, a 20minute animated film from 1954. It is funded by the u. S. Chamber of commerce. Presenting a brief history of the American Revolution<\/a> through its windows, and later the second revolution , of intellectualism and thought. It is such a charming house. Every year, i find some new graffiti in the corner. I pull visitors and say, hey, come look at this thing we just found. Its a house that keeps on giving like i have never seen in my career. It is a house full of places to be discovered and for inspiration as well. It was built around 1760 by William Emerson<\/a> and his family, one of the first occupants of the house and a minister. William emerson is the grandfather of the emerson, the writer we know and love. When he lived at this house, he and his wife phoebe had several children, the last of which was born just 10 days before he left to be part of the while he was here, he was one of revolution. While he was here, he was one of the town leaders. And like many reverends of the time, he not only led in church, but he would have gatherings here as they talked about the American Revolution<\/a>. He was a philosopher. He started the houses really amazing book collection. The collection contains about 3000 volumes that started with the first ministers who lived at this house and continued to the early 20th century when later residents were collecting the books of the writers who wrote here in their lifetime. When we think about the books of old manse, this really is the heart and soul of the old house. So many people have touched these books, used these books, and so many have inscriptions. On the second floor, we have them in bookshelves with handles on the sides so they can be easily removed in case of a fire. We have many of them here and we just finished a conservation project to look at the books and take the 250 books that predated 1750 and rehouse to them. We are very proud of the books. Many of the books are inscribed. This book was inscribed from emersons friend sarah ripley. They were from the same family line. Sarah ripley was this amazing woman that lived here. She was a scholar, a mother. Some wonderful anecdotes talk about her, where she would be rocking a cradle with one foot and reading a book in sanskrit with the other. For emerson, their friendship was an important thing. They shared the intellectualism, the interest in the outdoors, writing and reading and learning. A book like this inscribed by emerson is one of many we have in the collection. Many books have little notes. People who have lived here have taken notes as they have gone through and given books back and forth to individuals. Its a collection that tells us a lot about the people who touched and used these books through history. When we are standing in the study you have to look at the , first, view. This is really about the landscape as well. It is actually from these windows that back during the revolutionary period, the emerson family first looked out and saw the commotion over bridge north with the shot heard round of the world. They talked about in their journals how they are standing here, looking out the window at the world. Think about that process. Standing in your home and witnessing the start of what would be a major event for our nation in its earliest roots. William emerson stayed at this house for about five years. Again, it was built around 1770, 1769. He and his wife moved in and lived here for a few years. He eventually went to fort ticonderoga, got ill, was trying to come back in 1776, and died. His legacy to the house was instrumental in laying the foundation of intellectualism, the house, the philosophy of the house. He only lived here for a short time period. William emersons wife found herself with small children living at the old manse as a young widow. And when she looked to what was next in her life she encountered ezra ripley. He was also a reverend in this local area, and they soon married. What began was the Second Generation<\/a> of reverends who lived here at the house, phoebe and ezra would live at the house. When ezra came to the town, they had to vote if they wanted him to become the minister. Almost everyone said yes. One person voted no, saying he looked a little frail. They were not sure he would survive too long. In fact, he lived at the house for almost 60 years. He outlived everyone and was one of the longest residents. He was a prolific writer. When we took over the house from the trustees in 1939 and looked at everything that stayed here the whole time for generations back a standing desk , that was revealedopened hundreds of sermons he had written just stacked in there. He was known to write sermons that would last for several hours. A true intellectual scholar, philosopher if you will, and led this town for quite a while. Toward the end of his life, after his wife died and he was becoming elderly the room we are , in now, which we call the large parlor, became his bedroom. Going up and down stairs became too difficult for him, so this was a place where he would write, live, and accept guests to his house as well. Ezra really had a lasting impression on the house. Many of the books in the 3000 Volume Library<\/a> are inscribed by him. The ripley name continues over the generation. You can see that influence that he had as a minister and town leader as well. Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/a> was born in 1803 in boston, massachusetts. He is a local boy. He spent his life in the city, but for a brief time, he also came over to the old manse when he came over when he was around 12. He continued to visit the property throughout his life. When he wrote nature in 1834 when he and his mother came for a visit, the reverend ezra ripley was here as well and he was becoming elderly. They cared for him for a brief time as well. Emerson, even though he was born he was in this area and it was a home for him. In 1834, he comes here and puts himself in the upstairs study, which at that time was also a bedroom he stayed in. And that is where he wrote the first draft of nature. He came briefly for nine months where he was here in the house and overlapped with ezra. This early vision of looking out continued with the people who lived and worked in this room, including with emerson who sat , in a chair just like this one. The original of the emerson chair is over at the concorde museum. And in a wonderful collaboration with them last year the , museum, the trustees of the preservation and the north , bennet Street School<\/a> came together to reproduce the emerson chair so that visitors could sit in the chair where imris and wrote nature and look out over the landscape. One thing people always notice if they have seen the original and they look at this one that is reproduced, this one is green and the original chair is black. In fact, the green chair is what it would have been when emerson first sat in it at mary windsors writing desk, in this period, but later victorians loved to paint things black so the chair was changed. So what people notice is when they sit in it, it envelopes you. You feel very held when you are writing there. This wonderful wood piece of this writing surface is actually a natural color. This is a furniture piece of adaptive use. It started out as a green chair. Possibly ezra ripley, the tall gentleman, he wanted the writing surface a little higher. So they did this homemade mockup to create a higher writing surface. This is an important place for visitors to come and look out over the landscape. Right where the American Revolution<\/a> started, later where the second revolution in literature and american writing and thought in this house this is the same view , that emerson had when he wrote nature. Nature is the work of emersons that is bestknown. Many look to it for american transcendentalism. Transcendentalism at that time was this growing idea of looking inward to the person. It was a philosophical and religious thought that was also grounded in social and political thought as well. An individual could look at themselves, look at nature, and look to that for inspiration, spiritual response. Transcendentalists really believed in equality of the individual and looking at everyone equally. The idea of abolitionism, trying to fight for the rights of all as well of a womans rights and education were really important. Social parts of transcendentalism. That can differ from some of the other writing at the time. When you look at romanticism and some other philosophical thought, it did look very inward and didnt have that social and political twist to it, too. Many of the people involved in the american Transcendentalism Movement<\/a> looked to try to better their community. And the equality of everyone was really touted as something core to that. And so when emerson took pen to write this philosophy down in the book, nature, it set off a series of conversations and devotees that really wanted to subscribe to what emerson was saying. When he writes here and is living here, others start to trickle into concord at the same time. We have Margaret Fuller<\/a> coming in, thoreau, the alcott family. They are all sort of mingling here. Emerson is loosely at the core of that. He didnt take the flag and run with it, but he was a quiet leader of this idea, the transcendentalism idea. And really, concorde, is so well placed for that. It was beautiful and continues to be so today. It was really this Perfect Place<\/a> for inspiration to happen. And transcendentalism is very hard to distill down to one particular thought. There were volumes and volumes. Even today, written about what is at the core. But emerson believed the individual spirit capacity to think about the world. And anything as small as a leaf or a water droplet, or a person, really was you could see the world in that thing, that element, that person. And so, it was a very optimistic view. There was certainly a social awareness component to it that they wanted to make the world a better place at a time there was so much change industrially in the city. For emerson to write that, i often wonder how aware he was that he was about to change things. Nathaniel hawthorne is one of our great figures in this house too. One of the things i love about the old manse is it is so layered in history. There are these intellectual greats from the early ministers to emerson and thoreau and fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a>, visiting and staying here. It is amazing we have not only one but several Great American<\/a> writers central to the story. Around 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a> and his new wife, sophia, came here to live. They rented the house from the family. They are newlyweds. In fact, the outdoor vegetable garden was planted by thoreau for them as a wedding present. And we have continued to maintain a garden in that spirit outside. In fact, even the windows tell a little history. There is an etching here from Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a> and his wife sophia when they used this room. We have several of these throughout the house. Sophia and nathaniel took her wedding ring that had a Little Diamond<\/a> in it and etched this in and said this is his study. And also said Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a> 1843 and by my wife and written with her diamond, inscribed by my husband at sunset on the gold light. You get this wonderful graffiti on a windowpane. I want to point out the idea of golden light in this room. It is so important to the history. We just installed and are so excited, this wonderful golden wallpaper. Nathaniel and sophia but gold. They used it in all their houses. They write in their letters there was a golden light here, a hanging astral lamp that shed beautiful light in the room and they put on a golden paper. We didnt really know what that looks like. Short of getting a ouija board and asking them, we had to use our best educated guess. We went with the color scheme in the period, they didnt have a lot of money so they didnt pick a wallpaper that had many colors, they went with something less expensive. We want with this vine pattern to bring the outside in. This is historic wallpaper that dates to about 1840 that has been reproduced for us and we had it put in this room recently. And when Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a> lived here, this was a study he and his wife, sophia, really loved. They talk about repeatedly coming to the study, they would read together, write together, they had a kid that sometimes played with a pin or sophias sewing that she was doing. This is actually the desk Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a> used. Its a ratchet desk. It is simple construction. But you can bring it up or down depending on the angle that you want. It is a form he really liked. In his later house, he used a similar desk to pretty standard size for the time. Very simple construction. It allowed him to face the wall. Not too many distractions. He could look out when he wanted. He was close to the fire. Ad he could sort of get little bit of the breeze that would into the room as well. But this was his desk as well. Hawthorne talked about the dingy , old antique furniture when he , was here in the 1840s. This idea that so many of the objects were older boston objects from the ministers when they first lived here in the 1760s and later. This is the environment hes writing in. He is actually very respectful of that. He loves the authenticity and the intellectualism of the ministers and what they did here at the house. He talks about it very fondly. And he looks back at this time as being one of the favorite moments of his life when he and his wife started out their life together here. Nathaniel hawthorne was a very good friend of emerson, although he did not fully agree with transcendentalism. He thought it was too optimistic and did not agree with all of the tenants, although as an intellectual, he respected it. Even though hawthorne was not a transcendentalist, he is socializing, writing and being part of that group. Its a really interesting relationship they had in this house. We had both gentlemen in the same upstairs study at two different desks writing end doing work that would become their capstone projects of their careers. Now we are going to go to the thirdfloor attic. It can get a little hot in the summertime. This was a great place at the old manse. At different times, it was used for a room for people who were boarding here, for studying, for overflow for people who worked here. We are going to take a great look at those graffiti upstairs. So when visitors come to the old manse, all the visitors will see the downstairs area. Only some of get a special look at the attic. There is so much to discover and so much graffiti on the walls from the early residents. If you follow me carefully, i will show you some of my favorites. So, this room has some beautiful artwork. With all of the wonderful scholars, intellectuals, and writers who lived here, we also had some wonderful artists that made the old manse their residence, including edward simmons, who was known for doing amazing murals in the early 20th century work. When he was a little boy, he actually stayed here. He wrote his autobiography. As a young child, he drew on the wall in pencil. See these great words and birds and botanicals in the area. My favorite is in this corner. Its a bee. When you think about kids today that take crayons and draw on the walls, to think that a young, aspiring artist that would one day make some of the murals that would be in some of the largest and most important buildings of our country started here as a youngster. He also wrote above the doorframe, good luck to all who come in or go out at the top. I will show you one more area that i love down the hall. The house was built in the late 1760s. This was one of the areas when ministers would come and they would stay here, they could come up and practice their sermons, including in a little room in the corner that we believe they used for this purpose. Around the fireplace are wonderful graffitis from hawthorne, emerson, the ripley family, all throughout the room, graffiti of those who came here before. We are still trying to solve the mystery of all of them, but there must be at least two dozen signatures around this particular fireplace in the attic. These are really wonderful bits of history. This was one of the areas where the old manse shines. I have never seen so much graffiti in one house. It really is the fingerprint of the people who lived here and wanted to leave their initials. This is really about people who lived here and went through all of the things that we go through. We have the newlyweds like the hawthornes who moved here struggling to make ends meet, create a family, live life as newlyweds. We have emerson trying to figure out who he was an think about his life in relation to the bigger picture. The objects in this house have been here for generations. It is a very authentic site. Thewill see objects from 1700s that have been recycled over the years and have the fingerprint of so many generations before. I think the very house is very approachable. People can come and see this history and feel the connection that they can be inspired by the people that lived here and thought here, at times struggled here. Emersons influence on concord has been lasting. When he lived here, people loved him. He was known to be this amazing writer and a local celebrity. The town embraced him throughout his life, even when there was a fire at his home and they raised money to help support him after that. He was really sort of a central town figure. To this day, concord is an amazing place that has always really understood the importance of the outdoors, of preserving the past, and of looking ahead to the future. It is great to see that spirit has continued from the time he have been talking about with these american writers and this idea of social justice, and preserving our landscapes. And it has really continued to this day. The people that come to concord today really can be transported back in time because the town has been wonderful at preserving the history, the buildings, the landscapes, the artifacts. So many people come to concord to find that inspiration as well. You are watching American History<\/a> tv, 48 hours of programming on history every weekend on cspan three. On twitter to keep up with the latest history news. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. Cspan was created as a Public Service<\/a> by americas Cable Television<\/a> companies and today byt to you your cable or satellite provider. Up next on reel america, its everybodys business, a 20minute animated film from 1954. It is funded by the u. S. Chamber of commerce. Presenting a brief history of the American Economic<\/a> system beginning with the colonial period. It argues that Free Enterprise<\/a> is embedded in the bill of rights and criticizes excessive taxes and regulation of the 1950s. Its everybodys business is part of the library of Congress Collection<\/a> and made available by the National Film<\/a> Preservation Foundation<\/a> and the internet archive","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia903407.us.archive.org\/27\/items\/CSPAN3_20171016_020000_American_Artifacts_Ralph_Waldo_Emerson__the_Old_Manse\/CSPAN3_20171016_020000_American_Artifacts_Ralph_Waldo_Emerson__the_Old_Manse.thumbs\/CSPAN3_20171016_020000_American_Artifacts_Ralph_Waldo_Emerson__the_Old_Manse_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240629T12:35:10+00:00"}