Windows down the hill and then later the second intellectual revolution of thought. It is such a charming house with discoveries. I love working here and every week finding new graffiti or come look at this thing that we found, a house that keeps on giving in a way i have never seen in my career. Its a house for things to be discovered and i think for inspiration as well. It was built around 1760, by William Emerson and his family, one of the first occupants of the house. William emerson is the grandfather of the writer we all know and love. When he lived at this house, he and his wife, phoebe, had several children and the last just before he went to be part of the revolution and only knew her a short time period. While he was here he was one of the town leaders and he not only read in the church, he would have gatherings as they talked about the American Revolution. He was the philosopher. He had a book collection that started with the first ministers who lived at this house and continued to the 20th century when the later residents were collecting the books of writers who wrote here through their lifetimes. Really, this is the heart and soul of this house. All the people that touched and used these books and so many have inscriptions. On the second floor we have them in bookshelves that have handles on the sides that could easily be removed in case of a fire and they could take out these wonderful books. We have many here and we just finished a conservation project and take the books from 1750 and rehouse them. Were really proud of the collection here and continue to look at it. Many are inscribed, such as this one inscribed from emerson and his friend, sarah ripley. They were related. Sarah ripley was an amazing woman that lived here. A scholar and mother. Amazing antidotes where she would be rocking a cradle with one foot and reading a book in script with the other. For emerson, their friendship was an important thing. They share the in tell electoral interest in writing and reading and learning. Correction intellectual interest and they have given the books back and forth to individuals and its a collection that tells us about the people who touched and used these books through history. When were standing in this study you have to look at this view. This is about the landscape as well. From the windows of this room during the revolutionary period the emerson family first looked out and saw the commotion at the bridge in the shot heard around the world. Theyre standing at the window and being in this house, this is your home and witnessing the start of what would be a major event for our nation. Emerson stayed at this house about five years, and he and his wife lived here a few years. He eventually went away and got ill, trying to come back in 1776, and died. His legacy to the house was really instrumental to the found work of the intellectuals and the house, the philosophy of the house. He only lived here for a short time period. William emersons wife, phoebe emerson, found herself with small children living at there and really a young widow. When she looked to what was next in her life, she encountered reverend ripley, also a reverend and they married. It was the Second Generation that lived at the house. The interesting antidote, when ezra came to the town and the pari parisheners had to vote whether they wanted him to become minister. They all said yes except one that said he looked a little frail and wouldnt survive too long. But he lived there for 60 years and he was one of the longest residents. He was a prolific writer. When the trustees took over the house in 1939 and looked at everything that stayed here the whole time for generations back, a standing desk that was his, when opened, revealed hundreds of sermons he had written stashed in there. And he was known to write sermons that lasted several hours. A true intellectual scholar philosopher. And after his wife died and he was becoming elderly, this room we call the parlor became his bedrooms. He moved down here and the two floors were probably too difficult for him. This is the place he would write and live and accept guests to his house as well. Esra had a lasting impression in the house. Many of the books in the 3,000 Volume Library are from him inscribed and the ripley name continues in the generations here. You can see the influence he had as a minister and town leader as well. Born in 1803 in boston, massachusetts, a local boy. He spent his life in the city, for a brief time came over to the old mansion when he was younger, around 12 and continued to visit the property throughout his life and again when he wrote in 1834, when he and his mother came for a visit, the reverend ezra ripley was here. He was becoming elderly and they helped care for him for a brief period of time, too. For emerson even though he was born a city boy, this was the home for him. In 1834, he comes to the old man and puts himself in the upstairs study, which at that time was also a bedroom he could stay in. That is where he wrote nature, the first draft of nature. He game briefly for a nine month period he would stay in the house and overlapped with esra. This early vision of looking out continued with the people that worked and lived here including emerson, who sat at a chair just like this one. The original of the emerson chair is at the Concord Museum. And in collaboration with them last year, Concord Museum, trustees and north Bennett School produced the emerson chair so visitors could actually sit in the chair where emerson wrote nature and looked out themselves over the landscape. One thing people see, they look at the original and this one we produced. This is green and the original is black. The green chair, when emerson sat in it. But painted green in the period and later victorians liked to paint things black. The chair has changed a bit. What people notice when you sit in it, it envelopes you and you feel held writing there. The other wonderful addition, writing surface is actually a natural color. This is a furniture piece of adapted use, started out as a green chair, possibly ezra ripley, a tall gentleman when he sat in it, wanted the writing surface a little higher. They did this homemade mockup to create a higher writing surface. This is really an important place for visitors to come and look out over the landscape. Right where the American Revolution started the second revolution, really letterture and the american writing, revolutionary thought that happened at this house, they can look over the same view emerson had when he wrote nature. The book, nature is really the book emerson wrote best known and really many look to as the start of american an tran dentalism. At that time, it was this growing idea of looking in the words of the person it was a philosophical and religious thought also grounded in social and political thought as well so an individual could look at themselves, look at nature and look to that for inspiration for a spiritual response. But really believed in the quality and importance of the individual, looking at everyone equally. The idea of abolitionism and trying to fight for the rights of all as well as the womens rights and education were all really important social parts of transcendentalism. That can differ from some of the other writing at the time, you look at romanticism and other philosophical thought. It looked inward without the social and political twist. Many of the people involved in the american transi dentalism was core to that. When he tried to pen this philosophy down, it set o a series of conversations and devotees that really wanted to subscribe to what emerson was saying. So when he writes here, others start to trickle into concord at the same time. We have margaret coming in, the rowes wander in and alcott family wanders in. Emerson is usually at the core of that. He didnt take the flag and run with it. He was this quiet leader of this idea of this tran san dentalism idea. Concord was well placed for that. It was beautiful and continues to be so today and this Perfect Place for inspiration to happen. It was interesting because it was very hard to put down to one particular thought. Theres volumes and volumes, even today what is at the kour. Emerson believes the individual spirit had this great capacity to think about the world. Anything as small as a leif or water droplet or person really was you could see sort of the world in that thing, that element, that person. It was a very optimistic view, very social component to it. There was so much change industrially in our city. For emerson to write that i often wonder how aware was he he was about to really change things. Nathaniel hawthorne is one of our great figures in the house. One of the things i love about the old man, so layered in history, the intellectual greats from the early ministers from emerson and thorough, who visited and daniel hawthorne, they came and stayed and visited. Its interesting we have not one but several Great American writers central to the story. Around 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his new wife come to the old mans to live. They have rented the house from the family. They are newlyweds, in fact the outdoor vegetable gardens was planted by thorough as a wedding present for them and we have maintained a garden in that spirit. Even the windows show history. There is an etching by Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife from when they used this room. They took her wedding ring that had a Little Diamond in it and actually etched. This is his study, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1843, composed by my wife and written with her diamond on the sunset on the gold light. You get this wonderful graffiti on a window pane. We just installed this wonderful gold wall paper in the room. They used this gold wall paper in all their houses. They write there was a golden light and hanging lamp that shed beautiful light and put on a golden paper. We didnt really know what that looked like, instead of getting a ouija board and asking them, to the color scheme and the period, they didnt have a lot of money so didnt take one that had a lot of colors and went with something less expensive to bring the outside in. This is historic wall paper that dates back to the 1840s that has been reproduced for us and we had it put in this room just recently. When Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in this space, it was a space he and his wife really loved. They talked about coming to the study at night, read together and write together and sometimes the sewing she was doing. This was the desk hawthorne used when he wrote. Its Pretty Simple construction. You can bring it up or down depending on the angle that you want. It was one he really liked. He actually used a standard one, Pretty Simple construction, facing the wall, not too many distractions, look audited when he wanted, close to the warmth of the fire and get a little bit of breeze as ezra would come into the room and this was his desk, including one of our favorites that has to do with the old man and his time here. Hawthorne talked about the dingy old antique furniture, when he was here in this 1840s. This idea that so much of the objects, so many of them were these older objects, boston objects from the ministers when they first lived here in the 1760s and later. This is the environment he is writing in. He is actually very respectful of that. He love the authenticity and intellectualism of the ministers and what they did at the house. He talks about it very fondly and looks back on his time as one of his favorite moments of their life when he and his wife started out their marriage. Hawthorne befriended emerson but didnt agree with transendentalism, but respected it, he is socializing and writing and being part of that group. Its an interesting relationship in the house. We had both mens in the upstairs study at two different desks writing, doing works that would be the capstone projects of their careers. Now, we will go to the third floor attic. It can get hot in the summertime. This was a great place for the old men and different rooms for people boarding and overflow space for those that worked here. A great area. We will take a look at the graffiti upstairs. When visitors come, only some will come and take a special tours upstairs to the attic, one of my favorite parts because of the graffiti from residents. If you follow me carefully, ill to the you some of my favorites. This room has wonderful artwork with scholars and intellectual writers made it their residence including Edward Simmons known for doing amazing murals in the 20th century. When he was a little boy he stayed here and wrote an autobiography. As a young child he actually drew on the walls in wonderful pencils. We see these great birds and botanicals in the area. One of my favorites in this corner is a wonderful bee as well. When you think about all the kids today that take crayons and write on the walls and we have all seen that or done that, to think of an aspiring artist that would one day make murals in some of the most important buildings in our country started here as a scholar or student as a youngster. We also wrote above the door frame, good luck to all who come in or go out, at the top. He also wrote. Ill show you one more area i love down the halls. The house was built in the late 1760s. This was one of the areas, when ministers would come and stay so they could come up and practice their sermons, including in a little room in the corner we believe they used for this purpose. Around the fireplace are wonderful graffitis from hawthorne, emerson, ripleys, those in the room, that came here before. Were still trying to solve the mystery of all of them. There must be at least two dozen signatures around this particular fireplace in the attic. These are really wonderful bits of history. This is one of the areas the old man shines. I have never seen so much graffiti in one house and the fingerprints of people that lived here and wanted to leave their initials here as well. This is really about the people that lived here and go through all the things we go through. You have the newlyweds, hawthornes when they moved here struggling to make ends meet and create a family. You have emerson trying to figure out who he was and life and relationship in a bigger picture. The objects in this house that have been here for every generation and recycled and reused over the years and have that fingerprint over the generations before. I think it is a house people can come and see this history and feel the connection. They can be inspired by the people that lived here, fought here, at times struggled here. Emersons influence on concord has been lasting. At the time he lived here, people loved him and known to be an amazing writer and little bit of local celebrity. The town sort of embraced him throughout his life, even when there was a fire at his home and to support him after that. He was a central town figure. Even to this day, concord is an amazing place that has always understood the importance of the outdoors, preserving the past and looking ahead to the future. Its great to see that spirit has continued from the time weve been talking about with these american writers and this idea of social justice and preserving our landscapes and has really continued to this day. The people that come to concord today can be transported back to town with the town preserving the history and artifacts and many people come to concord to find that inspiration as well. For two years, Henry David Thoreau lived on the shores of walden pond. The purpose was to find a better answer to nature and the chronicled his experience walden or life in the woods. Commenting on the Lasting Impact of his book. Thoreau its interesting, very often, readers of walden they come to the pond are maybe a little disappointed. When you read walden, you really are expected to be amazed at the landscape. The fact that thoreau could be everyday just staggered by a landscape as humble as this, that takes getting used to, because it was a pond. And now American History. He came out here as a little boy and he remembered that excursion long after but he came here with his family actually to gather sand for his fathers sandpaper manufacturing enterprise, but he came here to live actually july 4th, 18 provide, for two years here after that. His friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson had not long before bought the property were standing on now. As a wood lot basically. The soil around walden isnt good for much except for growing trees. He asked emerson if he could put up a structure here and stay here for a while and emerson said, sure. His principle purpose was to find a writers studio for himself. It was something he had been thinking about for several years, that and the specific project he had in mind was a book in memorium to his brother, john, who had died in 1841. The book is about a trip that he took with john in 1839. They were both very young. They took a trip by boat up to new hampshire. Thats loosely the thread that runs through a week on the concord in merrimack, which is the book that he wrote here. While he was here, its sort of easy to imagine thoreau was all alone. If you read the book, you would think hes halfway up the slope of a mountain or something, that he was off at the end of the world somewhere, but hes not. Hes connected to the town. Its only a little over a mile away, especially if you take the railroad cut there and youre in town in no time. He had lots and lots of visitors while he was out here. It was not that he was isolated but he had plenty of the solitude he wanted as a thinker and a writer. The house he built, he tells us in the first chapter of walden, was 10 by 15 feet, which is a very substantial space, about the size of most craftsmens workshops in that period. You can get a lot done in taken by 15 feet and it was sufficient. 10 by 15 feet and it was sufficient for him. He planted a field of beans and tried to get by in part on them, but the you know, for the rest of his living it was supplies he would get from town, rice and things like that. Thoreau came to walden already with a set of ideas about what wildness is, not the wilderness but wildness. Thats what interested him. Part of the exercise in coming to walden was to remove himself from culture. That sounds sort of drastic but you catch artists at it now and then. There was one that went to tahiti. Part of the reason he went there was to put all of europe behind him. This was something emerson suggested in a number of places. He thought it was importa