You can watch more of our visit that cspan. Org citiestours. In concord,re massachusetts on lexington road, also known as the battle road. Where the redcoats marched into the north bridge on april 19 of 1775, starting the American Revolution. This house was standing there then. Eventually much later than that, it becomes the home of Amos Bronson Alcott and his family. One of the daughters, Louisa May Alcott, in this house writes a book that really changes a lot of the way people think about children, the way they think about young women, the way they think about mature women. A very progressive book for its day and today it istill remains this because it is a true to life story of four young women and their parents. Victor alcott was an educator in the early days. Mrs. Alcott was a very progressive thinker who was deeply in love with mr. Alcott. They were in boston when alcott met emerson. Emerson was well ensconced there. He felt this town has Something Special to offer. It had the Political Revolution in 1775. A literary revolution in the 1800s. Mr. Emerson really wanted alcott to move here. I want tootts study, focus what is above the fireplace. This is really an expression of mr. Alcotts lifelong belief i want to focus what is above the fireplace. Seashills are weird, the scooped in scooped in vein if learnings altar vanishes from the plain. That is an elaborate way of never stop learning. Youre never too old to keep going. That is very important. Mr. Alcott dedicated most of his life to education. In the early years, he educated the young and his ideas were extremely unusual for the day. It was an era where most teachers were concerned with some of the expressions we find kind of funny if a boy is bot not bad now, he is about to become a just go ahead and strike. If you spoil the rod, you spoil the child. Mr. Alcott thought of it as a walking stick. He would not strike the students. He allowed questions in the classroom which was frowned upon by most teachers. The teacher knows what you have to know so why yoare you encouraging questions . He had a lot of difficulty with people getting nervous about these unusual techniques, yet the children were learning more and they loved mr. Alcott. It was really the right thing, hiwas just 100 years in s time. He taught adults as well and he did find he could finally do that in this room in 1879. Here we have one of the cofounders of the school of philosophy, that is what he called his Adult Learning opportunity that started in this roo im. Mr. Emerson one set of Bronson Alcott that mr. Alcott is the former genius of our day. These twomr. Emerson one set ofn gentlemen were closest of friends. They walked together on a daily basis and really supported each other in everything. It was not a surprise that he helped cofounded this Concord School of philosophy. The first year began in this room. It soon was overflowing these walls. People even stood outside so they can hear. Donatedhe attendees a small accessed lecture hall. That was the building that people thought it was a barn. It was meant to be a very rustic looking structure as a lecture hall. When it comes to finances, the alcotts said they had the alcott sinking fund. It seems their financing got worse and worse. Mr. Alcott was not always paid very well for what he was doing. It was not that he was not working hard, he was just a little too innovative and people did not appreciate enough what he was doing. One time he said promises were not always kept. Shal, but iuy a would do better. He was always trying hard, but not necessarily doing well. Sometimes it meant all the women in the household were pitching in in a way that was not considered very ladylike. It was supposed to be the man doing all the earning and the woman cooking and cleaning and raising the children. They were a little bit unusual financially that way. They were definitely struggling a lot of the time. Here we are in the alcott dining room. They took meals here. Mrs. Alcotts english china was sometimes used. This was their best china. Is for hermis fo i maiden name, may. Is china. Mrs. Alcott had a funny saying , she said we will always be a respectable family because we have find china. She was not very serious about it. She was pleased to have this in her family. In this direction, we have some wonderful portraits. This one is particularly interesting. Its of Louisa May Alcott. She looks less well in this portrait than she did a few years earlier because she is 38 years old here. She had been in the civil war as a union army nurse, contracted typhus and ammonia. She was treated with heavy doses of mercury. Today we know mercury is not good to ingest. Back then it was a medication. They thought the disease was leaving you as you are also losing your teeth and hair. She managed to recover from all of this much to the amazement of many people because others that were as sick as she was did not recover. Famoushealy, a very portrait artist at that time, learned that the famous ms. Alcott was in italy the same time he was. Little women have become an international hit. Someone recently said to me that Louisa May Alcott in that day was more famous than j. K. Rowl ing. Probably because there was not competition. She was a Huge International sensation. This george healy asked ms. Alcott if he could paint her. I competition. She was a Huge International sensation. Say today we are very proud that we have this george healy painting in our dining room. In only other dining room america that has a george healy in it is in the white house. He was in that day the big picture that was summoned to paint president s. It was quite an honor for her. She was very disappointed. She said i look like a smoky relic from the boston fire. It was a terrible disaster in boston. She thought she looked like she stepped out of that fire. She said we should hang it behind a door. And then we have a likeness of elizabeth alcott. She is the actual model in little women. She is the only one whose name does not change in little women. She died just before they moved into this house. They spent a whole year fixing this house up and she came many times, she saw the work they were doing. They were excited. This is the place they lived the longest. Yet, she sort of knew because she was so ill that perhaps she would not be living here. She even said she thought Sleepy Hollow might be her new home and that is what happened. If you look at thisshe even arct leads into the parlor, the girls hungen as young women, were a curtain between these two rooms so the table gets moved out of the way and it to become this stage. They had many wonderful sets and scenery and costumes. The audience would sit here. Women, towards the beginning of the book, the girls will put on a play as a christmas present. That is really a play that lousia diisa did write. They performed it in the dining room. At one point in little women, it describes the audience sitting on a cot that collapses during the play. These things really happened to them all the time and it was always louisa saying dont act like something is wrong. She was really the one who loved dramatic impulse. I think that showed in her writing. Her early experience doing these plays with her sisters helped to inform her writing style. Louisa loved making up stories. She often made them up just out loud when they walked along, taking a walk in the area around walden pond with henry David Thoreau. She would also record and do a lot of writing. I would say she was probably writing every day. She loved it. It was a release for her as well, an outlet. She did not have a tremendous amount of success at first, but she had some success almost from the beginning in the sense that she had short stories and poems published early on and i think that was enough to keep her going. At one juncture where she was Teaching School in boston and boarded with james fields, a famous publisher and his wife, she showed mr. Fields some of her writing and was very hopeful that she is living in the maybe he will take an interest. He told her stick to your teaching, you cannot write. Maybe he will take anthat made her more determined. She kept going. Much later after little women, loanaid mr. Fields back a that he had given her to help with the establishment of her school and she said with all due respect, i think i shall stick to my writing as it pays better than my teaching. She really did come. Circle and became a big Financial Success eventually. Now coming up to the second floor, we have the parents bedrom. Om. May alcott, the youngest bedroom. This bedroom. This room is the most popular, the most important to most people were Louisa May Alcott wrote little women. This is her bedchamber. Originally, she shared it with her sister anna, called meg in the story. Louisa was jo. She had a little halfmoon desk built for louisa by her father and sat and wrote little women. In that era, it was commonly thought that brainwork such as writing would ruin a womans health. Doctors even had written article that they have now proven it. Even if you were not concerned medically, people thought it was not seemly for a woman to write seriously, to write for a publication. It was fine to write letters but this was something you should reserve for the men. The fact that her family supported her this way was really quite amazing. The building of this desk was more than just a convenience. It was really a wonderful support biologically for Louisa May Alcott. Her mother was equally supportive. Phe gave her a suit and a ca she could have to concentrate. Pen alcott also gave her a and wrote a little note saying your muse inspire. She had wonderful support from her family. Now, little women was a simple story to louisa. It was really the family story. She did not really think much would come of it when she sent it off to the publishers but she noted in her journal that they really lived most of it. Looked at it and didnt think that much of it either but he gave it to his niece who loved it, loved it more than anything she had ever written. The publisher decided we will go with this and conservatively started off with a very small number but that first edition, about 2500 books, sold out very fast. More copies were printed and people then as now might have been a little surprised it is such a simple story but it was way ahead of its time in many ways. It walked a fine line between leading people into more progressive thought such as the idea that a woman can be independent, a woman can have that she couldn, have a temper and not be villain. D the all of these human qualities that women were often told to suppress came out in the person of jo marge villain. All of these human and in the pf along. May alcott all the family was not perfect at all. Flaws. L have yet, they supported each other, they loved each other. They never felt sorry for each other and sat around and said i guess i cannot do anything. They kept going. This is a very inspiring flaws. Yet, they supported each other, they loved each other. Role model for people to read this book, especially young women for whom the book was intended. Little women succeeded beyond louisas wildest imagining. It made her a superstar of the day. This changed everything, partially because her very honest publisher, thomas miles advised her to keep the copyright which was wonderful advice because that meant she could really make money on the book. She became quite wealthy by the standards of the day. You can think of are almost as a millionaire today. That made the family very comfortable. It allowed all of their debts to be repaid. Generous, she was always doing kindnesses for others. If somebody needed something and she could do it, she often would be helping others in much the same way they had been helped when she was young, particular emerson. Waldo he was always trying to make findingt they were money. Always trying to help them. Ouisa took note of that and try to do the same thing. It was interesting the Literary History of concord is so multifaceted. And depending on interest, you could easily just bypass the alcott home because you did read the book. There is something about this particular book and this particular house that is unique in the sense that as far as i know it is the only piece of literature that not only has maintained its importance to so many people it never has been out of print, widely translated, well over 50 translations, very beloved of people of all cultures. It was written and set in a house that is not open to the public. When people walk through this house, they often say to me this is like walking through the book. Someone once said is like you can really go to hogwarts after reading harry potter. But hogwarts is not a real place and this is. It is really a house of two revolutions. It stood and watched the American Revolution. Later, the second American Revolution with intellectualism and thought. It is such a charming house with so many discoveries. I love working here and that every week i am finding some graffiti or some object in the corner. Come look at this thing we just found. It is a house that keeps on giving in a way i have not seen. It is really a house full of places to be discovered and for inspiration as well. Bywas built around 1760 William Emerson and his family. One of the first occupants of the house. William emerson is the grandfather of the emerson, the love. We all know and whhe and his wife had several children, the last of which was born only 10 days before he left to be part of the revolution. He knew her for only a short time. While he was here, he was one of the town leaders and like many of the reverence at that time, you not only led in the church but he would have gatherings to talk about the American Revolution. He was a philosopher. He started the houses amazing book collection. It contains about 3000 volumes that started all the way back to the first minister that lived in this house and continued until early 20th century when later residents were collecting the books who wrote here. When we think about the books, n later residents were this really is the heart and soul of the house. All the people that have touched these books, used these books so many of them have inscriptions. In the second floor, there are bookshelves that can easily be removed in case of a fire. We have many of them here. We just finished a conservation project to look at the books and take the 250 books that predated 1750 and three house them. We continue to look at it. Many of the books are actually inscribed like this one that was inscribed from emerson to his pley. D sarah ridple they were related. Ripley was this amazing woman who lived here. She was a scholar, a mother. Some wonderful anecdotes talk about when she would be rocking a cradle with one foot and reading a book in sanskrit with the other. For emerson, the relationship was really in important thing. They had interests in the outdoors, writing and reading and learning. A book like this where it is inscribed by hammerson is one of the many ones we have in the collection. Notes,oks have little the people that have lived here have left little notes or given notes back and forth to individuals. It is a collection that tells us a lot about the people who read and used these books. When we are standing in the study, this is really about the landscape as well. Some of these windows in this room that back in the revolutionary period that the emerson family first looked out and saw the commotion at the north bridge with the shot heard around the world. They talk about it in the journal that they are standing here looking out the window and thinking of the process being in the house 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. It was abuilt around 1770. He and his wife lived here for a few years. He eventually got ill. He was trying to come back in 1776 and died. His legacy to the house is really instrumental to laying the groundwork of the intellectual. He only lived here for a short time. William emersonswilliam emersod herself with small children living in the old manse. When she looks to what was next in her life, he encountered as a ezra ripley. They soon married. What began was the Second Generation of reverence who lived here at the house. An interesting anecdote is when ezra came to the town and they had to vote if they wanted him to become the minister. Almost everyone said yes except for one person voting no saying he looked a little frail in fl. In fact, he lived in the house for almost 60 years and outlived everyone. He was the old manses longest residents. And he took over the house looked at everything that was here for generations back, a standing desk that was his went hundreds ofealed sermons he had written. Known to write sermons that lasted several hours. A very intellectual scholar, philosopher. He lived in this town for quite a while. After his wife died and he was becoming elderly, the large parlor became his bedroom. The two floors were probably getting too difficult for him. This was a place where he would write and live and accept guests to his house as well. Ezra really had a lasting impression on the house. Many in the books in the library we have are from him, inscribed and the name continues over the generations here. You can really see that influence he had as a reverent and how later. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 in boston. He is a local boy. He spent his life in the city but for a brief time he came to the old manse when he was around 12. He came to visit the property throughout his life and again whein 1834. When he and his mother came for a visit, the reverend ezra ripley lived here, he was becoming elderly so they helped care for him for a growth brief time. Emerson, even though he was born a city boy, conquered was a home for him. 1834, he comes to the old manse and puts himself in the upstairs study which was also a bedroom. That is where he wrote the first draft of nature. He came briefly for a ninemonth period. It overlapped with ezra. This really early vision of continued for people who live and work here, including emerson, who sat on a chair like this one. The original of the emerson chair is in the concord museum. And the norths