Events Tagged with 'henry david thoreau'

Join the Concord Museum for this unique tour and explore the homes in Concord where Thoreau lived.

Henry David Thoreau accumulated a variety of tools, art, and natural specimens throughout his life as a homebuilder, surveyor, and collector. Ivan Gaskell, professor of cultural history and museum studies at Bard Graduate Center and author of Mindprints: Thoreau’s Material World, will be joined by Concord Museum Curator David Wood for a conversation on Thoreau’s interactions with everyday objects and how they shaped his thoughts.

Join author John Kucich, president of the Thoreau Society, as he talks about his new book, Unsettling Thoreau. John will explore Thoreau’s complex engagement with Native American culture, which reflected his deep respect for Indigenous knowledge alongside his complicity in the settler colonial structures of his time.

Take an inside look at the restored 1730s house listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse/Henry David Thoreau Birth House. Locally, it is also known as “Thoreau Farm.” Tour includes the lovingly restored second-floor room where Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817. Visits to the house are by guided tour only. Come learn about the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau and consider lessons about living deliberately that we can learn from his legacy.

Join the Thoreau Society during their Annual Gathering for a day of free programs to celebrate Thoreau’s birthday. 10:30 am Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Lecture Camille T. Dungy “Against Solitude: Rethinking Thoreau” Camille T. Dungy is an award-winning author and poet, best known for Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, which earned multiple honors including the 2024 Award of Excellence in Garden and Nature Writing.

Come and celebrate Henry's birthday with local historian Richard Smith. Smith will portray Henry David Thoreau on his 30th birthday in 1847 for the last time. He will receive guests at the Thoreau House Replica near the main parking lot. This is an informal rolling program, so you can stop at any time between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. On sunny days, holidays, and weekends, Walden Pond often closes due to capacity. Please check DCR Park Alerts for closures at www.mass.gov/parkalerts.   Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.  Call 978-405-2082

Join DCR Interpreter Jacqui Kluft and Historian Richard Smith for a program expanding on Thoreau's Anti-Slavery actions after his night in jail. We will discuss the influence of women in the anti-slavery movement, Thoreau's Anti-Slavery meeting at Walden on August 1,1846, and his fiery lecture "Slavery in Massachusetts" at Harmony Grove, Framingham. All are welcome. 

Learn about Henry David Thoreau and his ideas about nature, society, and living deliberately. Free Guided House Tours: 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:00 pm. Admission is free and open to all ages. Suggested Donation $5/person

Richard Higgins will discuss his new book, "Thoreau’s God", which recovers a central thread in Thoreau’s life and work that has been ignored or dismissed—his personal religiosity and iconoclastic theological vision. Both are woven through Thoreau’s work as a naturalist and his philosophical thought and ethical commitments. Although a harsh critic of historical Christianity, Thoreau was religious to the bone and had a profound sense of the holy. 

Please join us on New Year's Day for our First Day self-guided hike! We will have special interpretive signage along the accessible trail to the house site. Henry David Thoreau, as portrayed by Brent Ranalli, will welcome visitors to his house (the replica), 11am-1pm. Refreshments will be served.