The Ralph Waldo Emerson House

06/20/2026

Thanks to the Barrow Bookstore, take a virtual walk with Emerson!

06/17/2026

📚 Places to Go: Ralph Waldo Emerson House | Concord, MA

In 1835, philosopher, poet, and lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson moved into this house with his new wife, Lidian, and proceeded to write some of the most influential works in American literature, including the final draft of "Nature" in 1836 and "Self-Reliance" in 1841. The home, which Emerson called "Bush," quickly became a gathering place for the writers and thinkers who shaped American Transcendentalism, including Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Bronson and Louisa May Alcott.

Thoreau himself lived here twice, once from 1841 to 1843, and again in 1847 after leaving Walden Pond. It was in a small bedroom at the top of the stairs that he wrote the lecture that would eventually become his famous essay "Civil Disobedience."
Emerson lived in the house until his death in 1882. Today, maintained by the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, the home is a museum featuring original furniture, books, and family possessions, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

This site is part of the Following in Thoreau's Footsteps itinerary created by The Thoreau Society with support from Freedom's Way.
📍 28 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, MA

Plan your visit at freedomsway.org

06/10/2026

When you visit, you may notice Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem "Days” on display in his home. Do you know where?

Written between 1851-1852, Emerson’s poem was first published in the Atlantic Monthly’s inaugural issue in 1857, along with three other poems, including “Brahma.” The poem uses archaic language that was familiar in Emerson’s time, but some of his words’ commonplace meanings have changed since the nineteenth century and others are less familiar, making the poem less immediately accessible to modern readers than it was to Emerson’s original audience.

The allegorical poem personifies the Days to reflect on time’s passage and human ambitions. The Days come singly, one by one, but also in an “endless” procession. Each Day offers a gift. One Day bring a jeweled crown and others more humble offerings, such as a bundle of wood for the fire (a daily necessity for heat and cooking in the nineteenth century) or bread; another Day offers the star-filled sky. The poet in his fenced-in garden is distracted from his day’s plans by the apples and herbs in the Day’s harvest. While the poet is in his garden, the Day passes quietly and the poet realizes “too late” that his plans for the Day are unfulfilled.

This poem was a family favorite, and its sentiments are echoed in Emerson’s advice to his 15 year old daughter Ellen:

“...finish every day, & be done with it. For manners, & for wise living, it is a vice to remember. You have done what you could —some blunders & absurdities no doubt crept in forget them as fast as you can tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well & serenely, & with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day for all that is good & fair. It is too dear with its hopes & invitations to waste a moment on the rotten yesterdays.” (April 8, 1854)

Have you ever had a day, like Emerson, when you didn’t accomplish anything you intended to when you woke up that morning? Despite your unmet expectations, did the Day offer unexpected gifts?

We hope you have a Wednesday filled with quiet gifts. The Emerson House will be open tomorrow, Thursday, and through the weekend for guided tours. And tomorrow morning at 11am, there is a special 45 minute "Emerson Out of Doors" garden tour. Come and find "Days" for yourself!

Image: “The Days” (1884-1886) by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, inspired by Emerson’s poem. The original painting in the collections of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; source: Wikimedia Commons.

06/09/2026

Reminder: the "Emerson Out of Doors" Spring Garden tour will be offered this June Thursday, June 11, 2026, 11:00 - 11:45 AM; tickets $7.

We'll tour the special features and plantings, including mature native trees and perennials as well as old roses. Along the way, visitors will learn how the landscape has evolved as it continues to reflect the Emersons' interest in the natural world and our relationship to it.

if you'd also like to tour the house, we welcome you yo come early or stay after the garden tour.
(House tickets are not included in the garden tour ticket. For further information on touring the Emerson House please see the visitor information section on our webpage. Link in comments)

https://rwema.org/events/spring-garden-tour-2026?fbclid=IwY2xjawSU_2pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeVh-VgV3l2ytMWZirrgfGUug1AZ4WAw9AF7mI-fHxBJMmPlmAKguL0U3bX9A_aem_PwhgZqbJTFrOE3cQoCbMJQ

Join us for a leisurely tour of Emerson’s garden and grounds as Lidian’s beloved roses come into bloom. Along the way, we’ll consider how the landscape has evolved as it continues to reflect the Emersons’ interest in the natural world and our relationship to it. Meet in the Emerson House boo...

06/06/2026

Emerson wrote this comforting advice to his fifteen-year-old daughter Ellen, who was attending boarding school in the Berkshires.

The renewal to be experienced in each new day fit with Emerson's philosophies to live from the self in each new present moment. But it was a sentiment he frequently had to reground himself in, and a topic he would revisit in a poem that was a family favorite. We'll post more about that poem in the days to come.

06/05/2026

A lovely graphic by Slow Simple Seasonal, inspired by a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Immortality"

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06/02/2026

There's still time to get tickets for this Thursday's lecture!

Theodore Parker of Lexington and Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord were directly linked to the events of April 19, 1775: both men had grandfathers who were involved in the battles that sparked the American Revolution. How did Parker and Emerson view their revolutionary heritage? How did this shape their thinking in the turbulent years leading up to the Civil War?

Join Public Historian Richard Smith for Abundant Heresies: The Revolutions of Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson as he discusses the literary and spiritual connections between the two men and their two towns. How did Parker and Emerson use their heritage to help change American literature and thought? How did this affect the Anti-slavery Movement of the 1850's?

🎟️ Tickets are available on our website (link in bio)!

05/31/2026

"Sitting in the long window in mother’s new room, and there are the Apple-trees in bloom and perfectly full of bees, which make a summery noise. We are all of course rejoicing as usual in the approach of summer.” - Ellen Emerson, Letter, May 31, 1858.

Are you looking forward to summer too?

We welcome you to come visit and anticipate summer in the Emerson House garden.

The Emerson House is open for guided tours, Thursday through Sunday.

A special "Emerson Out of Doors" Spring garden tour will be offered on Thursday June 11, 11- 11:45 am ($7 per person).

Image: Apple blossoms and bird's nest by Olive E. Whitney (L. Prang & Co), courtesy of Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons

05/29/2026

On Thursday June 4 , join the Lexington History Museums and public historian Richard Smith for a program on Transcendentalists Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"The ideals of the American Revolution weren't realized in one generation. Learn how the grandchildren of 1775 changed the world."

Smith's talk will focus on the literary and spiritual connections between Lexington’s Theodore Parker and Concord’s Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom were linked to the revolutionary events of April 19, 1775 through their grandfathers. The program will examine how Parker and Emerson viewed their revolutionary heritage and how they used it to shape American literature and thought in the years leading up to the Civil War.

This event is sponsored by Lexington History Museums and will be held at The Depot in Lexington, MA, ((7-8 pm). Tickets are $10 for LHM members and $15 for non-members.

Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/abundant-heresies-the-revolutions-of-theodore-parker-and-ralph-w-emerson-tickets-1985103124884?fbclid=IwY2xjawSGc9hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeJ0EsJJw8t1YMTT-fJh2bPvhANBSCI67zIe6JT73v7m93vNYHd7F2EtUp--s_aem_kqtIPhsZa390dTZ7Z1lgwg

The ideals of the American Revolution weren't realized in one generation. Learn how the grandchildren of 1775 changed the world.