"I never voyaged so far in all my life."
----A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
The Thoreau Society |
Established in 1941, the Thoreau Society has long contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about Thoreau by collecting books, manuscripts, and artifacts relating to Thoreau and his contemporaries, by encouraging the use of its collections, and by publishing articles in two Society periodicals. Through an annual gathering in Concord, and through sessions devoted to Thoreau at the Modern Language Association's annual convention and the American Literature Association's annual conference, the Thoreau Society provides opportunities for all those interested in Thoreau--dedicated readers and followers, as well as the leading scholars in the field--to gather and share their knowledge of Thoreau and his times. |
The Walden Woods Project |
The Walden Woods Project was founded in 1990 by recording-artist Don Henley to raise public awareness about the threat posed by development in Walden Woods--a 2,680-acre ecosystem surrounding Thoreau’s Walden Pond. Since then, the organization has protected nearly 140 acres in and around Walden Woods. The Walden Woods Project operates the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, a center for research and education focused on Thoreau, his literary achievements and philosophy, and his influence on environmental and social movements. Through its technology center, education programs and comprehensive Thoreau research collection, the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods provides opportunities for lifelong learning about Thoreau’s life and work. |
Digital Thoreau |
"Digital Thoreau is a resource and a community dedicated to promoting the deliberate reading of Thoreau's works in new ways, ways that take advantage of technology to illuminate Thoreau's creative process and facilitate thoughtful conversation about his words and ideas." The site includes Walden: A Fluid Text Edition, which allows readers to compare the seven versions of Walden, side by side, with the Princeton Edition text. |
Mapping Thoreau Country |
"Mapping Thoreau Country (MTC) uses historical maps to organize and interpret images, documents, and information related to Henry David Thoreau's travels throughout the United States." Includes images of Thoreau's hand-drawn maps as well as contemporaneous engravings. |
Botanical
Index to Thoreau's Journals |
Using both
scientific and common names, Ray Angelo has compiled an exhaustive
index to botanical references in Thoreau's Journal. The online version is keyed to the 1906 edition of the Journal and contains
revisions to the printed edition, now out of print. A great resource. |
The Thoreau Reader |
Richard Lenat's
introduction to several of Thoreau's books and essays, with electronic
versions of the texts and links to a number of interesting and useful
Thoreau sites. |
July 12,
1817 |
"Today in History"
from "American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital
Library" at the Library of Congress profiles Thoreau on his birthday. This well-designed site includes
the text of the 1863 Ticknor & Fields edition of Thoreau's Excursions,
one of many Thoreau items in the Library's Rare
Book Collection. |
Thoreau's
Pencils |
Text from the
radio program "Engines of Our Ingenuity," created by John H. Lienhard,
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University
of Houston. This program on Thoreau's pencil making provides a good
introduction to this little-known side of Thoreau. Lienhard cites
Henry Petroski's article, "H. D. Thoreau, Engineer," which appeared
in American Heritage of Invention & Technology 5,
no. 2 (Fall 1989): 8-16. If you can't find the article, Petroski's book, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, is widely
available. For a lighthearted and fun-filled article about Thoreau
and pencil making in Massachusetts see Deborah Bier's "Concord's
Sharp Pencil-Makers Write Themselves into History" at the online Concord Magazine. |
Ecology
Hall of Fame, Thoreau |
This Ecotopia/USA
Web site places Thoreau in the company of Rachel Carson, Alan Chadwick,
John Burroughs, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold, charter inductees into
the Ecology Hall of Fame for environmental heroes. |
Walden
Mailing List |
A mailing list,
managed by Kirk McElhearn, dedicated to Thoreau. A good place to contact
other Thoreau enthusiasts. |
Walden Pond
State Reservation |
Includes a trail map and some information about the history of the pond, as well as the current resource management plan for the reservation. |
Climatologist's Toolbox |
A record of
past environments--assembled from an analysis of frozen core samples
(defined) of Walden's sediments--was taken by Marjorie Winkler, a
paleoecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for
Climatic Research. Winkler studies lake and pond sediments, and from
them she extracts detailed physical records of changes in environments
and climates that extend back hundreds and sometimes thousands of
years. |
CONCORD, MA
The William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord
Free Public Library |
"The most comprehensive archive of primary and secondary source material related to Concord history, life, landscape, literature, people, and influence from 1635 to the present day." Finding aids for Thoreau material include
the Henry David Thoreau Papers, 1836-[1862],
Thoreau Books: Books from the Libraries of Henry David Thoreau and of Other Members of the Thoreau Family, 1776-1869,
the Thoreau Family Collection, 1828-1858,
and Thoreau Family Correspondence, 1836-1878.
Henry David Thoreau: Land and Property Surveys presents high resolution images of all of Thoreau's surveys in Special Collections.
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The Concord
Museum |
The home page for the historical
museum of Thoreau's hometown. The Museum's Thoreau Collection, the world's largest collection of objects related to Concord's native son, numbers over 200 artifacts
including the desk on which Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" and Walden; personal possessions such as his walking stick, flute and
spyglass; family furnishings from the Thoreau home; the 1861 ambrotype by
E.S. Dunshee; and the lock and key from the 1846 Concord jail. The Museum
offers object-based, Thoreau-related programming year-round for children,
families, scholars, teachers and students. |
Concord, MA |
The home page for Thoreau's
hometown. All the latest news and information. |
Concord |
This "portrait of a village,"
part of the PBS Web site, "Thomas Hampson: I Hear America Singing,"
includes a good chronology of Concord history. |
Orchard House |
A virtual visit to the
home of the Alcott family, now a historic house museum owned and operated
by the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association in Concord, MA. |
ENVIRONMENTAL SITES
The Environment Directory |
Claims to be the "Earth's
biggest environmental search engine."
It probably is. |
Environmental News Network (ENN) |
CNN for the eco-conscious. |
Environmental Protection Agency |
The comprehensive and well-organized
site of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. |
EnviroLink |
The home page for EnviroLink:
The Online Environmental Network. This page contains hundreds of links
to environmental organizations, publications, and resources. |
Evolution of the Conservation Movement |
Sponsored by the Library
of Congress, this site documents the historical formation and cultural
foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural
heritage. It's a searchable outline of the history of the conservation
movement in the United States. Thoreau's name shows up
frequently. |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration |
Home page of the NOAA,
whose mission is "to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment,
and conserve and manage wisely the Nation's coastal and marine resources
to ensure sustainable economic opportunities." |
Society of Environmental
Journalists |
The SEJ's purpose is to
enable journalists to better inform the public about critical issues
concerning the environment. SEJ's membership of more than 1,100 includes
journalists working for newspapers, television and radio stations,
broadcast and cable networks, magazines, newsletters, wire services
and photo agencies, as well as educators and students. |
The Wallace
Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment |
The Wallace Stegner Center
"is committed to identifying fair and workable solutions to local, national, and
international problems." |
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis |
NCEAS was established
in 1995 by the National Science Foundation, with additional support
from the State of California and the University of California, Santa
Barbara. NCEAS's focus is collaborative, basic, and applied research
on the structure and dynamics of ecological systems. NCEAS also organizes
and synthesizes ecological information to facilitate its use by researchers,
policymakers, and resource managers addressing important environmental
issues. |
NATURAL HISTORY
American Museum of
Natural History |
Welcome to one of the world's
preeminent scientific and educational institutions. Home to many of
the nation's leading scientists, the American Museum of Natural History
continues to build on a distinguished tradition of advanced research,
seeking to identify and describe the earth and its myriad life forms,
and to share the results of this work with a broad public. |
Audubon's
Birds of America |
An online edition of the complete
John James Audubon's Birds of America (1840-1844). Includes
full text and color plates. |
Harvard University Herbaria |
The Harvard University
Herbaria house one of the largest comprehensive collections of dried
plant and fungal specimens in the world. The Herbaria include the
New England Botanical Club Herbarium and the Herbarium of the Arnold
Arboretum. |
Internet Directory for Botany |
The Internet Directory
for Botany is an index to botanical information available on the Internet. |
Natural
History Resources |
The aim of this site is
to "provide a compilation of electronic information which pertains
to different aspects of Natural History." Current modules contain
links to Ornithology (birds) and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). |
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History: Databases |
Information about specimens and objects in the National Museum of Natural History, as well as useful reference databases and bibliographies. |
NATURE WRITING
Association for the Study
of Literature & the Environment |
ASLE was founded to promote
the exchange of ideas and information pertaining to literature that
considers the relationship between human beings and the natural world. |
The Nature Essay,
ca. 1850-1920 |
The nature essay, "a literary
genre which flourished in the United States in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries," is the subject of this bibliography
compiled by the Library of Congress of holdings from their General
Collection and Rare Book Division.
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|
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference
Guide |
This chapter on early nineteenth-century
American Transcendentalism from Paul P. Reuben's research guide has useful
information and bibliographies on New England Transcendentalists. |
The
American Renaissance & Transcendentalism |
A brief overview of the
American Renaissance with a list of relevant writings, from the
PBS Web site Thomas Hampson:
I Hear America Singing. |
New England Transcendentalism |
An excellent overview of
Transcendentalism written by Leslie Perrin Wilson, Curator of
Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library, for the November
1998 issue of an online magazine called The Concord Magazine.
This article provides a complete bibliography of sources. If you have
trouble reading the pages as printed by your Internet browser, read
Leslie's tips for printing the page. |
Bronson
Alcott (1799-1888) |
Biographical information
about Amos Bronson Alcott from the Web site for Orchard House, a historic
house museum in Concord, MA, owned and operated by the
Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association. Orchard House was the home
of the Alcott family from 1858-1877. |
Bronson
Alcott (1799-1888) |
Biographical information
about Amos Bronson Alcott and his family, from the PBS Web site "Thomas
Hampson: I Hear America Singing." |
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882 |
Good introductory biography
of Thoreau's mentor and friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson. |
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society |
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society is dedicated to fostering scholarship on and appreciation of Emerson's life and writings. This rich site includes links to bibliographies, electronic versions of Emerson's writings, images of Emerson and his home, and other useful sites. |
Margaret
Fuller (1810-1850) |
A biographical sketch and
brief description of Fuller's writings, part of the PBS Web site, "Thomas
Hampson: I Hear America Singing." |
Margaret
Fuller Home Page |
An informative site from
the English Department of Eastern Kentucky University about Margaret
Fuller--feminist, poet, literary critic, journalist, human rights
activist, and co-founder of the Transcendental journal, The Dial. |
The Margaret Fuller
Society |
Founded in 1992, the Society
is a non-profit educational organization founded to stimulate interest
in the life and writings of Fuller. |
Margaret Fuller:
A Man's Mind and a Woman's Heart? |
An overview of Fuller's
career as journalist and foreign correspondent, by human rights reporter
and foreign correspondent "watchdog" Frederic A. Moritz. |
George
Ripley and Brook Farm |
Brook Farm was founded
in 1841 by George and Sophia Ripley. George Ripley (1802-1880) was
a former Unitarian minister and a leading member of the Transcendental
Club, and he helped found the Transcendentalist publication, The Dial,
in 1840. |
Jones Very
(1813-1880) |
American poet, essayist,
and participant in the Transcendental Club. This Web site includes biography and links to several author works. |
American
Authors on the Web |
This site is a frequently
updated index of other sites devoted to American writers, nineteenth-century
and otherwise. |
Louisa May Alcott |
The official site of the Orchard House, home to the Alcott family from 1858 to 1877. The historic house museum is located in Concord, MA. |
Louisa May Alcott |
Created
and maintained by Kimberly A. Wells, this site contains a short Alcott
biography, a bibliography, and
links to other Alcott sites and criticism, and to University of Virginia's
e-text of Little Women. Jump back to her main "Domestic Goddesses"
page for similar pages and links
for Kate Chopin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, and
other women writers. |
The John
Burroughs Association |
This site profiles the activities and projects of
the John Burroughs Association and the life and work of naturalist and writer John Burroughs
(1837-1921), whose own cabin near the Hudson River, "Slabsides," became
a meeting place for writers, inventors, and environmentalists. |
Kate Chopin |
Created
and maintained by Kimberly A. Wells, this site contains a short Chopin biography and
links to other Chopin sites and criticism, and to Project Gutenberg's
e-text of The Awakening and selected short stories. Jump back
to her main "Domestic Goddesses" page for similar pages and links
for Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, and
several other women writers. |
The
Stephen Crane Society Home Page |
Links to biographical and
bibliographical resources, and to electronic texts of this naturalist
author. |
The Emily
Dickinson International Society |
The Society creates a forum
for scholarship on Dickinson and her relation to the tradition of
American poetry and women's literature. |
Dickinson Electronic Archives |
"A website devoted to the
study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work." |
Nathaniel Hawthorne |
A research and reference guide to Hawthorne, created and maintained by Paul P. Reuben as part of his larger site, Perspectives in American Literature. |
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow |
Site contains biographical
information and a collection of online poetry. |
Life and Works of Herman Melville |
Lots of useful information
and many links; frequently updated. |
The Edgar Allan Poe Society
of Baltimore |
The EAPSB was officially
established in 1923 but traces its roots back to 1865 through four
earlier organizations. The Society is a clearing house for information
about Poe's life and work. |
A Poe Webliography: Edgar Allan Poe on the Internet |
This site by Heyward Ehrlich
at Rutgers University describes itself as "a critical guide to electronic
resources for Poe research on the World Wide Web and CD-ROM, including
electronic texts, commentaries, backgrounds, literary indexes, and
search engines." The most comprehensive of several Poe Web sites. |
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896 |
This site, part of the
"Celebration of Women Writers," has biographical information and other
links. |
The Mark Twain
Papers and Project,
The Bancroft Library |
The Archive, located at
Berkeley, contains originals or photocopies of almost every surviving
document in Twain's hand, as well as a vast collection of collateral
material. The Archive is home to the Mark Twain Papers and Project,
which is producing a comprehensive scholarly edition of Twain's private
papers and published works. |
Walt Whitman
Collection, Library of Congress |
Information about Whitman
and the Whitman manuscript notebooks collected in the Library of Congress. |
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman |
Electronic version of Whitman's
masterpiece, produced by Project Bartleby. |
Walt Whitman Hypertext Archive |
A hypermedia environment
for studying the works of Walt Whitman, where you will find a database
of digitized images of Whitman's works in original, documentary form. |
The Association
for Documentary Editing |
The ADE page contains links
to member projects, including editions of Frederick Douglass, Albert
Einstein, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, George Washington, and
many others. |
Humanities Text Initiative |
Building on the University
of Michigan's groundbreaking efforts since 1990 in providing online
access to full text, the Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) is an umbrella
organization for the acquisition, creation, and maintenance of electronic
texts, as well as a mechanism for furthering the University's capabilities
in the area of online text. |
Model Editions Partnership:
Historical Editions
in the Digital Age |
The Model Editions Partnership
is a consortium of seven historical editions which has joined forces
with leaders of the Text Encoding Initiative and the Center for Electronic
Text in the Humanities. The participants have developed editorial
guidelines for publishing historical documents in electronic form. |
Society
for Textual Scholarship |
STS provides a forum for
the discussion of the interdisciplinary implications of current research
into various aspects of contemporary textual work: the discovery,
enumeration, description, bibliographical analysis, editing, and annotation
of texts. |
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