The Concord Museum

Sitting between Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home is the Concord Museum.



You cannot help but let your imagination go wild, as you glance up through the boughs of an old fruit tree.

One day while photographing Emerson’s home, I glanced over at the Museum and couldn’t help but notice the grand old fruit tree sitting in front of the building.



I walked across the street and looked at the beautiful old tree from every angle.



Such beautiful old trees. I wondered if Louisa May might have sat beneath this very tree while babysitting Emerson’s children.



I became curious about this majestic building, and the ivy covered brick facing which frames the gorgeous old green front door.



I thought, was this the passage that Louisa May took when going to Emerson’s home?



Inside the museum you will find the most amazing exhibits. Yet, what about this handsome old building outside.

"In 1886 Mr. Cummings E. Davis moved into the Reuben Brown House house with his unique collection of antiques and would exhibit his collection of local American furniture and other items for a price. During Mr. Cummings feeble years The Concord Antiquarian Society safeguarded his items and became possessor of the house. The Antiquarian Society utilized the house to display their collection of artifacts from American Revolution until 1930 when the Antiquarian Society moved their collection to the present Concord Museum in fear the Reuben Brown House might burn down and destroy there priceless artifacts."



Then while rummaging through one of my favorite old book shops the other day, I came across this little obscure little book called the Handbook Concord Antiquarian Society, Concord, Massachusetts 1932.



When I opened up the book I read:

"In 1930 the old collection of the Concord Antiquarian Society was installed in the new house which had been built for it.

In the middle of the eighteen-hundreds a Concord character, Cummings E Davis had the unusual crotchet of collecting antiques. Long before the value of such things was recognized, he gathered everything he could."



There inside was an old rendering of the Concord Museum. The Emerson family had donated the land where the museum stands today.



The front door has also been preserved, and you enter through another door to visit the museum. A trip worthwhile. One of my favorite exhibits is the Emerson Library. To learn more about the museum you can click HERE.

You just cannot help but let your imagination run wild...

as you glance up through the boughs of an old fruit tree. Dreaming of who might have sat beneath and written lovely words of the days they knew. Many people have come and gone admiring it's strong trunk and found shade underneath it's lovely branches. Yet it alone still stands, rooted in the history of the place and inviting the new guests to sit and to daydream for awhile.