Thoreau.Institute at Wolden Woods Library The Walden Woods Projects Thoreau Institute Page 1 of 4 T # WALDEN WOODS PROJECT About Us News Calendar Search Support C THE The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods Library THOREAU INSTITUTE AT WALDEN WOODS About Thoreau's Life and Writings HOME Texts and Links including Thoreau's contemporaries, his readings, current scholar CONSERVATION documents EDUCATION RESEARCH Herbert Wendell Gleason (1855-1937) Inventory of Thoreau Society Prints of Herbert W. Gleason ca. 1899-1937 Scope and Content Note: This portion of The Thoreau Society Arch boxes of modern prints of Gleason photographs of "Thoreau Country" Roland Robbins or Nick Mills. Roland Robbins, a past President of purchased the glass negatives of the Gleason images from the print I when it closed. He preserved and reproduced them for publication collection was later sold to Nick Mills who continued to reproduce an The glass plate negatives have recently been purchased by the ( Library for their collection. Herbert W. Gleason Photographs : Box 1 http://www.walden.org/institute/thoreau/about2/g/herbertgleason/gleasonprints.htm 12/9/2006 Allen French Papers Page 1 of 2 The Allen French Papers The Thoreau Society Archives at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods Folder Series/Subseries Contents 01 A/Correspondence, major Raymond Adams, 1930- sequences, 1930-1946 1946 02 A/Correspondence, major Francis Allen, 1938-1943 sequences, 1930-1946 03 A/Correspondence, major Percy W. Brown, 1936- sequences, 1930-1946 1944 04 A/Correspondence, major Henry S. Canby, 1938- sequences, 1930-1946 1943 05 A/Correspondence, major Walter Harding, 1941-1946 sequences, 1930-1946 06 A/Correspondence, major Roland Robbins, 1945- sequences, 1930-1946 1946 07 B/Correspondence, various (A- Correspondents A-G Z), 1931-1946 08 B/Correspondence, various (A- Correspondents H-S Z), 1931-1946 09 B/Correspondence, various (A- Correspondents T-W Z), 1931-1946 10 C/Research notes and other Notes on Thoreau, 1936- material 1945 11 C/Research notes and other Notes on Emerson, 1936- material 1939 12 C/Research notes and other Talk of Emerson's poetry, material clippings and related material, 1936-1944 13 D/Miscellaneous materials Typescript talks by Percy Brown on Thoreau and Emerson 14 D/Miscellaneous materials Percy Brown's notes on Thoreau 15 D/Miscellaneous materials Edward Waldo Emerson's notes and recollections Thoreau, Emerson and Concord, 1915-1924 http://www.walden.org/institute/collections/thoreau%20society/ts%20finding%20aid/allen... 12/9/2006 The Walden Woods Projects Thoreau Institute Page 1 of 3 4 T THE a WALDEN WOODS PROIECT + About Us News Calendar Search Support C The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods THE THOREAU INSTITUTE AT WALDEN WOODS "I have sometimes imagined a library, i.e. a collection of the work philosophers, naturalists, etc., deposited not in a brick and mark HOME crowded and dusty city but rather far away in the depths of the CONSERVATION -Henry David Thoreau, 3 February 1852 EDUCATION RESEARCH The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods is owned and operated Woods Project. It provides the most comprehensive body of material available in one place. Opening in 1998, the Thoreau In http://www.walden.org/Institute/index.htm 12/9/2006 The Walden Woods Projects Thoreau Institute Page 2 of 3 holds 8000 volumes, and upwards of 60,000 items that includ correspondence, periodicals, pamphlets, music, graphic arts, map histories. It is the mission of the Library to collect, preserve and research materials relating to Thoreau, his historical COI contemporary relevance to environmental and human-rights issue The Thoreau Institute's increasing collections range from the Thoreau Society's collections, including the personal collection Thoreau scholars, Walter Harding, to the environmental writings the social reform papers of Scott and Helen Nearing, and the rec one thousand books of environmental history from the Massach Society. Some of the highlights of the collections include the recently discc leaf manuscript draft of Thoreau's "Sir Walter Raleigh" ess daguerreotype of Thoreau taken in 1856 in Worcester by Ben several Thoreau surveys; manuscript correspondence of sever friends and contemporaries, including Franklin Sanborn, Harr Blake, and Daniel Ricketson; documentation by archaeologist Rol his 1945 excavation of the Walden house site; original issues of : as The Dial and AEsthetic Papers; scarce Scott Nearing book forthright 1929 exposé of race relations, Black America, and Woman and Social Progress, written with his first wife, Nellie See rare books of environmental literature, such as Buffon's Natural Gilpin's Remarks on Forest Scenery (1834) and Knapp's Journal (1830). A library is not only a place for books and reading. It is collectiv memory collected. The materials that comprise the collections preserve what has come before us. By viewing the past we can and envision the future. Library Information and Catalogs The Collections Thoreau's Life & Writings The Thoreau Update periodic updates by e-mail on special items, new material, ever information relevant to the Library at the Thoreau Institute at Wi To subscribe, click here. Volunteer Opportunities http://www.walden.org/Institute/index.htm 12/9/2006 The Thoreau Society, Inc. is an The informal gathering of students and followers of Henry David Thoreau. Leonard Kleinfeld, Forest Hills, New York, President; Robert Needham, THOREAU SOCIETY Concord, Mass., Vice-President; and Walter Harding, State University, Geneseo, N.Y. 14454, Secretary-Treas- urer. Annual membership $2.00; life membership, $50.00. Address communica- BULLETIN tions to the secretary. BULLETIN ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN WINTER 1972 GLEASON, UNFORGOTTEN PHOTOGRAPHER title page as illustrator. However, on page VI of by Arthur G. Volkman the Publishers Advertisement it notes that for the pictures therein the reader is indebted to Mr. Her- Some twenty years ago I had an overnight guest, bert W. Gleason, whose services in illustrating this who stayed for breakfast the following morning. We edition the Publishers account themselves especially sat up late the day of his arrival talking about fortunate in securing. natural history in general and Thoreau in particular. Speaking in his own behalf Gleason writes in the A few days later I was surprised to receive from introduction to Through the Year With Thoreau, page him in repayment a copy of Herbert W. Gleason's XXVIII, in part as follows: "It was the lot of the book Through the Year With Thoreau, Boston and New writer to be exiled (speaking subjectively) from York, 1917, with the price still in it, 25c. Like New England for a period of some sixteen years, this many another book I glanced through it casually, period being spent in the State of Minnesota and put it in the bookcase to lay neglected until And later adds that the writer [Gleason] first recently. My interest in it and its author was became acquainted with the portions of Thoreau's revived on buying A Thoreau Gazetteer by Robert F. journal published in the eighties by his friend, Stowell. The Gazetteer contained six of Gleason's Mr. H. G. 0. Blake; and the reading of these, with photographs of Concord, and also his map of Thoreau's their vivid delineation of characteristic New Eng- Concord. This sent me back to the bookcase for my land scenes, sacredly cherished in memory, aroused a copy of Through the Year, for I figured, if Stowell passionate longing to visit the region so intimately thought some parts of it were worthy of incorpora- described by Thoreau and enjoy a ramble among his tion in his Gazetteer, it must be a valuable con- beloved haunts. Consequently, at the close of the tribution to the life of Thoreau. I found I was not 'exile' above noted, an early opportunity was seized mistaken. to visit Concord, with camera in hand, and many photo- The Home Garden magazine for December 1967 con- graphic momemtos were taken of localities associated tained an article by Walter Harding entitled, "A with Thoreau. But this was only the beginning. Gift from Walden Woods. Selected excerpts from the During the fifteen years succeeding, the writer has writings of Thoreau, illustrated with photographs made frequent pilgrimages to Concord, under all con- made on the scene by H. W. Gleason--an 8-page port- ditions of season and weather, searching out places folio." Following a short introduction on the works and objects described by Thoreau, treading in his and life of Thoreau, Harding wrote: "Herbert W. footsteps so far as they were discoverable, and Gleason, a Boston photographer, became interested in bringing back photographs of all that was most inter- Thoreau's works when he was commissioned to illus- esting. Out of the many hundred views thus taken a trate the twenty-volume Writings of Thoreau in 1906 brief series is chosen for reproduction in this vol- by Houghton Mifflin Company ume [Through the Year With Thoreau. "Houghton Mifflin used about a hundred of Glea- Through the Year With Thoreau contains approxi- son's photographs in their edition, but the project mately one hundred photographs, about fourteen of so captured his [Gleason's] imagination, that he which had already appeared entirely or partially, in devoted a good part of the next forty-odd years to the 1906 edition of The Writings of Thoreau. One photographing the Thoreau country until he had more important feature lacking in Through the Year is than twelve hundred choice examples. In 1917, to Gleason's map of Concord that was a part of the 1906 commemorate the centennial of Thoreau's birth, Glea- edition of The Writings. Gleason's note on this map son published Through the Year With Thoreau, a vol- reads as follows: "The material used in this Map of ume of excerpts from the Journals and other writ- Concord has been derived from a variety of sources. ings illustrated with his own pictures The town bounds, streets, and residences have been "Gleason's original glass plates and negatives taken from a township map of Middlesex County made are now, appropriately, owned by Roland Robbins of by H. F. Walling in 1856, reference also being had to Lincoln, Mass., the 'pick and shovel historian who a local map of Concord by the same engineer, dated discovered the exact site of Thoreau's cabin in 1852, on which credit for the surveys of White Pond 1946. He has kindly allowed Home Garden to choose and Walden Pond is given to 'H. D. Thoreau, Civ. from among the choicest of the glass plates for Engr. reproduction. "All names of places are those used by Thoreau, It is true, as stated by Harding, the 1906 edi- no attention being given to other names perhaps more tion of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau does current either in his own time or at present. Only contain about one hundred photographs taken by such names of residents are given as are mentioned Gleason. But to my mind the publishers did Gleason in the Journal. an injustice by not mentioning his name on the 2 "The identification of localities which were named "It is not a man's duty to devote himself to the by Thoreau apparently for his personal use alone eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; has been accomplished, so far as it has proceeded, he may still properly have other concerns to en- by a careful study of all the Journal references to gage him; but it is his duty to wash his hands of each locality, an examination of a large number of 11 H. D. T. Thoreau's manuscript surveys, and an extended personal REPORT OF THE WALKING SOCIETY by Mary R. Fenn investigation on the ground "Hon. F. B. Sanborn, Judge John S. Keyes, Dr. Edward W. Emerson, the Misses Hosmer, and others among We often hear our time referred to as a restless the older residents of Concord have been consulted period - where people are on the move, not only in in the preparation of the map, and have kindly sup- vacation traveling but in living in one part of the plied helpful information from their personal ac- country and then another as the bread winner of the quaintance with Thoreau." (It is unfortunate that family's job dictates. "Not at all like the good old Gleason left no record of his conversations with days," we sigh, "where generations of the same family these folks concerning Thoreau.) were brought up on the same farm. It is true in From the preceding one can see at a glance that Concord that many old family names today are the very the map is of inestimable value to readers of the ones which we find among the founders of the town. Journal and others. Since its original publication We always feel a deep sense of continuity as we ga- in The Writings the map has appeared at various times ther in the meetinghouse to attend the affairs of the church and hear the moderator call to order the in other publications. Probably the best copy was the one appearing in The Thoreau Society Bulletin "three hundred and thirty seventh annual meeting of No. 10, January, 1944. The Index to Walden by Joseph the First Parish in Concord." CFPR cR Jones, Austin, Texas, 1955, contains a copy as does And yet, when it comes to the Concord Authors, Carl Bode's Selected Journals of Henry David Thoreau, they did move about an amazing number of times. For a Signet paperback, New York, 1967. The 1884 edition example, the Old Manse was built by Ralph Waldo Emer- of Summer contains a reproduction of the Walling son's grandfather, and when Emerson's first wife died, map of the town of Concord, 1852. If Gleason did he and his mother lived there for some time. In fact no other service to Thoreauvians other than he per- he wrote his famous essay Nature in the upstair formed in identifying the spots to which Thoreau study. After the death of his step-grandfather, the gave specific names our debt to him would still be Rev. Ezra Ripley, the Manse was rented by Nathaniel Hawthorne and his bride. Mrs. Alcott and Elizabeth great. As far as I can learn the first Concord photo- Hoar helped get things in order for their reception, graphs by Gleason appeared in Thoreau-The Poet Nat- and Henry Thoreau planted the vegetable garden. 1902 Both Thoreau and Emerson, as well as Ellery Channing, uralist, by William Ellery Channing, Boston, 1902, which contains three. Following Through the Year were frequent callers and even dinner guests of the Gleason published an article in The National Geo- Hawthornes, and it was in the same upstairs study that graphic Magazine, February, 1920, entitled "Winter Mosses From an Old Manse was written. Rambles in Thoreau's Country, with 15 photographs, When the Alcotts moved to Concord they lived in two or three of which were in Through the Year. the house known even today as the Dove Cote - so Needless to say Gleason, as his photographs of called by Louisa May Alcott when in Little Women Concord scenes testify, was a superb photographer. she made it the first home of Meg and John. Later Moreover, he was an accomplished author as well. they bought the old Revolutionary muster master's His introduction to Through the Year With Thoreau house on Lexington Road calling it Hillside. Later covers thirty-one pages that give an illuminating they sold it to Hawthorne who called it Wayside. account of Thoreau's life and principles; he selected Still later it was the home of Margaret Sidney author of The Five Little Peppers. When the Alcotts many apt quotations from Walden and the Journals to elucidate the text. Perhaps the publication of returned to Concord, they bought the house next door Through the Year did much to help increase Thoreau's which they named Orchard House, and Thoreau helped popularity, and arouse interest in him. It was the plant trees there to beautify the grounds. Here Little Women was written. Here Thoreau and Emerson foremost of similar books to follow. Thoreau was 37 years old when Herbert Wendell were frequent callers and the shy Hawthorne an in- Gleason, who was destined to saunter in his travels frequent one and that only for the sake of propriety. around Concord, was born in Malden, Mass., June 5, The Alcotts lived there for twenty years until the old folks moved to Anna's house on Main Street where 1855. He was a graduate of Malden High School, Union Theological Seminary, and Andover Theological the Thoreaus had once lived. The Thoreau family was Seminary in 1881. He was ordained a Congregational constantly on the move, and several houses in Concord minister in 1887, and was pastor of the Como Avenue are associated with them; the Virginia Road house Church in Minneapolis, Minn., from 1885 to 1900, when where Henry was born, the Parkman House, the Texas he retired from the ministry on account of ill health. House, and the Main Street House where Thoreau died. It was Emerson more than any of the others who After leaving the church he devoted the balance of his life to literary work and lecturing, traveling kept his hospitable doors open to the Concord group. extensively in the far west for pictures and sub- Here again, Thoreau tended the garden and planted ject matter. He also contributed articles to horti- trees - even living with the family during Emerson's cultural magazines on mushrooms and other plants absence on his lecture tours. It was in the back garden, along the mill brook found in his wide travels. Among his friends he numbered Luther Burbank. In addition to Through the that Emerson commissioned Alcott to build a summer Year With Thoreau and "Winter Rambles in Thoreau's house, assisted by Thoreau, who did not think much of its ridiculously exaggerated rustic design - a de- Country, he copyrighted an address on National parks and monuments given at the National Parks sign SO outlandish that Madam Emerson dubbed it "The Conference in Washington, D. C. January 3, 1917, Ruin" before it was even finished. It was from 1917 Emerson's house that the original Walking Society set and fifty photographs of scenes from Mt. Monadnock, out on their Sunday morning strolls as soon as the 1937 1921. Gleason died in Boxbury, Mass., on Oct. 6, 19370 Walden: Earth's Eye The Story of the Effort to Preserve Henry David Thoreau's Walden Haunts 1 for Future Generations Spencer Harris Morfit Editor's Note: Spencer Morfit's chronicle of the efforts to save Thoreau's Walden Woods contains lessons for all who would preserve a place. The complexi- ties of establishing historical and ecological significance, gathering and organizing interested people, maintaining focus and momentum, and dealing with apathy and resistance, all find their parallels in our north- ern forests and in our towns and cities. What makes Walden Woods spe- cial, of course, is its connection with Henry David Thoreau, who serves as an intellectual and spiritual source for today's environmental move- ment. This very legacy also makes this story intriguing, because it means that the work to save the small ecosystem surrounding Walden Pond is an effort to preserve both land and man, to preserve a place where a seer's spirit and lessons live on. And just as Walden and Thoreau are bound inextricably, SO too are the people and lands of any place we would save. 16