Concord Stories from Special Collections: Emerson’s Muses
Concord Stories from Special Collections is a new virtual series that highlights the rich holdings of the Concord Free Public Library Corporation’s William Munroe Special Collections through stories about Concord’s people and places from a variety of guests, including Concord residents, scholars, researchers, and curators. Join us online for the third installment of Concord Stories on Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. online.
Our featured guest is Victor Curran. In his presentation, "Emerson’s Muses: Mary Moody Emerson and Sarah Bradford Ripley," Victor will tell the stories of two brilliant women, Mary Moody Emerson and Sarah Bradford Ripley. Mary Emerson was born at Concord’s Old Manse in 1774, and Sarah Ripley died there 93 years later. Mary Emerson “danced to the music of [her] own imagination,” envisioning a nature-based spirituality that found its way into the transcendentalist writings of her nephew Ralph Waldo Emerson. Sarah Ripley—a scholar acclaimed by the President of Harvard—ran a school where she mentored a teenage Waldo Emerson. In this segment, both women will step out of the shadow of the man they educated.
Victor Curran writes and leads tours of historic Concord and is an interpreter at the Concord Museum. He teaches courses and writes articles about the men and women who made Concord the home of American independence and imagination. He is a past President of the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library and of the Society of Printers, Boston. He has a B.A. in History of Art from Cornell University.
