Emerson Holdings in the Special Collections
The Concord Free Public Library houses major holdings relating to Ralph Waldo Emerson's life and work. The Library's Special Collections include Emerson's essay "Culture" both in manuscript and on microfilm, letters from Emerson to various correspondents (including a series of twenty-two letters written to Charles King Newcomb between 1842 and 1858), Edward Waldo Emerson and Ellen Tucker Emerson materials, and a complete typescript from the manuscripts of Emerson's journals (the originals of which are now in the Houghton Library).
The Special Collections are strong in newspaper clippings, periodical articles, reprints, and research papers. Some of the materials consist of published writings by Emerson—for example, contributions by him to the American Review, the Democratic Magazine, the New England Magazine, and the North British Review ; the remainder is biographical or critical. Concord's collections also include important examples of Emerson iconography (such as the seated marble figure by Daniel Chester French and a large oil portrait by David Scott) and photographic portraits of Emerson and his family. Concord's manuscript and pamphlet collections are continually expanding through gift and purchase.
The Library's Concord Authors Collection contains two extensive Emerson collections, the R.W. Emerson Collection and the Newton/Emerson Collection (the former composed of various gifts and purchases, the later assembled by William Taylor Newton and presented to the Library in 1918 by Edith Emerson Forbes and Edward Waldo Emerson). Both collections include first and later editions of Emerson's writings, collected editions, items of which Emerson was editor or to which he contributed pieces, and biographical, bibliographical and critical works about him.
In addition, the R.W. Emerson Collection includes more than twenty-five books—some of them inscribed—once belonging to Emerson or to members of his family. Emerson-related volumes in the Concord Authors Collection may be searched through the database of the Minuteman Library Network.
Finding aids:
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Papers, 1835-1871.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Journals and Notebooks, 1819-1875 (Typed Transcripts, 1929-1938)
- Emerson Family Correspondence, 1827-1957.
- Edward Waldo Emerson and Emerson Family Papers, 1845-1971 (bulk 1876-1922)
- Ellen Tucker Emerson Music Collection, 1855-1894.
- Emerson Books: Books from the Libraries of Ralph Waldo Emerson and of Other Members of the Emerson Family, or Otherwise Associated with the Emersons, 1780-1899.
- Kenneth Walter Cameron Collection of Material Relating Primarily to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1811-1985.
Online Exhibit:
Irey Concordance:
Eugene Irey's A Concordance to the Collected Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson.