84.   Committee on the Emerson Statue.  Typed minutes, including original 1896 vote of Concord to erect a public memorial to Emerson  and committee’s vote to replace departed members, December 10, 1905.  Typescript on paper.  From records of the Committee on the Emerson Statue, in the Keyes-Brown family papers.

85.   Daniel Chester French.  Two letters (autograph letter, signed, April 5, 1896, and typed letter, signed, December 6, 1905) to George A. King of Concord’s Committee on the Emerson Statue.  One letter ink on letterhead, one typescript on letterhead.  From records of the Committee on the Emerson Statue, in the Keyes-Brown family papers.

86.   Committee on the Emerson Statue.  Invitation to unveiling on Saturday, May 23, 1914, of French’s seated Emerson Statue.  Engraved, on paper.  From records of the Committee on the Emerson Statue, in the Keyes-Brown family papers.

87.   Photograph of Daniel Chester French’s seated Emerson in marble (statue in the Concord Free Public Library), from the collection of the Frick Art Reference Library.  Statue commissioned and erected by subscription.
 

   In contrast with the more intimate bust sculpted in 1879, Daniel Chester French’s impressive marble statue of Emerson seated is a clear example of the artist’s public work.  Bearing more than a little resemblance to his seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, D.C. (unveiled in 1922), the seated Emerson was designed to be viewed from a distance.  It depicts Emerson as the personification of the idealistic philosopher, thoughtful, serene, benevolent.  While French’s earlier bust was sculpted from life, the seated Emerson was carved long after the death of its subject. 

   The statue presents a middle-aged Emerson, at the height of his powers, sitting in a chair, wearing his favorite dressing gown.  The folds of fabric over the back of the chair are beautifully worked.  There are pine branches on the side of the base—symbolic in Emerson’s writings of the majesty and mystery of nature. 

   The seated Emerson was commissioned by a Concord committee appointed at town meeting in 1896 to erect a memorial statue to Emerson at some suitable public place in town.  The committee was not authorized to spend any town money—all funds had to be raised through private donation.  The fund-raising proceeded slowly.  French didn’t really start work on the piece until after 1910.  The statue was ceremonially unveiled on May 23, 1914, and has dominated what is now the Concord Free Public Library lobby ever since. 

   Originally placed where the entrance to the circulation area is currently located, the seated Emerson was moved to its present position as a consequence of library expansion and renovation in the 1960s.

No image in this online display may be reproduced in any form, including electronic, without permission from the Curator of Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library.

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