Page 26 - JOA_ 0720_ONLINE_REV

Collecting Inspiration:
Henry David

by Erica Lome, Ph.D.
Thoreau

& Nature

ne April morning, when Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Margaret Fuller, among others.
was fishing in a stream outside the center of Concord, Predicated on principles of self-
OMassachusetts, he was distracted by a hawk as it soared reliance, individualism and inde-
gracefully over the water. “It was the most ethereal flight I have ever pendence, Transcendentalism was
witnessed,” he recalled. Thoreau began noticing other details around also concerned with the “mindful
him, such as the “golden and silver and bright cupreous fishes” in the cultivation” of one’s inner bring, a
water, which looked to him like a string of jewels, and the “pure and process that took place through
bright” light dappling through the meadows. This moment inspired education rather than material acqui-
Thoreau to write: “We need the tonic of wildness … At the same time sition. In particular, Transcendentalists
that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all believed Nature to be mankind’s
things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely greatest teacher of moral philosophy.
wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We As Emerson put it in Nature (1836):
can never have enough of nature.” “natural facts serve as symbols of Figure 2: Henry D. Thoreau,
This excerpt from Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), Thoreau’s spiritual facts, so the natural world is ambrotype by Edward Sidney
masterpiece of American literature, helps us to understand a man a perpetual allegory of the human Dunshee, 1862.
deeply in tune with the natural world. Known as an essayist and spirit – an allegory to which the eye Th33b, Henry D. Thoreau,
political activist, Thoreau described himself as “a mystic, transcen- gives access.” Gift of Mr. Walton Ricketson and
dentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot.” His interest in science and Thoreau subscribed to many of Miss Anna Ricketson (1929).
the environment informed his approach as a collector of Concord’s these principles, especially the right photo courtesy of the Concord Museum
history, wildlife and flora. But while Thoreau may be counted among of men and women to act with their conscience. One of his most
the great amateur naturalists of the early nineteenth century, he was famous works, “Civil Disobedience” (1849) was written in response to
also—at heart—a poet. the Mexican American War and the expansion of slavery. Thoreau
asserted that an individual citizen had a moral imperative to fight
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” injustices perpetrated by their government. He himself refused to pay
taxes, protesting “the state which buys and sells men, women, and
Born as the third of four children to John children, like cattle at the door of its senate-house,” and was jailed in
and Cynthia Thoreau, Henry developed his Concord for one night as punishment. “Civil Disobedience” has been
observational skills thanks to his mother. called one of the most influential essays in the worldwide democratic
According to their neighbor Edward tradition. (figure 3)
Emerson, Cynthia trained the eyes and ears Thoreau followed his own
of her children from a young age: “She used path in life, abiding by his
to take them out in the door-yard, make mantra to “simplify, simplify.”
them listen to the bluebirds’ notes in the In Walden, the writer reflected
bird-box there and then listen to the songs of on the period from 1845 to 1847
the more distant singers in the elms and fields when he lived in the woods
close by, framing little verses of exclamations at Walden Pond, a mile or so
cheerful or plaintive to fit the accent of from his home in Concord.
Figure 1: Cynthia Dunbar, paper the outbursts from the various little This utopian experiment was
hollow cut silhouette feathered throats.” (figure 1) the result of Thoreau’s life-long
by William King, 1805-1815. After receiving an education at pursuit to live fully—“to live
PI1313, Gift of deep and suck out all the
Mrs. Leander Gage, through her Harvard, Thoreau dedicated his life and marrow of life,” as he put it in
granddaughter Miss Mabel career to writing, supporting himself Walden—but also to live
Carleton Gage (1939). along the way as a teacher, surveyor and
even as a pencil manufacturer (his responsibly. By closely observing
photo courtesy of the Concord Museum
father’s business). While he never grew the natural world, with its
wealthy from his written works, many of which were published by his endless cycles of rebirth and
sister Sophia after his death, Thoreau considered himself rich “in sunny regeneration, Thoreau found
hours and summer days.” (figure 2) Figure 3: Cell lock and key from the spiritual enlightenment and
Thoreau was part of the circle of Transcendentalists in Concord, Concord jail, c.1789. M2081, Gift of intellectual purpose.
radical intellectuals led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott and Cummings E. Davis (1886).
photo courtesy of the Concord Museum

24 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles