Stories From Special Collections
Henry David Thoreau: Land Surveyor Although Concord’s Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), naturalist and transcendentalist, is now a widely read American author, he did not support himself through his writing. In the 1840s, Thoreau became proficient as a land and property surveyor, an occupation that had no licensing requirements at the time and allowed him to spend much time “sauntering” outdoors. Recognized as a surveyor of considerable skill during his lifetime, even according to modern standards his level of accuracy is considered exceptional. He worked for private property owners and the Town of Concord, assisting in laying roads and walking the bounds in his capacity as a “civil engineer.” While Thoreau did most of his surveying work in Concord and nearby towns, his surveying work also took him farther, including New Jersey and geographic explorations on Cape Cod and Nantucket. He surveyed the sixty-one acres of Walden Pond in the winter of 1846, including creating over a hundred sounding holes in ice that measured sixteen inches thick. Thoreau included a reduced version of his survey map in Walden, or Life in the Woods, published in 1854. In 1866, four years after Thoreau’s death, his sister Sophia sold his surveying compass and tripod through Concord auctioneer Sam Staples. Sampson Douglass Mason purchased them and presented them to the Concord Free Public Library. Thoreau left his working papers as a surveyor, including field notes and draft surveys, in the care of Sophia, who bequeathed them to the Library in the 1870s. Special Collections holds two hundred of Thoreau’s land and property surveys (184638
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Henry David Thoreau by Benjamin Maxham, 1856
1860) and field notes (1840-1861). Surveys (A.W. Hosmer copy of daguerreotype) primarily concern land and property in Concord, including three of Walden Pond. Survey No. The collection also includes surveys of 2a - Plan of land in Acton, Bedford, Boxborough, A. Bronson Alcott’s Carlisle, Framingham, Haverhill, Lincoln, Estate; ConLittleton, and Stow; one well-known cord, Sept. survey of the Concord River “from East 22, 1857 Sudbury to Billerica Mills;” and one of Eagleswood in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Surveys include properties belonging to A. Bronson Alcott, Edward Carver Damon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Francis R. Gourgas, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edward S. Hoar, Samuel Hoar, Edmund Hosmer, John Hosmer, David Loring, the Concord Mill Dam Company, Abel Moore, John Brooks Moore, William Munroe, Daniel Shattuck, Samuel Staples, Cyrus Stow, the Town of Concord, and others. Most of the surveys are pencil or ink drafts. Thoreau’s survey-related notes include measurements and calculations, expenses, fees charged, and other notes generated by him in the preparation of his surveys. The Concord Free Public Library holds presented by Thoreau’s sister Sophia, once the largest and most important collection belonging to Thoreau or his family members. of Thoreau’s manuscripts and other material The Library’s Concord Authors Collection in New England as well as extensive collections documenting Concord as Thoreau also contains first and later editions of Thoreau’s writings, collected editions, and knew it. In addition to Thoreau’s surveys items to which Thoreau contributed pieces, and surveying notes, Special Collections includes the manuscript of Thoreau’s lecture, and biographical, bibliographical, and critical works about him. “Walking,” as well as important examples of ————————————————————————— images of Thoreau, such as the 1854 crayon Anke Voss is Curator of the William Munroe portrait by Samuel Worcester Rowse. In addition, the Henry David Thoreau Collection Special Collections at Concord Free Public Library. includes more than forty books, many
All photos courtesy of Concord Free Public Library Corporation
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BY ANKE VOSS