Anke Voss

As the Concord Free Public Library celebrates its 150th anniversary, we reflect on some important historical moments. 

Henry David Thoreau’s younger sister, Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau (1819–1876), was a botanist, artist, editor, and abolitionist who worked as a teacher and managed the family’s pencil business. She significantly shaped her brother’s legacy to an extent that modern scholars argue was under-acknowledged by Thoreau’s early biographers. 

In a significant collaboration, the Concord Free Public Library, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and the Concord Museum are pleased to present “A Perpetual Invitation: 150 Years of Art at the Concord Free Public Library,” hosted by the Concord Museum and on view March 24 through September 4, 2023.  

The William Munroe Special Collection’s mission is to understand and appreciate Concord’s history and culture. One unique collection administered by Special Collections is the Renee Garrelick Oral History Program (also known as the Concord Oral History Program). Its recordings and transcripts add a unique voice to Concord’s storied past. 

Under the direction of Marjorie Garrard, in 1976, the Town of Concord’s Historical Commission established an oral history sub-committee “to coordinate and carry out a program for the collection of an oral history of the Town. A large number of residents of diverse backgrounds and interests will eventually be contacted and asked to respond to this program by recording their recollections of the Town as it was.” By 1977, local historian Renee Garrelick had already recorded 30 interviews, which the Commission reported, “are highly professional and the beginning of fulfilling a longtime goal of the Commission and other local historians.” 

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.

The Concord Free Public Library’s Special Collections holds a rich and extensive collection relating to Herbert Wendell Gleason (1855-1937), a prominent American landscape photographer and environmentalist. The holdings include close to 7,000 Gleason negatives on glass plates and film, Gleason’s slide lecture “Thoreau’s Country,” albums of Concord, and Thoreau-related images compiled by Gleason himself, as well as correspondence and lecture notes. 

Thanks to the generosity of donors, starting in 1873, the Library immediately began taking in pieces of art along with manuscripts, ephemera, and books. 

Special Collections recently acquired family papers and business records related to the Damon family and the Damon Mill, a textile manufacturer which in the 19th century, operated on Main Street in West Concord, then known as Factory Village. Descendants of the textile mill owner Calvin Carver Damon donated a wealth of archival materials that enrich our understanding of the Damon family and their operation of the mill. 

In the fall of 1774, only months from the confrontation at the North Bridge, the Town of Concord was a thriving farming community and a regional trading hub accessible to Boston via two roads and with a population of nearly 1,500 inhabitants. The Town had grown gradually since its incorporation in 1635. Townspeople actively engaged in Town government and established businesses, schools, and churches to support the needs of its growing population. The inhabitants regularly squabbled over factional conflicts, but the community was harmonious in many respects.