An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum

by David F. Wood

Explore for the first time in a fully-illustrated book the role that objects, including those in the Concord Museum's extraordinary collection, played in the life of Henry D.Thoreau. "An Observant Eye" opens with a ground-breaking essay by Concord Museum curator David Wood, "A Common Sense Applied to the Objects: Thoreau and Material Culture," followed by seven chapters examining some 150 objects from the Museum's collection, each pictured in color. The book also includes a checklist of an additional 100 objects in the Thoreau collection, extensive footnotes, a bibliography and an index. Designed by Gilbert Design Associates, with color illustrations by David Bohl, a well-known museum photographer, the book is a treat for the eye as well as the mind.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2006

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curator David Wood used the Concord Museum's Thoreau collection to explore Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau's relationship with material objects. Wood examine's Thoreau's interest in objects of everyday life, as well as collector's interest in objects associated with Thoreau and what these material things can tell us about everyday life in Thoreau's Concord. Excellent textual presentation and wonderfully illustrated with photographs of the Museum's collection.