Walden Pond

Dimensions14 × 20.5 cm (5 1/2 × 8 1/16 in.)

Credit LineCourtesy of the Concord Historical Society

Object number2023.17.10

DescriptionPhoto album of 43 loose pages combines photographic images of Concord, Massachusetts with musings on the town history and nature. Each page contains a photograph and a description or saying handwritten below photo. Tenth page of the album. The black and white photograph at the top of the page depicts Walden Pond. Grassy area in foreground, with the pond seen in the background behind a frame of trees. The page reads, "Nature made Walden Pond beautiful. Thoreau / living a hermit life in his cabin on its shore, made it / famous. / The pond nestles in the embrace of heavily / wooded ridges. The region stood high in Emerson's favor. He / called it his garden. / "My garden is a forest ledge / which other forests found. / The banks slope down to the blue lakes edge, / then plunge to depths profound." / Thoreau's cabin stood near the head of a small cove. It long / ago was moved away. But the cove is as of yore, guarded by / tree-covered arms, opening into the sun-lit pond. / The woods Emerson so loved still partly hide the / pond. Trails lead through them./ "If I could put my woods in song, / and tell what's there enjoyed, / all men would to my garden throng / and leave the cities void.""