Rare image of Thoreau’s sister bequeathed to Concord Museum
June 20, 2017 | In the PressFrom WickedLocal.com (http://lincoln.wickedlocal.com/news/20170620/rare-image-of-thoreaus-sister-bequeathed-to-concord-museum)
The spotlight is shining bright on Henry David Thoreau, with celebrations honoring the bicentennial of his birth on July 12, but maybe his sister Sophia should be getting some of that attention, too.
According to the Concord Museum, an image of Sophia was bequeathed to the museum from the Geneva Frost Estate in Maine.
David Wood, Concord Museum curator, said Tricia Gilrein, the museum’s collection’s manager, traveled to Maine and brought the image back.
It’s a daguerreotype, the earlist form of commercial photography dating back to the 1800s.
Wood said the news is perfect timing, because the museum recently shipped several objects belonging to Thoreau to New York City for an exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum. One of them was the iconic green desk Thoreau sat in while he wrote “Walden.” According to Wood, the desk had never left Concord.
If it wasn’t for Sophia, the desk and the rest of Thoreau’s objects may have never been preserved for future generations to enjoy. Wood said it was Sophia who was not only responsible for her brother’s material legacy, but his literary legacy, as well.
According to Wood, Sophia edited “The Maine Woods” and “Cape Cod” after Thoreau’s death, and while the Concord Museum has the largest collection of Thoreau objects in the world, it wouldn’t have been possible without Sophia, who lived for another 14 years after her brother died in 1862.
“Everything went through her hands,” Wood said of the objects that eventually arrived in the museum’s collection. “Sophia did it. She’s my hero.”
Wood has worked at the museum for more than 30 years, and named the Amos Barrett powder horn in the museum’s collection as an object comparable to the significance of the discovery of the Sophia image.
The powder horn was at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775, when shots were fired between the Minute Men and British Redcoats, but Wood isn’t about to have Sophia’s image play second fiddle.
“Sophia has a lot going for her,” Wood said.
The exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum, “This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal,” is a collaboration with the Concord Museum and runs until Sept. 10. It returns to the Concord Museum and will be on view Sept. 29 through Jan. 21, 2018. Sophia’s image is expected to be part of the exhibit at the Concord Museum.
The Morgan Library & Museum has the largest collection of Thoreau manuscripts in the world.
