Dedicated on October 1, 1873, the Concord Free Public Library was founded through the generosity and vision of William Munroe, a Concord native who made his fortune in dry goods and textiles. Upon retirement he used his accumulated wealth to benefit the town where he had been born and raised, providing funds to construct the library building and masterminded the details of construction and operation.

Munroe enlisted allies to make the library a reality and is directly responsible for setting up the administrative structure by which the library is governed today. He envisioned the library as a comprehensive repository for Concord-related materials before there was any other local institution devoted to this purpose. Its governance structure is a public-private partnership that serves this goal.

The Boston firm of Snell and Gregerson designed the library in the Gothic style, an architectural novelty for the town at the time. The building has undergone multiple additions and renovations over the years. It was altered in 1889 (a school building from Sudbury Road was annexed to the back); in 1917 (the tower came down to permit the construction of stacks); in the early 1930s (a renovation by Frohman, Robb & Little both enlarged the building and radically changed the style of its exterior from Victorian Gothic to Georgian); in 1938; 1968; 1986 to 1990 (a renovation designed by Perry, Dean, Stahl, and Rogers); and most recently from 2003 to 2005 (an update under J. Stewart Roberts & Associates)—a largely systems-driven project that modernized and restored elegance to 129 Main Street.

The collections and staff size are now approximately twenty-five times what they were when the library opened in 1873 and separate departments have evolved to handle administration, technical services, reference services, children and young people of the town, and the research needs of those who seek information on Concord history, life, landscape, literature, and people. Automation and the web have changed the way the staff functions and information is accessed.

Following In Thoreau’s Footsteps

The Concord Free Public Library was founded in 1873 through the generosity and vision of William Munroe, a wealthy businessman who used his fortune to benefit his native Concord. Munroe provided for the Library to give readers access not only to books, but also to original manuscripts and other important documents and artifacts, as well as a museum-worthy collection of paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture.

These items form the William Munroe Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library, and they include many things made by, used by, or connected to Henry David Thoreau. Some objects are on public display during all hours that the Library is open. These include two likenesses of Thoreau by Walton Ricketson (a plaster bas-relief from 1879 and a plaster bust from 1898), and five large paintings made by N.C. Wyeth in 1936 to illustrate the book Men of Concord, showing scenes described in Thoreau’s journals. In the same public areas, visitors can also see sculptures depicting Thoreau’s Concord neighbors including Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Special Collections is located on the Library’s lower level, where manuscripts and documents are stored. Visitors may ask the Curator to see such items as Thoreau’s handwritten manuscript of the essay “Walking” and a survey of Walden Pond that he drew in 1846. The collection includes over 200 pages of surveys and notes that Thoreau made while earning his living as a land surveyor. Visitors to Special Collections can also see a display of Thoreau’s tripod and other surveying tools. Photographer Herbert Wendell Gleason (1855-1937) spent years taking pictures of the Concord landscape that evoked Thoreau’s transcendental vision. Many of his photographs were published by Houghton Mifflin in the 1906 Manuscript and Walden editions of Thoreau’s writings, and in Through the Year with Thoreau (1917).

The Concord Free Public Library now has hundreds of Gleason’s glass plate and film negatives and 92 hand-colored glass lantern slides from his 1917 lecture “Thoreau’s Country.” Visitors and scholars doing research may contact the William Munroe Special Collections to request to see these items and many others. For more information, please visit https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/collections/thoreau or email specialcollections@concordlibrary.org

This site is included on the itinerary Following in Thoreau’s Footsteps: Exploring the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area created by The Thoreau Society with support from the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area Partnership Grants Program.