Friends Bus Trip to Concord, MA, on Saturday, October 25, 2014

A bus full of more than 40 Friends traveled to several historic sites in Concord on a beautiful fall day. 

1. Curator Leslie Wilson shares the history of the Concord Free Public Library, established in 1873. 2. An historical picture of the entrance room of the  Library, very similar to today. 3. Original scroll work on the balcony of the entrance room. 4. Bust of Louisa May Alcott.  

1. First Edition of Little Women written by Louisa May Alcott in 1868. 2. Curator Leslie Wilson discusses the primary source documents of Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden in 1854. 3. Thoreau's surveyor's tool. 4. Surveyor's map drawn of Walden Pond by Thoreau.  

1. Entrance to Orchard House. 2. Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, setting of Little Women. 3. The Concord School of Philosophy on the grounds of the Orchard House, established by Louisa May Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, which has continued to operate every year since its inception in 1879. 4. Louisa May Alcott said that running was one of the delights of her early days. Orchard House hosts a 5K Walk/Run each year. If you're a runner, mark your calendar for September 13, 2015!

1. The historic North Bridge over the Concord River, where the first shot of the American Revolution was fired in 1775 and heard throughout the world. 2. Statue of a minuteman, symbolic of the farmers and villagers who rallied to the cause of independence. 3. Monument on the opposite side of the bridge erected in 1836. 4. View of the boat house of the Old Manse, minister's house, in view of the North Bridge and the historic battle. Local residents canoe to the bridge to walk its historic steps. 

1. Another view of the boat house from the Old Manse house. 2. The Old Manse where Ralph Waldo Emerson and later Nathaniel Hawthorne lived and wrote several of their important works. 3. The Old Manse adjoins the National Park dedicated to the North Bridge and start of the American Revolution. The residents of the Manse witnessed the beginning of the war from their windows.