Flipping the Script: The Women of the Old Manse
To visit The Old Manse – an elegant, thirteen-room colonial built on the banks of the Concord River in 1770 – is to experience pivotal moments in our nation’s history. Constructed for patriot minister William Emerson, the home was witness to the famous battle of April 19, 1775. Later, some of New England’s esteemed minds found inspiration inside its walls. In the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne both called The Manse home for a time. Considered one of the country’s most historically significant homes, it remained in the famous Emerson family from 1770 until it was sold to The Trustees of Reservations in 1939. They have been winding the grandfather clock and inviting tourists to the beautiful, nine-acre estate ever since. For decades, the museum home has allowed visitors an up-close and personal view country’s beginning of all the original and right through the heirlooms and artifacts Great Depression, left by the family. their lives tell us a New to The Old good deal about our Manse is a tour entitled history, our country, “Flipping The Script,” and the role of where visitors learn women in a society the home’s history, not that has failed to from the perspective record the true stories of a few men, but of the “other half.” from the stories of Often referred to the women who Sophia Peabody Hawthorne as “The Emersonlived, toiled, created, Ripley home,” it birthed, and died is Phebe Walker Bliss’ bloodline that runs there. It is neither a “behind every great man through the family from 1770 to 1939. is a great woman,” story nor an “also ran.” Visitors will learn about Mary Moody These women, often over-shadowed by their Emerson, born at The Manse in 1774, who famous and accomplished husbands, have was in her mother’s arms overlooking the important stories of their own to tell. Ranging North Bridge on April 19, 1775. Mary went on in time from the first stewards of this sacred, to become one of the seminal influencers in native land at least 10,000 years ago, to our
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Discover CONCORD
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her nephew, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s, life. As he stated at his aunt’s memorial, “She danced to the music of her own imagination.” Visitors will also be introduced to the amazing talents of Sophia Amelia Peabody – painter, writer, and sculptor as well as Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, one of the most intellectually accomplished people of the time. The stories of these women and others whose identities have been lost to history – the enslaved and indentured servants – are, at last, revealed. Flipping the Script tours can be booked online. Space is limited and pre-registration is encouraged. For more information, visit The Trustees of Reservations website at thetrustees.org/theoldmanse or call 978369-3909. ——————————————————————— Marybeth Kelley is a historical interpreter at The Trustees of the Reservations.
Photo courtesy of The Trustees of Reservations
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BY MARYBETH KELLY
