19th Century Transcendentalism

            As a transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that rather than glorifying the materialistic aspects of life, we should value the natural beauty of the earth and its wonders (History.com). Throughout his well-known writing of Nature, he discusses how humans naturally work to gain wealth but end up too old to enjoy their earnings by the time they have finished working. With his personal epitomes, Emerson introduces how living a simple lifestyle is more fulfilling than a high-class status. Transcendentalist…

Pictured above is an oil painting of the infamous Brook Farm created by American artist Josiah Wolcott in 1846. The “Brook Farm”, located in Boston Massachusetts was 185 acres of land and home to one of the first communal living institutions. This farm was created as a transcendentalist experiment in 1841 by George Ripley. As a past Unitarian minister and a profound leader of the Transcendentalist Club, Ripley was known by many as a community activist. The Brook Farm was a unified living quarters that provided shelter, work, necessities, and education to members of the community who were…

The Dial was the first public Journal written by the New England transcendentalists from 1840 to 1844. Many famous writers contributed to the succession of this journal such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, David Thoreau, and Frederic Henry Hedge. At this time those who followed the transcendentalist movement were known as the “Hedge’s Club”, named after Frederic Henry Hedge, since he led many transcendentalist councils when he was in Boston. Members of this club were often considered “earthy” people as they advocated for others to appreciate the natural occurrences of the world.…

Peter Doyle, born in June of 1843, was an Irish man who moved to the United States with his family in the early years of his life. Although Doyle moved across the world to live the American Dream, he did not live a lavish lifestyle as his father worked in a factory and his mother took care of him and his eight siblings. Doyle received little education before he moved to America and did not attend any educational institutions in the U.S (Murray). Around the same time that Doyle was growing into a young adult, the transcendentalist movement was spreading across the nation. Intrigued by the…

Author of The Minister's Black Veil, The Birthmark, and A Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne was arguably one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. The American author was born July 4 of 1804 in Salem, Massachusettes, exactly twenty eight years after the United States became 'one Nation'. Above is an oil portrait of Hawthorne, painted by artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze in 1862, just two years before his passing on May 19th, of 1864. Hawthrone was one of the many well known transcendentalists of the 19th century alongside Ralph Waldo Emerson and…

Born on May 23rd of 1810, Margaret Fuller was the female face of the Transcendentalist movement. As an inspiration to many, Fuller advocated for womens rights to education, property ownership, and true freedom. The portait above was painted by european artist Thomas Hicks in the city of Rome amongst her private pregnancy in 1848. This time period was notorious for their oil painting as the one created of Fuller because of the new found vibrance these minerals provided (Service). Although Fuller was commonly catagorized as a proud transcendentalist icon, she did not always agree with the…

Written by Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or Life in the Woods, is an text that symbolizes the journey of the author himself whilst spending two years isolated in the forest discovering self relience and naturalism. This 1854 text has oftan been referred to as an American classic as most people first discovered or learned about it in their middle childhood. Although Thoreau originally wrote the journal without the intention of publishing it, his work was undeniably one of the greatest publications from the transcendentalist movement. Publically agreeing with Ralph Waldo Emerson…

In 1849, American artist Asher Brown Durand painted "Kindred Spirits", as a requested memoir for the late Thomas Cole. Pictured in the canvas is poet William Cullen Bryant and Hudson River School Landscape founder Thomas Cole. Bryant was a transcendentalist known for his 19th century poetry which focused most on nature and the originality of the world. With Ralph Waldo Emerson being his inspiration, many of Bryant's famous poems depict the raw beauty of the earth and the souls that it consists of. Bryant and Cole met whilst brain storming the creation of a art & educational facility…