Concord School of Philosophy

Starting the Concord School of Philosophy had long been a goal of founder Amos Bronson Alcott and others in the Transcendental movement.

[1] He and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn composed a prospectus for the school on January 19, 1879, which was sent to potentially interested people throughout the country.

[2] The school opened in the summer of 1879; its first meeting was held in the study of the Alcott family home, Orchard House.

[1] A new home for the School was built for use the next summer with the financial support of William Torrey Harris and of his daughter Louisa May Alcott.

[1] Many of the school's lectures and readings focused on reminiscences of the Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson attended some of the school's meetings before his death, and was commemorated after; readings from Henry David Thoreau's then-unpublished journals were among the most popular events.