[8] In the Walter Harding lecture, delivered at the campus of SUNY Geneseo in 2016, Witherell demonstrated how new imaging methods and policies of open access to archival material have made it possible to glean new information about Thoreau's life and thought from careful, contextualized examination of his manuscripts.
[11] New Yorker staff writer John McPhee consulted with Witherell when he was working on the 38-page introduction he contributed to the Princeton Classic Edition of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
[13] In both versions of the essay, McPhee quotes Witherell's description of how Thoreau came to write A Week: "John died in January, 1842.
[14] Carla Hall wrote a 1990 profile for the Washington Post that covered Witherell's first 24 years research on Thoreau and his writings.
"[17] The article describes the context for Thoreau's notes from the scene of the Fire Island shipwreck in which social reformer and writer Margaret Fuller died.
The Houghton Library had recently acquired these notes in the form of a 18-page manuscript, and Witherell offered her expert services to transcribe them.