The Thoreau Society has been celebrating its Annual Gathering since its founding in 1941. Thoreau Society members and enthusiasts from around the world gather in Concord each year around the time of Thoreau's birthday, July 12. Our Keynote speakers have featured a diverse group of individuals, all inspired by Thoreau in some way, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Arun Gandhi, and Edward O. Wilson. Milestones marked by Annual Gatherings include the discovery of the Walden cabin by Roland Robbins in 1944, the first open house of the Thoreau Institute in 1998, and the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Thoreau's birth in 2017.
Engineering Thoreau: Nature, Technology & the Connected Life
July 10-14th, 2019, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Panel: Jayne Gordon (Moderator), Lawrence Buell, Rebeccal Kneale Gould, Richard Higgins, Robert Gross, and Robert Thorson
Thoreau's Ecological and Cultural Vision for a Tolerable Future
July 12-15th, 2018, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Aaron Sachs
Thoreau Bicentennial
Celebrating the Life, Works and Legacy of Henry David Thoreau
July 11-16th, 2017, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Terry Tempest Williams
75th Annual Gathering, Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Thoreau as Proto-Ecologist, Reformer, and Visionary
July 7-10, 2016, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Elizabeth Witherell, PhD.
Thoreau’s Sense of Place
July 9-12, 2015, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert Gross
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Thoreau’s Creative Genius: Connecting the Arts, Sciences, and Higher Law.
July 10-13, 2014, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: John Stauffer
Agenda
Henry D. Thoreau: Mystic, Transcendentalist, and Natural Philosopher to Boot
July 10-14, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert Richardson
Celebrating 150 Years of Henry David Thoreau's Life, Works, and Legacy
July 12 – 15, 2012 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Edward O Wilson
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Henry David Thoreau's Environmental Ethos: Then & Now
July 7 – 10, 2011 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Laura Dassow Walls
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Henry David Thoreau & New England Transcendentalism: Then & Now
July 8 – 11, 2010 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Megan Marshall, Professor, Emerson College
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Social Awareness: Thoreau and the Reform Movement
July 9 – 12, 2009 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: John T. Matteson
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The Individual and the State:The Politics of Thoreau in Our Time
July 10-13, 2008 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lawrence Buell, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature, Harvard University
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Simplify, Simplify: Thoreau's Timeless Message
July 12-15, 2007 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Scott Russell Sanders
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Mountains, Seashores, Moonlight: Thoreau's Exploration of Wildness
July 6-9, 2006 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Donald M. Whaley
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Thoreau: Nature, Science, and Higher Laws
July 7-10, 2005 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Michael Kammen
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Walden: Of Its Time, For our Time A Sesquicentennial Celebration
July 8-11, 2004 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Leo Marx
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Thoreau and the Emersonian Influence
July 10-13, 2003 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert N. Hudspeth
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The Spiritual and Political Mind of Thoreau
July 11-14, 2002 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Lewis Hyde
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60th Anniversary
July 12-15, 2001 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Donald Worster
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