Past Annual Gatherings

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. 

2019

    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

Download Program [PDF]

 

2018

    Thoreau's Ecological and Cultural Vision for a Tolerable Future

     July 12-15th, 2018, Concord, Massachusetts

      Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Aaron Sachs

       Download Program [PDF]

2017

     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

       Download Program [PDF]

2016

        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.

        Download Program [PDF]

2015

        Thoreau’s Sense of Place
        July 9-12, 2015, Concord, Massachusetts
        Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert Gross
        Download Program [PDF]

2014

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 

2013

Henry D. Thoreau: Mystic, Transcendentalist, and Natural Philosopher to Boot
July 10-14, Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert Richardson

2012

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
Download Program [PDF]

2011

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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2010

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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2009

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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2008

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
Download Program [PDF] 

2007

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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2006

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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2005

Thoreau: Nature, Science, and Higher Laws
July 7-10, 2005 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Michael Kammen
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2004

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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2003

Thoreau and the Emersonian Influence
July 10-13, 2003  Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Robert N. Hudspeth
Download Program [PDF]

2002

The Spiritual and Political Mind of Thoreau
July 11-14, 2002 Concord, Massachusetts
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Lewis Hyde
Download Program [PDF] 

2001

60th Anniversary
July 12-15, 2001 Concord, Massachusetts 
Dana S. Brigham Memorial Keynote Speaker: Donald Worster
Download Program [PDF]