From Amherst to Concord is about a 90-minute drive east on Route 2 through the mountains and beautiful scenery of Western Mass. Concord was a flourishing literary center, and many authors there (including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne) were friends who would visit frequently and often shared, rented, or bought houses from each other (or woods, in Thoreau's case). Louisa May Alcott lived at the Orchard with her family from 1858 to 1877, and in 1865 wrote her well-known novel, "Little Women," on the writing desk in her room. Also on the grounds was a school built by Alcott's father, Bronson, named "The Concord School of Philosophy," which served as a successful adult education center from 1879 to 1888. In 1884 Alcott sold the house and moved into her sister's house on Main Street along with her father.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
