Stories From Special Collections: The Art Collection

Concord dedicated the Concord Free Public Library (CFPL), located at the intersection of Main Street and Sudbury Road, on Wednesday, October 1, 1873. The Library was founded through the generosity and vision of William Munroe (1806-1877), a Concord native who made a fortune in dry goods and textiles and who provided funds to construct the library building and establish a model for joint public and private funding and governance that continues through today between the Town and the Library Corporation.

In addition to providing access to reading materials, William Munroe also always intended for the Library to house works of art. Thus, art has had a special place within the CFPL since its founding.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, starting in 1873, the Library immediately began taking in pieces of art along with manuscripts, ephemera, and books. That year, the Concord Farmer’s Club donated a bust of the printer, publisher, editor, writer, and politician Simon Brown, commissioned from Daniel Chester French. Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Reuben Rice, and Elizabeth Sherman Hoar purchased a portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Scottish historical painter, David Scott, for the Library, and a special committee of Concord citizens also presented a bust of William Munroe by Thomas Gould.

Plaster sculpture of Simon Brown

Today, the CFPL is home to a unique art collection that emphasizes Concord, Massachusetts’ history, people, and culture. The William Munroe Special Collections curates over 200 pieces, including sculptures, paintings, and lithographs, from a wide variety of artists from Concord and beyond. The collection’s focus is works of art with an association to the Town of Concord, whether that is via the subject, donor, or the artist. Works include portraits of Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott, sculpture, and interpretations of Concord’s physical environment.

The Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks by William James Stillman is one of the best-known works in the art collection of the William Munroe Special Collection. Our collection also includes many other noted pieces, including works by Daniel Chester French, N.C. Wyeth, Washington Allston, Edwin Dalton Marchant, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, Mary Ogden Abbott, Alicia Keyes, May Alcott Nieriker, and sculptor Louisa Lander.

Elizabeth Sherman Hoar

The collection continues to grow, even during a pandemic! In 2021, Special Collections received a gift of an exceptional painting by an unknown artist of Elizabeth Sherman Hoar (1814 - 1878) from the Brooks Hoar family.

Curating an art collection involves public programming but also ongoing maintenance. Recently we contracted with Skylight Studios Inc., located in Woburn, to clean and restore over a dozen plaster busts and objects in the Library’s collection. Starting in the late fall of 2020, following an extensive inventory and documentation project, Jim Coutré Photography photographed the Library Corporation’s entire collection on-site. The updated digital images will serve as a record of the collection and support future programming and outreach, on-site and virtually. While over half of the collection is on public view throughout the Library, the complete collection is now on view virtually on the Library website.

On your next visit to the Concord Free Public Library, be sure to take some time to enjoy the Library’s art treasures, or visit them online at concordlibrary.org.