tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51927072915774429672024-02-19T05:45:16.218-05:00Louisa May Alcott's Orchard HouseHome of Little WomenLouisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-84513238148004193982015-09-02T10:30:00.000-04:002015-09-03T09:17:07.080-04:00'A Joy to Run': Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Walk/Run!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I always thought it was extraordinary that Louisa May Alcott walked and ran long distances because women in her day were commonly forbidden such 'unladylike' and 'dangerous' activity," commented Orchard House Executive Director Jan Turnquist. But Louisa May Alcott found a joy in running, one so deep that she figured she must have been a horse or a deer in a previous life. "Ten years ago, when looking for a fundraiser for Orchard House, a Walk/Run event seemed like a natural idea to me, since it was truly in keeping with Louisa herself!"</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfoLG-a31DeCLNJG9uhsjbmxwjbZJLCu9yGvM59aSKA3D0dZTy4x6uoa6lP-v42s1pogcueQxOtPE2_sy-8LrfKm5S6IYe9rw6BZqlKT8fU06ub2IbTi3NUQjozRRH-EcsncCIiMo0EAzr/s1600/jan-and-guys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfoLG-a31DeCLNJG9uhsjbmxwjbZJLCu9yGvM59aSKA3D0dZTy4x6uoa6lP-v42s1pogcueQxOtPE2_sy-8LrfKm5S6IYe9rw6BZqlKT8fU06ub2IbTi3NUQjozRRH-EcsncCIiMo0EAzr/s400/jan-and-guys.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Executive Director Jan Turnquist at last year's Walk/Run</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Now in its tenth year, the Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House Walk/Run event keeps Louisa's legacy alive. Running was Louisa's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">joy and sometimes her </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">comfort. When she felt herself coming down with an illness while serving as a nurse in the Civil War, she took to running in the early mornings to keep up her stamina. According to Alcott biographer John Matteson, it was this physical stamina that aided Louisa in her recovery from typhoid pneumonia and mercury poisoning in the months following this ordeal.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Louisa's physical strength and capability always marked her as different from other women of her time. She was "universally recognized as the most beautiful and fastest runner in town," according to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Alcott biographer Madelon Bedell, and she was always, like Jo, her autobiographical counterpart in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Little Women</i>, considered a tomboy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the autumn of 1845, when Louisa was only 13 years old, she went for a run that she likened to a spiritual experience. She sensed a "vital sense of His presence, tender and sustaining as a father's arms," she wrote in her journal. She found more than comfort in her running; she found freedom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this spirit, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House Walk/Run</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>was born.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louisa May Alcott, portrayed by Jan Turnquist, kicking off the race in 2013!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Over the past ten years, the Walk/Run has become a community staple; the familiar sneaker signs that mark the runners' path can be seen around Concord in early fall, commemorating Louisa May Alcott's love of running and the solace she found in it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Because of</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">similar feeling</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">s</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">joy</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> and comfort,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> as well as a great admiration for Alcott,</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> world-renowned runner Uta Pippig joined forces with Orchard House to become Honorary Chair of the race.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> Raised under Communist repression in </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">East Germany</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> before </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">the fall of the Berlin Wall,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">th</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">e Boston Marathon "stood for freedom in her mind," and she eventually achieved<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">her goal</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">of competing in <i>and</i> winning this historic race--not once, but three times, consecutively, in 1994, 1995, and 1996. She is still the only woman to have achieved this incredible feat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Leaving East Germany to run this race in 1994 branded her a defector. Happily Uta not only later became a U.S. Citizen, but she also won the German Reunification Race after the fall of the Berlin Wall. </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uta Pippig at the finish line of the Orchard House Walk/Run in 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Two strong women of achievement, </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Uta Pippig and Louisa<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">May Alcott </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">share this deep connection to running</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span> <span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Pippig will be in attendance at the race this year to continue Louisa May Alcott's legacy and encourage all runners to find a similar<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">joy and</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>freedom. Louisa's autumn run in Concord took place on a dewy, "perfect" morning, and you too can share in a similar experience. Walk or run on a dewy morning in Conord in autumn--following in Louisa May Alcott's footsteps--at the Walk/Run on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1130024986" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; top: -2px; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">September 13</span></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Uta Pippig will not only be in attendance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">at the Walk/Run</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"> this year, but in honor of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">its </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">success<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">and the </span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">celebrat</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">ion of</span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>its 10th anniversary, Pippig will also be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">presenting her <b>"Running to Freedom" program on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1130024987" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday, September 16 at 7:30pm</span></span></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>at Trinity Episcopal Church on 81 Elm Street, Concord. All are invited -- runners and walkers or not!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">Louisa May Alcott and Uta Pippig are both trailblazing women; not only in the realm of physical activity but in their spirit for activism as well. On<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1130024988" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; top: -2px; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">September 13th</span></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">, we will celebrate the joint effort of these two incredible women to bring freedom to others, as well as the wonderful effort of all our runners and walkers present at the race. Don't miss these incredible events--history is still being made in Concord, Massachusetts! </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">See<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.louisamayalcott.org/" target="_blank">www.louisamayalcott.org</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1130024989" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">September 13</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Walk/Run details and for the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1130024990" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">September 16</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Running to Freedom" ticket information. Tickets will also be available at the door.</span> </span></span> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-59321682737851934082015-02-25T10:00:00.000-05:002015-08-31T14:44:52.079-04:00Travel Back in Time with Welcome to Our Home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many visitors feel that entering Orchard House is like entering a secret door to the past. Walking through the rooms, it's as if the Alcott family is just down the street visiting the Emersons, and we are lucky enough to have a peek at their belongings and hear their stories while they're out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But there's a way to visit Orchard House while the Alcotts <i>are </i>at home and to experience more deeply this feeling of traveling into the past.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Once a month, the final tour of the day enters Orchard House after the museum has closed to the public. Not only will visitors have the chance to enter the museum at a unique time of day, as the sun is setting and the house falls quiet, but they will also have the opportunity to see and experience Orchard House as it was in the nineteenth century. This special living history tour is known--with the sincerity of the invitation--as <a href="http://louisamayalcott.org/2015SpecialEvents.htm" target="_blank">Welcome to Our Home</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As you knock on the door to the kitchen, the rustle of skirts and creaking of footsteps on the other side invokes wonder and excitement. Your guide, a living history portrayer of a member of the Alcott family, invites you into the Alcott's home and launches directly into the family stories, engaging and enchanting visitors and bringing you back to her time</span><span style="font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This hour-long, extended tour of Orchard House gives an overview of the lives of the Alcotts and nineteenth-century Concord, including </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">little-known bits of history sometimes even too anecdotal for biography or book</span>. The guides have sought out these stories among the books in our library or even in the Alcotts' letters and journals, which can be found at the Houghton Library at Harvard. The guide might have the chance to tell, with detail, about the time May fell into the Concord River, or talk more extensively about the inspiration for Laurie. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These stories, however, truly come to life through living history, when the house is quiet and other visitors have gone, and they can often be told with words inspired by the Alcotts' own pieces of writing in their journals and letters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When you see your guide, dressed in her historically-accurate clothing, against the backdrop of Louisa's bedroom, speaking these words, you have a one-of-a-kind experience of feeling truly transported to another era, a simpler time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Children are especially enchanted by the guide's costume, believing wholeheartedly in the sincerity of the character. Welcome to Our Home is an event for visitors of any age and interest level to experience not only the incredible lives of the Alcott family (and, consequently, the March family of <i>Little Women</i>) but also to feel immersed in nineteenth-century life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As with our regular guided tour, guides have the opportunity to present the story of the Alcotts with their individual preferred anecdotes and bits of information, so there is always a new fact to learn or a new quote to inspire!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This month, this special Welcome to Our Home tour will be offered on this coming Saturday, February 28th at 4:45 pm (to 5:45 pm). We invite you to experience Orchard House in a new way and to enjoy the artifacts and anecdotes with a little more depth and detail. Step through the threshold of Orchard House into the past, and let a member of the Alcott family welcome you into our home!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Space is limited and reservations are strongly suggested for the tour. Please call (987) 369-4118 extension 106 to make your reservation today. </span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-52842361036733740862015-02-12T10:25:00.001-05:002015-08-31T14:46:11.841-04:00Bronson Alcott & Abigail May - A Love Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">The courtship between Bronson Alcott and Abigail May is one of my favorite stories to tell as an Orchard House guide, especially around Valentine's Day. Sometimes--usually upstairs in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Mr. and Mrs. Alcott's bed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>chamber, when I am introducing Mrs. Alcott's family--a visitor on the tour asks, "If Marmee was from such a wealthy, prominent family, and Bronson was so poor, how did they even meet each other? What brought them together in the first place?"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My face lights up, and I clasp my hands together. "I'm so glad you asked," I say, "It's such a nice story!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the story goes something like this:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Young Bronson Alcott</span></span></td></tr>
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</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bronson Alcott's first attempt at opening his own school--like the others that followed--<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>did not last long. It was not a complete failure, because his students<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>learned exceptionally well, admired him, and other educators found his methods fascinating, but he could never learn to please those whose support he needed most: the parents of his students. Learning well was not particularly valued by many, but rather keeping children in their place was of paramount importance. <span style="background-color: white;">Because Mr. Alcott refused </span>to beat the students (which meant he was spoiling them), allowed questions in the classroom (considered permissive and not tolerated in other classrooms), encouraged reading books (thought to be a waste of time by practical farmers), brightly decorated his classroom, had real conversations with the students and valued their ideas, he was deemed incapable by the practical people of a small, rural town. These were new ideas not seen in other classrooms and parents didn't know what to make of them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">But just as his school closed down, he received a letter from a respected minister<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Brooklyn,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Connecticut,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>who<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>had called a state-wide conference on the deplorable condition of education in that state. At the conference, he had been inspired by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>what he heard about Mr. Alcott's new methods. This man was <span style="background-color: white;">named </span>Samuel May. May was well-connected, a descend<span style="font-family: inherit;">a</span>nt of<span style="font-family: inherit;"> the</span> prominent Boston families the Quincys and Sewalls, and he invited Bronson to meet with him.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://t.signaledue.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XX48q5wNxW4Y8-DC2Bpn1sW4X9JQW56dT1lf9cmdpb02?t=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-elI4KfBdgx4%2FVMxk6c3qVBI%2FAAAAAAAAA3o%2FGH0hSSRNAfE%2Fs1600%2Fabigal.jpg&si=4748417832583168&pi=210c7a42-9abb-4dd8-cd13-52b4ffa6c03b" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" class="CToWUd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgQWXcw9DPvlOB4DPw8SRAuJhba5OEqigIEasDRUzQN_clHRrCyQ84zRQCD6rLWoUCE-iShiIrSJTYpHm8GhfZaHyFJ87sDeZDgSE8MVUOEdENHV0N7xBB0eTYYMcULu97hARB4lhtMxHEYcoabzeo0hDVvKkYODUuEQ1JxArrNcpHmXXuscjFSj5Ya-SH-6YtQVRJcx2ajYd7Ivk-zbyv-IVJBza_BcrcpPtI8VB6kts4YAZ2MPToSWhbt9XkDftuZICfZdHaEffduad3mqCvIKOqPfEnJviUbCcLhk1L_WFT_5NSy-lj8yl5Z267_KidfZZ5I9EEqOUjoT5VNMedpVwEohV507Fjcp_IdBK330PdrAlNrcDySgFQiQP_N6earSIlVUOqZ9CQ=s0-d-e1-ft" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Abigail May Alcott</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Bronson arrived at the May home, however, it was not Samuel that answered the door, but his<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>visiting sister, Abigail. Bronson <span style="background-color: white;">eventually<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>enchanted both siblings with tales from his classroom and his beliefs about education.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">After meeting Abigail for the first time, Bronson Alcott did what he always did--he wrote in his journal:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"an interesting woman we had often portrayed in our imagination. In her we thought we saw its reality . . . In refined and elevated conversation with a lady thus estimated by our reason and thus offering herself to our imagination, we could not but be pleased, interested, captivated."</i></span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">After that first meeting, Bronson returned to Connecticut to open one more school there. T<span style="font-stretch: normal;">he endeavor lasted only about eight months, d</span>uring which time, he kept in contact with the May family.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, Samuel helped Bronson secure a new position at a school in Boston. Abigail wrote to him, offering her help as an assistant in his school. Afraid that the people of Boston would accuse him of favoritism, Samuel (with help from Bronson) discouraged Abigail from becoming Bronson's assistant. Luckily for Bronson this allowed him to continue to pursue a personal relationship with Abigail.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In his journal, Bronson wrestled with revealing his growing feelings for Abigail. He could not be sure of her feelings towards him, so he continued to write. Sometimes, when visiting with her he would even reveal mysterious passages from his personal writings as a way to hint at his true feelings for her.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">In<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Alcotts: Biography of a Family</i>, Madelon Bedell calls their courtship "a comedy of errors" (41) , where the lovers avoided revealing their true feelings for several months. Finally, however, it was Abigail who could not hold back any longer. She confessed to Bronson that she loved him. Shy Bronson<span style="background-color: white;">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>still apprehensive, </span>did not speak the words but rather showed Abigail the many passages from his journal where he had written about her.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">They were quickly engaged to be married.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Abigail wrote to her brother:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> I never felt so happy in my life--I feel already an increase of moral energy--</i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I have something to love--to live for.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">And Bronson again turned to the pages of his journal:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I then commenced<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>living<i>, not only for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>society<i>, but for an </i>individual<i>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I identified a human soul with my own.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">There's something significant for me that the future Mr. and Mrs. Alcott solidified their love with writing, a prophecy of just how important writing would be to all of the Alcott's lives. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Somehow, it seems like a happy ending to a story that was only just beginning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">References:</span><br />
Bedell, Madelon.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Alcotts: the Biography of a Family.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>New York: Potter, 1980.<br />
Matteson, John.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>New York: Norton, 2007.</span></div>
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Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-24677567634350566272014-10-15T11:02:00.002-04:002015-01-28T22:01:28.675-05:00Orchard House and the Power of Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 2012 Orchard House celebrated it's 100th anniversary as a museum. There were many events held that year to celebrate. For one of these, Pulitzer Prize winning Eden's Outcasts author, John Matteson, spoke to Orchard House supporters about the personal connection he developed with the House as well as the "incredibly generous spirit" that many who visit feel when they are here. We wanted to share the following excerpts from that talk and highlight some of the reasons we are embarking upon our new documentary.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6Lt87lT5NTkZYVyENFeZeW07kqBG4z9DVd-dYphQwaa5wB_xwHxiWugdesALXijycEeVvDc_EDn2TWiUoCfDJ6uZYJC46Cea5tnA6YO2wLdTFMvXXCANLJuAl2VYjrFE9qLL54HhdHED/s1600/JohnMatteson2.jpg" height="181" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">From our Kickstarter Campaign Video - John Matteson in
Bronson's Study</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I offer my thanks to all of you for the passionate and durable commitment that you have made to the legacy of Louisa May Alcott and to that extraordinary place known as Orchard House. . . as I say a few words about the House and what I shall call the Power of Place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are very few dissatisfactions that I can think of that go with being a biographer. One of them is the fact that your editor and your agent very seldom want you to write two books about the same people. Much as I would have loved to spend a good deal longer in Alcottland, the push was on for something different and, hence, as you know, I have spent the last four years intently focused instead on Margaret Fuller. And therein lies a fascinating comparison. . . quite honestly the experience hasn’t been the same, and I have been asking myself why. Some of it may have to do with the fact that there’s nothing to compare with the giddy experience of being a first time author. Perhaps something more of it has had to do with the personality of my subject. Louisa May Alcott’s humor, her vitality, and her loving insights into the human condition make her an incomparably appealing person with whom to spend four or five years. These might have been partial reasons why Eden’s Outcasts was a uniquely fulfilling project, but neither of them is the reason. I truly believe that the reason why writing about Margaret Fuller was more challenging – the reason why it was so much harder to bring her up closer to my imaginative eye —was that, unlike the Alcotts, she has no accessible public place that is particularly hers: no living shrine that is sacred to her memory. . .</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The epilogue of my biography of Fuller is called “Margaret-Ghost,” which is a description borrowed from Henry James. It is singularly appropriate for her. Without a place where people can go to learn about her, to see her belongings and where she slept and ate and wrote, one feels that she is farther away, almost but not quite beyond the field of our magnetism, resistant to our poor power to call her back. We have letters galore, a few journals, and handful or two of images, but she can never be present.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was from this same fate of almost irretrievable remoteness that Louisa and the other Alcotts were rescued a century ago, when the foresighted founders of the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association saved Orchard house from destruction and set it on the path to becoming the thriving historic site that it is today. Knowing Orchard House as well as all of you do, I am sure you find it no mere flight of imagination to suppose that a building can possess a soul. One’s appreciation need not be for history; it need not be for literature. One need only understand the preciousness of love and family to know that Orchard House is more than boards and nails, greater and more precious than paint and plaster. It is a place that welcomes, and it is one that inspires. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My own association with Orchard House began when I was in the early phases of researching and writing Eden’s Outcasts. As you may know, Eden’s Outcasts was my first book, and back in 2002 and 2003, I was taking my very first steps toward authorship. If you had asked me then to offer any good reason why anyone should take any great interest in me as a writer, I would have been stumped for an answer. Astonishingly, though, that didn’t seem to make any difference to anyone at Orchard House, and certainly not to our wonderful executive director, Jan Turnquist. She immediately granted me full, behind-the-ropes access to the entire house and even conducted me down to the basement to discuss the then-intended renovations of the foundation. Then she took me to lunch. She made me believe that I was just the right person to be writing Louisa’s and Bronson’s biography, and she kept on making me feel that way, straight through to publication. What a remarkable woman, I thought then, and I think so now. But what I did not realize at the time was that Jan was really just reflecting in concentrated form the incredibly generous spirit that pervades the entire organization that makes Orchard House go. It is a spirit that began with the Alcotts themselves, and, remarkably, it continues to be made manifest in those who preserve the Alcott legacy. Private person that she was, it might have taken Louisa quite a while to get used to the steady stream of admiring visitors who now make their respectful way through her father’s house. However, if she were able to see the welcoming spirit with which today’s custodians have made the house available to the public, the careful fidelity with which they preserve the authenticity of the past, and the spirit of goodness that touches everything that is done there, I think she would be deeply proud. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I should freely confess that I am a world-class sap when it comes to matters like this one. I should admit that, in 2005, when my wife Michelle and daughter Rebecca took me to see the Little Women musical on Broadway, I was sobbing helplessly before the curtain went up. So I may not be the best person to consult regarding the way a person of average sensitivity approaches Orchard House. But, for whatever it may be worth, I have walked along the Lexington Road from Concord’s Town Center with an anticipation and an upwelling of emotion that is barely describable. I have felt something that is probably quite close to the sensation Emerson recalled when he wrote of being “glad to the brink of fear.” I suspect that, as you have walked that last gentle curve before the Alcott property comes into view, many of you have felt the same involuntary tightening in your throat, the same hint of moisture in the corners of your eyes. If you have, then you know just what I mean when I call Orchard House one of the most precious places on earth. If you haven’t ever felt those feelings, then I encourage you to take that walk again, sometime very soon. For unlike the ghost of Margaret Fuller, who wanders always in search of her true home, the spirits of the Alcotts are safe at home and always waiting to receive us, thanks to all the marvelous people, in 1912 and in 2012, who have made certain that they need never stray.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-19263723870152903662014-10-05T11:00:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:07:01.369-05:00Becoming a Steward of the Alcott Legacy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Turning the key in the front door of Orchard House each morning, the guides set about breathing life into the quiet house. They flutter through the rooms, waking up the house and turning on the lights. No two are alike: one is push-button, one turns to the right, one has a hanging cord. This is the house’s subtle charm, and the memorized movements of the ritual recalls a feeling of familiarity. Orchard House opens every morning, ready to greet visitors from around the world and to welcome them into the Alcotts’ home, a place that feels already familiar from Louisa's stories and books.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHeyT8PTIXZ-xr9cF4Ic2mgHzc_qoqbM1XRT-7FdXSqezjoSnis8F_vPAXXZg-u-Hrg-oKp9L3AO88WV2QeWDcvmd-NUOuDdfLsbijMCLFh6vvMDHFF4oYZvXiKIehg_n4YAzKW-kFBD8/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHeyT8PTIXZ-xr9cF4Ic2mgHzc_qoqbM1XRT-7FdXSqezjoSnis8F_vPAXXZg-u-Hrg-oKp9L3AO88WV2QeWDcvmd-NUOuDdfLsbijMCLFh6vvMDHFF4oYZvXiKIehg_n4YAzKW-kFBD8/s1600/1.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Often, the charming presentation of the house conceals the complexity of the system that supports it, and I don’t simply mean the finicky light switches or the expensive and up-to-code foundation put underneath the house in 2001. The guides give a voice to the lives of the Alcotts, of course, but many of the required roles that give Orchard House its charm and magic are tucked away from view. Many of these roles are also entirely voluntary, falling into the hands of stewards of the museum who act only out of their love and appreciation for the Alcotts and the many causes they upheld.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The gardens and landscape, for example, are lovingly tended by neighbors and volunteers, many of whom know with intimate detail which plants are possible descendants of those planted by Mr. Alcott in the nineteenth century and what varieties of apples once grew in the orchard. Culminating in the annual Fall Gardens and Grounds Clean-Up—taking place this year on November 15th—the important task of maintaining the landscape falls into the hands of these friends. Anyone who has enjoyed a picnic lunch under the shade of a tree on the lawn can appreciate their hard work and dedication.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42rIhrQCCfodJapMw8GnCKDMEeC2k5T1H380AxWy9FOIGkVxNnTl1hoD03Y63LiKOQZao1RGlf3fISnlWLkqWaeRhsOrkwvAEHUUJJxYJ3kVl7iAmxGWJ53zZAMq1G_38FoNE-ECuxKTc/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42rIhrQCCfodJapMw8GnCKDMEeC2k5T1H380AxWy9FOIGkVxNnTl1hoD03Y63LiKOQZao1RGlf3fISnlWLkqWaeRhsOrkwvAEHUUJJxYJ3kVl7iAmxGWJ53zZAMq1G_38FoNE-ECuxKTc/s1600/2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like the apples in the garden, stewards of the museum come in all varieties. Many of Orchard House’s most well-received events are enhanced by the presence of the Alcott Helping Hands and Hearts, a group of children who donate their weekends in December to participating in the annual Holiday Program, some of whom travel great distances to partake in the living history and make this experience more enjoyable for our guests. Their lively energy and youth—not to mention their charming singing voices—are a particular favorite during the holiday season, but they also appear at many of Orchard House’s events throughout the year. This volunteer group offers the opportunity to grow into many different roles at the museum.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Supporting this whole operation are the museum members, who introduce Orchard House to family and friends, and who make possible the continuing preservation efforts necessitated by the 300-year-old structure, which, while charming, requires regular maintenance. Becoming a member offers many benefits, including free admission to the museum and a museum shop discount, while supporting Louisa’s legacy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because Orchard House has been open to the public for more than 100 years, there are many who feel they have grown up at Orchard House and experienced its many stages. These stewards often return to the museum after years away, bringing myriad talents that continue to promote awareness about the Alcott family, their writings and work, and their messages about charity, equality, and creativity. These particular stewards offer their expertise in fields such as creative writing, public relations, and web design to keep the Orchard House as current as it is historic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Stewardship is an especially pertinent and personal subject for me; I came to Orchard House as a volunteer in the garden several years ago, as a recent college graduate looking to explore different fields of work. I never imagined that the gardening I offered would blossom into a passion for the lives of the Alcott family that has influenced so much of my life. I was weeding under the lilacs one day when a visitor left the museum enthusiastically talking about the communal experiment at Brook Farm. “Where was it?” she asked her friend, who did not have an answer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“In Roxbury, Massachusetts,” I offered, peeking out from under the tree and shaking the dirt off my gloves, and as we delved into conversation about the relationship between Brook Farm and Mr. Alcott’s Fruitlands experiment, I realized that I had an irreplaceable opportunity while surrounded by this historically rich environment. In the past several years, I have worn many hats at Orchard House (including blog-writer), and Orchard House always leaves the door open for me, offering new capacities for me to give back to the place the has given so much to so many. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is the place I return to, the place I call home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As a part of the documentary about Orchard House, you too have the opportunity to become a steward of this beloved place, to perpetuate a legacy that began hundreds of years ago. To call Orchard House "home." This opportunity is fully explained at our <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" target="_blank">Kickstarter Campaign page</a> and on our website.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Without an entire network of people dedicated to the support of Louisa May Alcott’s museum, including donors, volunteers, and stewards of all sizes and types, Orchard House could not be home to so many, or to show its bright face every morning to a new crowd of visitors. Through the dedication of our stewards, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House retains its cohesiveness of vision as generations pass, preserving our history and the Alcott legacy, and opening the door for years to come.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-54250212247368025612014-09-17T10:20:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:19:30.717-05:00#PledgeYourLove to Orchard House - Back our New Documentary on Kickstarter!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQ0V07OAtweBghmE_3Q9O9vgNLCsN3ER9rIk2XSV62a_B7OSw36DvWqs2H5tnszSX5f7rIxJYTFrK_W-EK0gOXJGvXixxro47ckGMvtrij5_b18G_GAXVeWTARxkgaeBdzsVAqmU3NoqH/s1600/BackusCollage.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Help us create the first-ever documentary about Orchard House!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Guess what? Orchard House is making a movie - the first documentary about the 350 year history of the house - and we want YOU to be involved in creating the film.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #3ddc67; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" track="on">Today we've launched a fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter.com to raise the $150,000 needed for production! </a></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">For those who may not be familiar, Kickstarter is dedicated to fundraising for creative projects just like this. <b>Funding is all-or-nothing, which means we need to raise every penny of our goal by October 22, 2014 through pledges to our online campaign. </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #3ddc67; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" track="on">Click here and take just 10 minutes out of your day to visit our page, watch the beautiful 4 minute video, make a donation (called a pledge), and share the campaign with friends and family.</a></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Pledges start at just $1.00 and donations of all amounts are welcome and encouraged. There are even some great rewards for our backers. #PledgeYourLove to Orchard House and become part of our legacy!</span> </span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-63726371827723534092014-08-28T12:11:00.000-04:002014-09-03T15:50:00.637-04:00Louisa May Alcott & Uta Pippig Team Up for the Annual Orchard House Walk/Run!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">At first glance, these two women may not appear to have much in common. Louisa May Alcott (left) is best known for writing children's stories in the nineteenth century, while </span><span style="font-size: large;">Uta Pippig (right) is an international marathon winner and founder of <a href="http://takethemagicstep.org/" target="_blank">Take the Magic Step</a> (c), a foundation for advocating healthy and active lifestyles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don't be mistaken! Though separated by centuries, these strong, independent women are much more alike than they seem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Did you know, for example, that Louisa was an avid runner? She once wrote,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Active exercise was my delight, from the time when, as a child of six, I drove my hoop around the Common without stopping, to the days when I did my twenty miles in five hours and went to a party in the evening."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While growing up in Concord, Louisa described many instances of </span><span style="font-size: large;">brisk morning runs in her journal, where she wrote, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse in some former state, because it was such a joy to run."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the spirit of advocating this lesser known aspect of Louisa's life and work, Orchard House Executive Director Jan Turnquist began the 10k/5k Run and 5k Walk for Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in 2006. Over the past eight years, this fundraiser has proven to be one of the most anticipated events on the Orchard House calendar, and with 19th century games and living history actors, there are festivities for all ages. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Executive Director Jan Turnquist as Louisa May Alcott, participating in the race in her hoop skirt!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Louisa May Alcott took five hours to walk to Boston, and Uta Pippig is also familiar with the twenty miles it takes to get into the city-- 26.2 miles, in fact--and she became the first woman to win the Boston Marathon three consecutive times, from 1994 to 1996. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pippig has served as Honorary Chair of the Walk/Run since the beginning, and Orchard House is so pleased and honored to announce that she will be in attendance this year. After all, a love of running is not the only thing these two women have in common; with a spirit reminiscent of Louisa's interest in reforms and advocacy, Uta Pippig is an inspirational woman striving to help people make healthier habits and lead healthier lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The 9th Annual Walk/Run will take place on September 14th at 12 noon at the Alcott School in Concord, Massachusetts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bringing together the force of these two women will undoubtedly make this year's Walk/Run an unforgettable event! </span><a href="http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=2131887" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Register online now at our active.com site</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> or </span><a href="http://louisamayalcott.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">visit the Orchard House website</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> for more information.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-31638101599550217212014-08-08T21:53:00.001-04:002015-01-28T22:12:38.020-05:00Finding the Beauty Everyday - Reflections on our "Write Stuff!" Youth Writing Workshop <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I find it impossible to invent anything half so true or touching as the simple facts with which every day life supplies me," wrote Louisa May Alcott to Mary E. Channing Higginson on October 18, 1868. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today, over a century later, I find myself feeling the same way as Louisa. This past week I had the privilege to lead "Write Stuff!", a summer writing workshop for kids, with the invaluable help of Lis Adams and Victoria Salemme, as well as all those associated with Orchard House, past and present. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Embarking on a weeklong journey of creative writing with a group of strangers struck me as a somewhat daunting task. I did not doubt that participants would be wonderful, but, still, I suspected that asking participants to compose, and sometimes share, writing with a group mere hours ago unknown to them might be exhilarating, yes, but also potentially terrifying, even unthinkable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTzhK2aWieMIJh2dCJrr3r8V_sGXpmB2nxgZCwJ6YOq47XlSDzVvDLdZZkeNDBBLrzQisC6NMYA518wPE3p9vvbvl-MXE4YtzMwikxRPvH0vVaCn2-wBhbqDNs3mU2_8XSwtCGxqTQr9q/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihTzhK2aWieMIJh2dCJrr3r8V_sGXpmB2nxgZCwJ6YOq47XlSDzVvDLdZZkeNDBBLrzQisC6NMYA518wPE3p9vvbvl-MXE4YtzMwikxRPvH0vVaCn2-wBhbqDNs3mU2_8XSwtCGxqTQr9q/s1600/2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>To be more fully equipped for this experience, workshop members were asked to select and bring in their own "scribbling suit." This idea was inspired by Louisa who often wore one while writing; hers included a black apron handy for wiping her pen as well as a black hat with a red bow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On day one of our writing adventure, after touring Orchard House together, we played "get to know you" games. Participants were asked to write three facts about themselves, making one true and two invented using their imaginations. Next they each received three slips of paper and wrote a descriptive sentence on each, two in the first person and one in the third but all autobiographical in nature. Upon completion, they placed them in our "household" mailbox (a decorated box--inspired by Marmee's Household Post-Office for her daughters as a way, "to interchange thought and sentiment"), passing it around and guessing the writer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The next day one girl eagerly asked something like, "When's the mail coming?! Maybe the mailman should come! I know, we can be the mailmen today, and you two can guess who wrote what!" They all seemed quick to like this idea, and with much excitement, took turns walking around pretending to be delivery people and bestowing their compositions on us readers. It seemed Marmee's idea withstood the test of time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One morning we began in the Parlor, writing song lyrics. Then each took turns donning a costume and reading or singing his/her work. One girl was concerned about this activity; so, I wondered whether she might team up with someone to present. Another girl quickly volunteered to partner up, explaining that she felt nervous, too. Standing side by side, wearing old-fashioned lace gloves, one white and one black, on their outer right and left hands, the two presented. As they stood in the large doorway between the Parlor and Dining Room, with the open curtain, the Alcott sisters' productions (once held in that same spot) no longer seemed like they took place so very long ago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thursday morning we walked to the Emerson House Garden. We were very lucky, as Mrs. Gordinier greeted us and even explained a bit about the Emerson House. One participant exclaimed that he'd like to move here; that he loved this place! As luck would have it, he had a $20 bill along and began asking how much of the Garden his fellow participants thought he could buy with it. Ideas flew, but in the end, it was decided that he might like to work there someday--that that might do the trick.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYUwvqGGWVOViJifFfaTHSSsmT1HuKeGHryq7tpSAxvoHEUYOZqWKZDdquERdTybYHvy_7Z1SdOdmfKTcrYkZs0YsCZtuK4fh9lns7WLfk1PlDXQb4GIjzeD6YHK7Eb1fdDwI3Te7IO0F/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYUwvqGGWVOViJifFfaTHSSsmT1HuKeGHryq7tpSAxvoHEUYOZqWKZDdquERdTybYHvy_7Z1SdOdmfKTcrYkZs0YsCZtuK4fh9lns7WLfk1PlDXQb4GIjzeD6YHK7Eb1fdDwI3Te7IO0F/s1600/4.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">These moments chronicle just a few workshop experiences. Part of a week during which, with enthusiasm and humor, our group "wrote" their own story, day by day. A story both touching and true.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-2708643064336730792014-08-01T11:15:00.002-04:002014-08-01T11:15:43.525-04:00Oh, the Drama! The Alcott Family in Theater<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">From an early age Louisa May Alcott, and her sisters Anna, Elizabeth, and Abby May, often entertained their friends and families by performing “theatricals.” As children the two older sisters would
dramatize stories for their neighbors, and as young teenagers, Anna and Louisa
wrote and performed plays in their family’s barn at Hillside (now called
Wayside).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For these shows they found or
made their own scenery, costumes, and props; between the two sisters they took
on all the major roles, and sometimes enticed their younger sisters, Lizzie and
Abby May, who were less theatrically inclined, to perform the smaller
roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa loved to play the dashing
heroes and villains of the pieces (such as the hero “Roderigo,” who appears in
the Christmas play in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i>),
and Anna played the romantic and dramatic roles.</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">As older teenagers and into their
adulthood, Anna and Louisa continued to be involved in theater. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They formed a community theater group in
Walpole, New Hampshire; and in Concord, Massachusetts, they organized the
“Concord Dramatic Union” with their friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Louisa’s roles now inclined toward the comic, character parts, and Anna,
who reportedly was a very talented dramatic actress, would move her audience to
tears with her portrayal of the serious roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anna’s dream as a teenager and a young woman was to be a great actress
in the theater, and for some time Louisa considered a life onstage as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both young women tried their hand
at playwriting; Louisa succeeded in having one of her plays, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rival Prima Donnas</i>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>produced and performed in a Boston theater in
1860.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After Louisa went on to become a
successful and famous writer, she continued to act for charity, often playing
scenes from Charles Dickens to help raise funds for worthy organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1860 Anna married John Pratt, a young man
who, with Anna and Louisa, was one of the original founders of the “Concord
Dramatic Union,” and who had once played opposite Anna in one of their
productions, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Loan of a Lover</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anna abandoned her dream of being a great
prima donna and raised a family of two boys, Frederick and John Pratt, but she
still pitched in graciously now and then to play a dramatic role for family
theatricals when the need arose.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The “Concord Dramatic Union” is today
a thriving community theater, now named the Concord Players, which produces
three plays each year at 51 Walden Street in Concord, Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House
continues the tradition of parlor theatricals by offering a week-long summer drama
program for children, Apple Slump Players, and by staging tableaus and scenes
in their annual living history Christmas program every December.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
Lis Adams<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
Director of Education<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-69549672334770075412014-07-26T19:31:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:25:32.359-05:00It's the Artists' Life for May<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today we celebrate May Alcott's birthday. May was the lively youngest Alcott sister, born July 26 1840. May was a natural born artist and began to sketch and draw at an early age. Bronson & Abigail even allowed her to decorate the walls of Orchard House with whimsical sketches to support her creative spirit. Visitors today can still see some of her original work, drawn right on the paint! </span><br />
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At the age of 19, May was admitted to and began studies at the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. There she really began to hone her artistic talent and explore work as a painter. As a student of William Rimmer and William Morris Hunt, May became an early teacher to American master sculptor, Daniel Chester French. As a 17 year old student, he was captivated by May, and we could think of no better way to honor her birthday than to share some of his remembrances of her written for the Prelude to <u><b>May Alcott, A Memoir</b></u> by Caroline Ticknor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrj6DxlddZ-X9b9yjFtl4lvIthjYW6P9Ki6KuDBUBKkXR2Fy6B32fXAoVXxGYX9vCKrVeA4CqUO0fZKQswiApKoRcljL1L66zGwSXQOdBE8LSfbaaYxi-s9MXPlfY8WmTgwJfM_4NLML3J/s1600/Rose_Peckham_-_Abigail_May_Alcott_Nieriker_%2528d._1879%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrj6DxlddZ-X9b9yjFtl4lvIthjYW6P9Ki6KuDBUBKkXR2Fy6B32fXAoVXxGYX9vCKrVeA4CqUO0fZKQswiApKoRcljL1L66zGwSXQOdBE8LSfbaaYxi-s9MXPlfY8WmTgwJfM_4NLML3J/s1600/Rose_Peckham_-_Abigail_May_Alcott_Nieriker_%2528d._1879%2529.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"One sparkling summer's morning in 1868 a young woman rode into our yard in Concord, Massachusetts, wearing the long skirt and close fitting bodice which, with plumed hat, made up the picturesque riding habit of that day, setting off her tall and extraordinarily handsome figure to advantage. This was May Alcott. Her face was not beautiful, according to classical standards, but the liveliness of expression and the intelligence and gayety that shone from it led one to overlook any want of harmony in her features...Full of the joy of living, her enthusiasm was easily stirred in almost any worth-while direction...May was fond of her home and a quite ideal relationship existed between her and her father and mother and sisters. She, more than the others, contributed to the lively and gay element in the household. One felt that here indeed, "people were of more importance than things."</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<i>Miss Alcott was devoted to her art and gave to it the best of her enthusiastic nature. She had talent and training, and her works, particularly her water colors, have a very distinct charm. Her sketches are still eagerly sought, both for their intrinsic value and for their association with the name of Alcott."</i><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-77238057147048377042014-07-21T00:09:00.000-04:002014-08-21T11:32:57.290-04:00Leave your Calling Card & Be Entered to Win!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Nineteenth Century etiquette required leaving your calling card when visiting a household. Calling cards then were much like today’s business cards, but used for social interactions. The French version, Carte-de-Visite (visiting card), became popular in the United States during the 1860s and typically included a photograph. Family members treasured these when separated from each other </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">during the Civil War and when traveling. Recently we've launched a new "Calling Card" program at Orchard House for our visitors. But we wanted to be sure to keep our online community involved too! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFc8RB_2EEStST6-IS0kO85_4r29YoTgDVph3zzJbOPuu3ppWTQzwhfei81RaBo78YpzRod4nLifCbZaIa1TARomiNBdzhySCY3n17hCDogVvErvouljJUwEjwUqmVRTb-O0ngzS8Nr7Z/s1600/CallingCardFB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFc8RB_2EEStST6-IS0kO85_4r29YoTgDVph3zzJbOPuu3ppWTQzwhfei81RaBo78YpzRod4nLifCbZaIa1TARomiNBdzhySCY3n17hCDogVvErvouljJUwEjwUqmVRTb-O0ngzS8Nr7Z/s1600/CallingCardFB.png" height="335" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming this fall, Orchard House is poised to share our mission of education and preservation with more people than ever through several exciting on-line projects and initiatives. We would be honored to consider you our partner in these endeavors. By completing and leaving your own electronic “calling card” below you will have the power to help us exponentially extend our outreach AND be entered to win fun prizes!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You will not be added to a regular mailing list, but rather to an exclusive list with limited e-mail contact this fall. (You may opt-in to more mailings later, if you wish.) The Alcotts treasured human relationships and we take our cue from them in carrying on that tradition. With your help, many more people around the world will be able to learn from, be inspired by, and enjoy Orchard House and the Alcotts.</span> <br />
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Note: We respect your privacy and never sell/share information<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-84667840069481021652014-07-16T23:20:00.002-04:002015-01-28T22:20:11.732-05:00Reflections from the Classroom - Adult Learning at the Summer Conversational Series <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bronson Alcott was at heart an
educator. Whatever else he did, he came back to education: from being a teacher
of young children, to serving as the superintendent of Concord schools, to
traveling across the country to give conversations. The Concord School of
Philosophy was the last of his endeavors, and the most lasting. Although the
School closed after his death, the ideals of the School of Philosophy became
the foundation for a yearly conference, begun in 1999. For the last 15 years,
the Summer Conversational Series at Orchard House has continued Bronson’s legacy
of adult education. Individual talks no longer last all day, but for the scholars
who come, it is a chance to present more than the typical 20 minute talk given
at most academic conferences. Young scholars still pursuing their studies,
classroom teachers who remain life-long learners, college professors from
multiple disciplines, and eminent scholars from museums and other institutions
all come together in the same room. The yearly theme connects all the presentations
together; threads of discussions begun on Sunday connect throughout the week
until the final conversation on Thursday afternoon, when participants then
reflect on those connections. Bronson Alcott would be pleased!<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Topics for the Conversational
Series have included 19<sup>th</sup> century issues such as abolition, the
women’s sphere, and education. We have looked at Louisa May Alcott’s lasting
legacy, what primary sources can teach us about the past, and
Transcendentalism. John Matteson shared his early research on Bronson and Louisa
one year, and the next year read from the finished <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eden’s Outcasts</i> (and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">next</i>
year was celebrated for being awarded the Pulitzer prize for biography). Sarah
Elbert, author of several books on Louisa May Alcott, has spoken at the Series
many times, as have Joel <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Myerson, Daniel
Shealy, and Eve LaPlante (an Alcott relative). Presenters have come from France,
Japan, and Argentina.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year the series focuses on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Creative Genius in the Time of the Alcotts</i>.
Only half-way through the week, and the conversation ranged from discussion
of the Faust myth, the difference between talent and genius (according to the
Alcotts themselves), what illustrations can tell us about interpretations of
Little Women, and Louisa May Alcott’s marketing genius. Although these may
sound like very different topics, they have all overlapped and built on each
other. We may not yet know exactly what genius is, but we are enjoying the journey
this conversation is taking us. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I have traveled from California
each year since 2006, first as a participant, then as a presenter. It is the
best week of my year, seeing people who have become friends, gaining new
insight into the life and work of the Alcott family. If it were not for this
Series, I would not have as deep an understanding of Bronson, as developed an
appreciation of May, or as strong an admiration of Abba. And my love of
Louisa’s fiction might still be just a hobby, rather than a scholarly pursuit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />What is it that draws us all here,
besides the chance to share our work with like-minded people? There is
something special in this yearly meeting. Perhaps it is that many of the
presenters stay for the week. Having heard the earlier talks, later presenters
can build on what’s come before. Those who have already presented can share ideas
that they did not have time for, when they connect to the current discussion. The
conversation after each talk becomes a true conversation, not just a Q&A. The
Series is a space where the scholar (who has written multiple books) thanks the
graduate student (just beginning dissertation research) for new insight into a
specific topic. Speakers bring work they have just started, or read from
finished books. Participants, all of whom are genuinely interested in what’s
being shared, ask astute questions and add their own insight through their
comments. And added to all of that, is Orchard House itself. Volunteers and
staff bring lunch and home-baked goodies and select and beautifully wrap gifts
for each presenter. We all, presenters and participants, go on the house tour
and shop at the gift shop (what new books can I find this year?). As I talk to
others during the Series, I sense that many of us simply love this place. It is
not just the Alcotts, or the people who come to the Series. It is all of it
together. I am proud to be part of Bronson Alcott’s educational legacy, and I
am already planning for next year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Dr. Cathlin Davis, professor of Education, CSU Stanislaus</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="http://louisamayalcott.org/2014SpecialEvents.htm#francois_2014" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">If you missed this year's Summer Conversational Series but are looking for a way to dive into some higher learning in the Alcott tradition, we'd love you to join us for a two part seminar on July 22 & 23 titled Women in French Literature and the Transcendentalists. This seminar will be held from 7pm - 9pm and is presented by Anne-Laure Francois, Assistant Professor, Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense</span></a></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="style11"><span class="style87">Part I will focus on 19th Century French women authors Madame de Staël and George Sand<br /> and their influence on the Concord Transcendentalists, while Part II will examine the <br /> representation of women in two well-known French works of 1857 --</span></span><br />
<span class="style11"><span class="style87">Baudelaire’s <i>Flowers of Evil</i> and Flaubert’s <i>Madame Bovary</i>.</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-80540064412323300422014-07-09T14:43:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:22:19.908-05:00Concord College for Adult Education: From Dream to Reality <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/AlcottSCS" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://bit.ly/AlcottSCS" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwaGPyanoxaAUl4NMO1t58urO1RkGRIGcyq3Bm0o9iYitK-RwE-GFx0tdlLCIzFn46Sj9y3JPayqXY9m31TR77no4ZYUdeHUzGaOdJfGkVLilOoW4eCCXMZKvhVXvaW47zvtM6Ey2sA2u/s1600/Mr+A+on+Steps.jpg" height="400" width="250" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A. Bronson Alcott on the steps of the School of Philosophy</span></td></tr>
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<br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Concord School of Philosophy began as a dream. After
Amos Bronson Alcott began his mercurial career as a schoolteacher in the
1820s, during which he tried out his radical educational ideas in the
classroom in a series of schools that he ran in Germantown,
Pennsylvania, and in Boston, Massachusetts, he abandoned the idea of
running his own schools in favor of holding “conversations” for groups
of adults, often traveling as far as the Midwest to find his audiences. </span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Alcott’s dream of one day opening an adult educational center, a “college” that would be open to the public, was an idea he entertained as early as 1842 . On his trip to England to meet the founders of the Alcott School, named in honor of Alcott’s educational ideas, he collected hundreds of volumes of books on literature and philosophy, bringing them back to Massachusetts for the library of his future ideal classroom. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The dream became a reality in 1879, when the very first session of the Concord School of Philosophy “Conversational Series” was held in the Study of Orchard House. There were so many attendees that they spilled out the doors; and afterwards a benevolent participant from New York, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, donated $1,000 to build a structure that would house the large numbers of future participants. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">1899 Rendering of the School of Philosophy Building</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During the following years the School was run each summer with great success. Many women and men, coming from as far away as the Midwestern states, would attend, boarding in town during the weeks of the sessions. Speakers who graced the stage included such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Peabody, Julia Ward Howe, William Torrey Harris, and Franklin Sanborn. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Franklin Sanborn, eminent Concord educator, thus described the conversations that followed each series lecture: “What is sought in the discussions at Concord is not an absolute unity of opinion, but a general agreement in the manner of viewing philosophic truth and applying it to the problems of life.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Hillside Chapel, as Alcott named it, built in 1880, still stands today on the Orchard House grounds. Bronson Alcott’s legacy lives on in the Summer Conversational Series and Teacher Institute, held annually each July at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The School of Philosophy as it stands today.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This year’s <a href="http://bit.ly/AlcottSCS">Summer Conversational Series and Teacher Institute, “Navigating the Vortex: Creative Genius in the Time of the Alcotts,”</a> runs Sunday, July 13 through Thursday, July 17, and is open to the public. Massachusetts teachers may receive Professional Development Points for attending. Speakers include Pulitzer Prize winners Megan Marshall and John Matteson, screenwriter Olivia Milch, and others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pre-registration and prepayment are suggested. For a full schedule and additional information <b><a href="http://bit.ly/AlcottSCS">CLICK HERE</a></b>, or call 978-369-4118 x106. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lis Adams, Director of Education </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-4604643087559254002014-07-04T10:44:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:22:55.920-05:00Reflections on My Portrayal of Louisa May Alcott<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I am privileged to live in Concord, Massachusetts just a mile from Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where I have worked since 1977 in varying capacities, and now as executive director.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through these years, I developed an original one-woman show, in which I portray Louisa May Alcott in as much depth as I can to show her complexity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When in character, I enter the room where the audience awaits as if I’ve had a minor carriage accident and must wait for repairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as I step in, however, I quickly leave, as one would do if one inadvertently walked into an assembled group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evening’s host must say something to the effect, “Wait, Miss Alcott, these people wish to meet you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My embarrassed answer: “But I am interrupting you!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When assured that this is not the case, I confess that the young man who took my carriage to the livery mentioned that someone in the building had read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i> and would probably enjoy meeting me, but I didn’t expect so many people!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I then interact with the audience for about an hour, staying in character and staying in Louisa’s time-period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some performances questions begin immediately and the entire time is a dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other cases, the first part of the performance is more like a stage show and the audience warms up for questions later on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The interaction with the audience is my favorite part of the experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me this process is like having a large mental closet full of stories and quotations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pull out the ones appropriate for that audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I try to behave exactly as someone would if stranded in a very unfamiliar place but pleasantly surprised by interesting people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My highest complement is when people tell me they feel that they’ve really met Louisa May Alcott.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One editor asked me to write of my experience portraying Louisa because, as he put it: “Figuratively standing in her shoes brings a special insight” into her life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That request has inspired this blog post, as well. *</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Louisa May Alcott has ignited passion in scholars and captured the attention of modern day readers because of her multifaceted personality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to think of her, the strong-minded feminist, proud spinster, independent thinker, and rebel poised to enter the Civil War as a Union Army nurse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her November 1862 journal she wrote,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thirty years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decided to go to Washington as a nurse . . .. I love nursing and must let out my pent up energy in some new way . . . I want new experiences, and am sure to get ‘em if I go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who was the young woman who wrote those words in 1862?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At age thirty, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i> did not think herself to be young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the surface, one might say she did not think much of herself at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Continually self-effacing, Louisa did not consider herself attractive, socially adept or a great writer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, she considered herself a workhorse who had the harder road, at least compared to her youngest sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one journal entry, she wrote, “She (sister May) is one of the fortunate ones, and gets what she wants easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to grub for my help, or go without it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good for me . . . cheer up, Louisa, and grind away.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Louisa routinely identified with the outsider and wistfully acknowledged what she could not have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reader of Alcott’s journals may conclude that Louisa was jealous of her sister, but should also note numerous passages such as, “On the 17<sup>th</sup> go to B[oston] and see our youngest [May] start on her first little flight alone into the world, full of hope and courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May all go well with her!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keeping the whole person in mind as I portray Louisa, I take the view that her sibling envy is only on the surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Underneath, I see her deep love for her sisters and her strong spirit taking over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking beneath that surface in order to understand her, one does see a strong-minded feminist, an independent thinker, a dutiful daughter, a humorist, an actress, a preacher, a repressed soul, sometimes frustrated not to be in a more traditional, cared-for role, a proud, independent spinster, a jealous outsider, a rebel, an optimist, and a pessimist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa was all of these, and reflected them in her writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was, after all, a product of her age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women were strongly admonished everywhere in the Victorian culture to prepare themselves to fulfill their sacred duty to be wife and mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even as one sometimes sees traditional female roles reflected in her writing, one must remember her thriller tales, uncovered by foremost Alcott scholars Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In tale after tale, with titles such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Behind a Mask, or the Story of a Woman’s Power</i>, Louisa celebrated strong, independent, bold women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved discussing these stories with Rostenberg and Stern, who become very close friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At our first meeting, I was extremely nervous, knowing that these Alcott experts were about to see me perform as Louisa May Alcott after a dinner at Trinity College honoring their lifetimes of scholarly achievement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the performance, Miss Stern said to me, “You are Louisa May Alcott.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa would have loved this!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As our friendship grew, I learned more about their thoughts on Alcott and also discovered that it was the depth of my characterization, and my willingness to include divergent aspects of Louisa’s personality that drew Miss Stern’s compliment (which I shamelessly treasure to this day).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the bosom of a family that practiced what they preached, Louisa learned to value people more than things and greatly admired her mother whom she called, “The best woman in the world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well-born Abigail May was a true philanthropist who gave out of her own need, when she could not give out of abundance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She truly was the Marmee of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i>, with more dimension in real life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the cheerful actions and words of Mrs. Alcott and her daughter were often exhibited in the midst of suffering and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Louisa and her mother also had an acerbic wit and could also express dismay and distress in their journals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even so, the Alcotts repeatedly made an intentional choice to search for joy in hard times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa loved finding or making fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humor gave her a healthy perspective on her life and life around her, even in the midst of suffering.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Louisa dearly loved her philosopher father, Amos Bronson Alcott.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he did not provide well for his family materially, he nurtured his daughters’ inner beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of mourning his lack of sons, he celebrated his girls as equally viable movers and shakers – remarkable for that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an era when it was considered unlady-like for a woman to have a desk of her own, Mr. Alcott built his budding authoress her own desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa enjoyed this personal encouragement, love and support even as she was sometimes frustrated by her father’s extremely idealistic impracticality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She once wrote, “Why try to know the unknowable when there are still poor to be fed?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa also wrote, “I wish the stupid would wake up and pay him what he is worth,” after learning that as a lecturer, he was not always paid what was promised, even though his conversations had been characterized as going “to heaven in a swing.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When preparing the role of Louisa May Alcott, I try to be honest and take her as a whole being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I endeavor to take conflicting feelings and let them coexist in one person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, we are all made up of contradictory parts, which we frequently do not see very clearly in ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet as a whole, these diverse pieces come together to create a vital, interesting person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A problem with intelligent, complex historic people, such as Louisa May Alcott, is that when dissected in a purely academic light, one loses that sense of the whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Alcott, as for others, like a pointillist painting, close inspection of the tiny pieces means loss of the whole where one sees the true character.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A strong part of the popular culture, Louisa’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women, </i>is a useful reference point for understanding Alcott – to a degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Readers are not called upon to dissect and scrutinize tiny pieces of a character’s conflicting nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They understand conflict to be a normal part of an interestingly complex real person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of Jo’s most endearing qualities is that she is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> perfect, yet she goes on loving, living, and doing her best to make a real difference in the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In this way, I believe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i> is an aid in understanding the young woman who stood at the brink of war and wished to plunge in!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa was ready to make a real difference in the world, even as she was self-effacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To some degree, that modesty was a façade, fulfilling society’s expectation of a woman, yet the side of her that went forth and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acted boldly</i> anyway always won out over any doubts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such action is a sign of healthy esteem, even if you also look wistfully to what might have been, as Louisa sometimes did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The imaginative and creative soul can envision oneself on the path not taken, feel a sense of loss, but refuse to dwell on regrets.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Louisa May Alcott was both a product of her times and a challenge to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her autobiographical character, Jo March, has been hailed as a role model for women for over a century now and inspires people from all walks of life and all parts of the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women in particular draw inspiration from Jo March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, it is unfortunate that the very title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i>, creates a certain reluctance to reading the book in some males.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am convinced that Louisa’s experiences in life and in the Civil War allowed her to cut through gender roles and convey the inspiration and attraction of her family experience to male and female alike.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She begins her classic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women,</i> during the dark days of the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make her book more socially acceptable, the pragmatic author gave many of her own Civil War experiences to Mr. March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The similarities are unmistakable:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A telegram brings the family the dreaded news that Mr. March is in a Union Army Hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mother leaves immediately for Washington, “praying that she is not too late.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In reality, Louisa was the subject of just such a telegram and her father traveled to the Union Hotel Hospital, hoping that he may see his second born alive.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i> and in the Alcott home the warmth and support of family – no matter how flawed -- provides strength when far away and in trying circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With remarkable straightforward simplicity, Louisa shares what she experienced that the strength of a good family is a constant presence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In my role as performer, as well as in my job as executive director of her home, Orchard House, I meet literally hundreds of her readers every month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been truly astounded by her impact on lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am often asked to explain phenomena such as the hundreds of thousands of Japanese visitors who flock to Orchard House, brimming with enthusiasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have come to believe that because Jo March displays strength and independence, while maintaining absolute respect for all members of her family and championing the value of family and people over material possessions and social standing, she is a universal role model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humans the world over long to find ways to maintain their inner spirit, while sustaining connections to those who really matter in life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of all the statements that I have heard, however, a recent one really gave me pause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman, who saw my Louisa May Alcott performance, told me that her fifteen-year-old grandson’s favorite book was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Little Women</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She told me that he would not admit to his friends that he had even read it, much less how much he loved it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked her if he had given her a reason for his fondness of the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She told me that he said it was because the March family was weird in a cool way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have turned this idea over in my mind a great deal since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Weird in a cool way.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That pretty much sums it up, I guess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the midst of people who are afraid to be themselves, whether the year is 1861 or 2061, it can seem weird to be oneself with all of one’s conflicts and inconsistencies showing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can definitely seem weird to stand up for one’s unpopular beliefs and to act in ways that do not “fit in” with everyone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in today’s vernacular, where “cool” means admirable; it is cool to see the bravery and integrity it takes to do these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I hero-worship Louisa May Alcott?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I admire her? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her writings come from the heart and intellect of a person of tremendous integrity and spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They accurately record events of the time, yet hold a timeless quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisa May Alcott imparts the unique perspective of a person whose family nurtured her with independence and integrity – a person. flawed, but definitely “cool”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">* Parts of this blog originally appeared in my introduction to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Louisa May Alcott’s Civil War</i> from Edinborough Press, c 2007<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--Jan Turnquist</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-41213872356799123152014-06-11T13:48:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:15:42.024-05:00Anna Alcott Pratt's 1860 Wedding Dress on Display<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Once a year, during the months of May and June, visitors on<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tour at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House have an opportunity to see Anna Alcott Pratt’s original 1860 gray silk wedding gown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anna Alcott was 29 years old on May 23, 1860, when she married John Bridge Pratt, a young Concord man who had once played her leading man in an amateur theatrical production called “The Loan of a Lover.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was typical (and practical) for a bride of that period to choose a gown of a neutral color (brown, navy, gray) that she could wear again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hoping to be married in the evening,” she wrote in her journal three months after the event, “I had proposed a very simple white dress meaning to look like a bride, but on deciding it should be in the morning & knowing myself to be neither young nor pretty I laid it aside as unsuitable & wore my riding dress of silvery grey, & Louy [sister Louisa] placed in my hair & upon my bosom, sprays of lilies of the valley.”</span></div>
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</span> <span style="font-size: large;">The wedding party was small, comprised of “Mr. & Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Thoreau, (Franklin) Sanborn, & the two families,” and took place in the front parlor of Orchard House, with the bride and groom standing “together beneath an arch of lilies, hand in hand.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. Alcott’s brother (the bride’s uncle), Unitarian minister Samuel May, presided over the couple, bringing tears to the eyes of the onlookers with his heartfelt words, according to Anna:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I was in a dream, the lovely day, the bright May sunshine stealing in upon the sweet flowers & wreaths, & loving faces, the influence of the kind hearts around me, Uncles gentle voice, and the touch of the hand that held mind so firmly yet so fondly, all seemed so beautiful, that altho’ my heart beat fast and the tears came to my eyes, I did not feel like Annie.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the ceremony, “we danced on the lawn under the Elm…we ate the wedding dinner, and then the carriage came and I began to wake up, & think ‘I am going away.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tearful faces kissed me goodbye, loving hands held mine as if they could not let them go and amid such plentiful affection as even the most beautiful bride in the world could (experience), I drove away from my dear home… a happier wedding day a woman could not ask.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Recording Anna’s wedding day in her journal, Louisa May Alcott wrote that she and her sister May were dressed “in thin grey stuff and roses,--sackcloth, I called it, and ashes of roses, for I mourn the loss of my Nan, and am not comforted.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She added:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Then, with tears and kisses, our dear girl, in her little white bonnet, went happily away with her good John; and we ended our first wedding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Emerson kissed her; and I thought that honor would make even matrimony endurable, for he is the god of my idolatry, and has been for years.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One month after the wedding, Louisa called on Anna and John in their home in Chelsea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wrote:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Saw Nan in her nest, where she and her mate live like a pair of turtle doves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very sweet and pretty, but I’d rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Louisa May Alcott herself never married, claiming that “liberty is a better husband than love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She and Anna remained close friends throughout their lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is presumed that Anna did wear her dress again for special occasions, since silk <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>would not have been suitable (or practical) for everyday use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The full costume would have included “undersleeves” that went to the elbow beneath the fashionable bell sleeves on the dress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Orchard House also owns a replica costume that has been worn in living history wedding reenactments, performed as public events every few years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brides portraying Anna Alcott, as well as the grooms portraying John Pratt, most often have been descendants of Anna herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One memorable reenactment featured a family descendant from Germany: the great-great-granddaughter of May Alcott, Anna’s youngest sister.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Alcott descendants participate in wedding reenactment (with replica wedding gown).</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To visit Orchard House and experience the dress for yourself, guided tours are available daily at 399 Lexington Road, Concord, MA, Mondays through Saturdays, 10 – 4:30 p.m., and Sundays 1 – 4:30 p.m.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Groups of 10 or more may make advance reservations by calling 978-369-4118 x106.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-15516018718638698632011-06-03T12:20:00.000-04:002015-01-28T22:16:52.889-05:00Our Centennial Countdown Begins!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In 1910, any visitor seeking to find the thrill or comfort in visiting the Concord home of one of the world’s most beloved authors would have instead discovered signs posted that read “Private Property” and “No Trespassing." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Fortunately, this is hardly the welcome one receives today at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, in large part due to the brave foresight of several Concord residents who, in 1911, sought to both preserve the home where Louisa May Alcott and her family lived and perpetuate the legacy of the Alcotts in literature, education, the arts, and social justice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On January 23, 1911, the Concord Woman’s Club was able to raise enough funds to purchase Orchard House “with all the land in front of it and 20 to 30 feet in the side and back” from Mrs. Harriet Lothrop (aka author “Margaret Sidney”), owner of the adjacent Wayside as well. Private donations garnered from around the world -- including a dime from a girl in Hungary! -- totaled $8,000 and were to be used “for papering, furnishing, also to begin a maintenance fund,” as noted in a <i>Concord Patriot</i> article.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As early as 1909, however, research was being done into establishing a “Corporation” to help save and preserve Orchard House.<i> </i>On April 15, 1911, Articles of Incorporation were signed by the following founding members of the all-volunteer Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association: Murray and Mabel Ballou, Anna H. Burrill, Charles and Elizabeth Darling, George and Laura Furber, Carrie M. Hoyle, Woodward and Bessie Hudson, Russell and Edith Robb, Abby F. Rolfe, Henry and Margaret Blanchard Smith Jr. Several of these surnames resound to this day as a result of continued family involvement with Orchard House and other Concord organizations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In 1913, John Sewall Pratt Alcott, the only surviving nephew of Louisa May Alcott, was asked by <i>Good Housekeeping Magazine</i> to write about his family and the home they so loved:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>I suppose it was because it was right in their midst the people of Concord forgot the existence of Orchard House. We tried many times to buy it, but it was not until the club of women of the town brought their united efforts to bear that the price was put within reasonable limits. Two years ago they bought it, and when they had collected enough money they set right at work, making the necessary repairs and putting on the needed patches. The house was in such a bad condition that one of the carpenters called into consultation advised Mrs. Henry Rolfe, the president of the Louisa Alcott Memorial Association, “to tear it all down and build a new one.” The house has been restored, practically, through little self denials.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Board members gathered monthly in the Parlor of Orchard House or in Mrs. Rolfe’s home to review plans for and progress of renovations pursuant to the formal opening of Orchard House as an historic site. With persistent fundraising and careful budgeting, the Board kept one eye on providing visitors entry into the idyllic and heartwarming home so vividly portrayed in <i>Little Women</i>, but were also intent upon providing a historically accurate context for the public to appreciate the talents and contributions of all the Alcott family members.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The first official Orchard House Guest Book signature was posted on July 13, 1911, with admission to the house being 25 cents. Visitors came and went for nearly a year before a formal celebration of work completed on Orchard House was held on May 27, 1912. An article in <i>The Christian Science Monitor</i> estimated 250 people visited Orchard House that one day. Guests included descendants of the Alcotts and other notable Concord families, as well as people from across the globe who had been inspired by the ideals and works of the Alcotts. Mrs. Rolfe provided historical background on the house, John Alcott reminisced about his Aunt Louisa and Grandfather Alcott, and Frank Sanborn also spoke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The current stewards of Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House -- a fifteen-member all-volunteer Board elected from nearly one hundred Corporators along with five full-time administrators and upwards of fifty part-time interpreters, educators, and volunteers -- still maintain the home in accordance with the highest standards of historic preservation and interpretive technique, enabling Orchard House to garner prestigious grants for on-going restoration and awards for quality tours, programs, and events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Since the opening of Orchard House did not happen with haste, it is perhaps fitting that as the historic house today seeks to meaningfully commemorate its Centennial, the celebration is not confined to merely one date, or even bound by one year. In April 2011, we honored the founders of L.M.A.M.A., whose dedicated efforts brought to life a place that had held sway in the hearts and minds of generations of <i>Little Women</i> readers, by re-enacting the signing of the Articles of Incorporation with several descendants of the original Board, current Board members, and an Alcott descendant:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This year's Summer Conversational Series & Teacher Institute (July 10th - 15th) has as its theme, "Creating a Vision: The Power of Place - A Centennial Celebration of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House." <span style="line-height: 115%;">Authors such as Concord’s own Jane Langton will join scholars from around the world to discuss the power of place in their own writings and other contexts, as well as the significance of Orchard House as an abiding source of inspiration.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As time passes toward May 27, 2012, we will offer many other opportunities for fans and supporters to celebrate with us. Please keep checking back on this blog, as well as on our website -- <a href="http://www.louisamayalcott.org/">www.louisamayalcott.org</a> -- for details, and don't forget to say "Happy Anniversary" when you visit us!</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-78549318485296586972010-04-06T11:04:00.010-04:002015-01-28T22:17:32.260-05:00Group Photo at Orchard House today (April 6th) @ 4pm, rain or shine!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's been far too long since we blogged -- we'd actually like to think that Mr. Alcott would have been a real fan of this Internet feature had it existed in his time!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have stayed nicely busy through the Fall and Winter, and are grateful that Spring is finally looking as if it is here to stay. The trees are leafing out, daffodils are popping into golden yellow bloom along our fence posts, and the birds and woodland creatures are foraging for nesting material, so a new generation is not far off in coming ...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today we are hosting a group photo opportunity in support of "Saving America's Treasures Week." Sponsored by <span style="font-style: italic;">The National Trust for Historic Preservation</span>, events around the country at a variety of the 1,100 Official Projects of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> are intended to raise awareness of the worth and vital need for continuation of preservation programs. As you may already know, the proposed 2011 Federal budget completely eliminates funding for <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> as well as <span style="font-style: italic;">Preserve America</span>, and cuts in half funding for <span style="font-style: italic;">National Heritage Areas</span>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back in 1999, Orchard House was designated an Official Project of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> and, as such, we were most fortunate (nay, blessed) to be able to apply for and receive a $400,000 grant to begin the most intense preservation work ever undertaken in our site's [then] nearly 90-year history. This "seed money" rescued Orchard House from certain destruction by enabling us to build the first-ever foundation under the back half of the House (largely constructed by hand and while we were still open to the public) and correct massive structural abnormalities that had, of financial necessity, only been addressed before by stop-gap measures. Because of the imprimatur of this highly competitive grant, we were also able to leverage a <span style="font-style: italic;">triple-match</span> of our $400,000 award and fund $1.5 million of Phase I preservation!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As grateful as we are for this, the influence and impact of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> reaches far beyond Orchard House. In Massachusetts alone over the past 10 years, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> has poured more than $16 million into preserving and restoring historic sites and icons and revitalizing historic downtowns. Nationwide, 16,000 jobs have been created and $377 million in additional public/private funding has been leveraged. Those statistics make <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> quite "the economic stimulus engine that could"!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, as <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Save America's Treasures</span> is fighting for <span style="font-style: italic;">its</span> very own existence, we are privileged to be part of the effort to convince Congress to reinstate funding for this worthy and highly effective program. Even if you can't physically join us for the photo today, please consider making your support heard by your Congressional representatives. <span style="font-style: italic;"> The National Trust</span> website has an easy on-line form that will communicate your sentiments to the appropriate members of Congress for your area; please visit www.preservationnation.org to submit your response. Also, forwarding this information to your family, friends, and colleagues this week (<span style="font-style: italic;">while Congress is in Easter Recess and actively listening to their constituents!</span>) will help enormously. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you in advance for any help you are able to offer, and may you all enjoy a beautiful Spring!</span></span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-31280717457199079692009-05-18T06:38:00.005-04:002015-01-28T22:26:20.474-05:00Partners in Preservation Popular Vote Winner<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Congratulations to the Paragon Carousel in Hull, MA for being the top vote-getter in the Partners in Preservation contest!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Additional grant recipients will be announced on June 16th.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-5288501862908209072009-05-17T20:27:00.005-04:002015-01-28T22:27:04.304-05:00Final Hours to Vote for Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Partners in Preservation contest ends tonight at midnight, only a few hours from now!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you have stuck with us though the entire five-week voting period -- many, many thanks! We've relished the challenge of devising clever yet non-intrusive ways for you to be reminded to vote, and admire your own perseverance in remembering every day.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you joined us along the way in our quest for the $100,000 preservation grant, we thank you as well. The incredible surge we experienced last week -- going from 15th place to 12th place in four days -- was remarkable and inspiring!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And, if you're only now reading this and wishing you could vote for us, there's still time to cast your ballot and show that Orchard House matters to you! Simply visit </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LlBhcnRuZXJzaW5QcmVzZXJ2YXRpb24uY29t">http://www.PartnersinPreservation.com</a> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to register and log in to vote.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We're very grateful for the exciting ways in which we've reached out on social networking sites and the many new and renewed friends and followers we've acquired in the process. We hope you will continue to check for updates on us in the future. Better yet, if you're ever in Concord, MA, do make sure to visit Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House. Thank you all so much for your support!</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-64026483273328485982009-05-13T19:59:00.003-04:002015-01-28T22:27:48.975-05:00A Tale of Love and Support in Concord, MA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009"><br />We would like to share with you the following incredible story that occurred yesterday: </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">In the early morning hours of 12 May 2009, fire ravaged two stores on Main Street in Concord, Massachusetts: Fritz and Gigi's - The Children's Shop and Churchill Flowers. Fortunately, the lone apartment dweller above these businesses managed to call the fire department and get out safely. These businesses were located in historic buildings, and although they are likely to be structurally sound, the interiors -- complete with fine old woodworking details and generations of memories for Concord shoppers -- along with all the merchandise, are total losses. Re-building will proceed apace for these folks, but will take several months at the least before they can get back on solid ground. In our already awful economic climate, this could not have come at a worse time for these business owners.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">Fritz and Gigi's is owned by the Kussin family, long-time Concord residents. <b style="font-style: italic;">The Kussins are also direct descendants of the Alcotts ...</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">Upon hearing the news of the fire (communicated to us by a Staff member driving his son to school), we immediately went to the store to express our concern and offer any help. When Louisa Alcott Yamartino (the great-great-granddaughter of Anna Alcott Pratt) saw us, the first thing she said was: "We saved your [VOTE!] sign! It didn't get burned!" That, we assured her, was the least of our concerns. Nonetheless, she insisted that we put the sign back on the lawn in front of the store right away! Then, after walking through the devastation and asking again what we could possibly do to help them, Louisa quite seriously answered: "Keep voting!" She honestly admitted that the success of Orchard House in the Partners in Preservation contest would help her family feel better about what was currently happening to them. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">What a selfless thing to say and feel. What incredible resilience in the face of adversity. And, it was just so Alcott ...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">Everyone associated with Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House is extraordinarily honored to be acquainted with the Kussin family, and wish them nothing but the best in the coming days, weeks, and months. We have already helped to organize community-wide relief efforts for the family, and hope to not let them down in these last days of the contest. We offer this story as great testament to the power of believing in a cause, and hope it provides you with another great example of how "this place matters!" (<span style="font-style: italic;">To read an article in our local paper about the fire and efforts to help the family, please</span> <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/news/x362993795/Fire-damages-Concords-Fritz-and-Gigis-Churchill-Flowers">click here</a>.)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">Please vote for Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in the Partners in Preservation contest. <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">On-line voting ends this Sunday, 17 May 2009 at midnight.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">We have made incredible progress -- moving from 15th to 14th to 13th place -- in only three days! </span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">With your help, we know we can succeed!</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="128143916-12052009">To cast your ballot for us to win a $100,000 preservation grant, <a href="http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/">click here</a>. Thank you!</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-29766573724338046602009-05-07T17:14:00.006-04:002015-01-28T22:28:02.465-05:00LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S ORCHARD HOUSE MAKES THE FRONT PAGE OF THE BOSTON GLOBE WEST TODAY!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Please read this article by clicking on the title of this blog post (and for more information on why we need to win the Partners in Preservation contest, visit <a href="http://www.louisamayalcott.org/">http://www.louisamayalcott.org</a>).<br /><br />Then, vote for us every day through May 17th at <a href="http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/">http://www.PartnersinPreservation.com</a>.<br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">With only 10 days left in the contest,<br />your daily votes are crucial to our success!!!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">Please help us break into the Top 10 ... and stay there!</span> (And please spread the word to your friends, family, and colleagues to do the same.)<br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic;">If <span style="font-weight: bold;">we</span> win, we <span style="font-weight: bold;">all</span> win, because one of America's most beloved historic sites will be able to continue its preservation efforts and stay open for generations to come!</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br />Thank you!</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-39468009909156097542009-05-01T14:24:00.007-04:002015-01-28T22:28:12.489-05:00"Promote the Vote" for Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During our well-attended "Spruce Up for Spring" Gardens & Grounds Clean-Up last weekend, some of our youngest volunteers took time out to join Executive Director Jan Turnquist in making an earnest plea for votes. Enjoy our first-ever in-House video (<span style="font-style: italic;">click on the Blog title to watch it on YouTube</span>), and then please vote for us every day through May 17th at <a href="http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/">http://www.PartnersinPreservation.com</a>.<br /><br />To find out even more about why we should win, visit this special portion of our website: <a href="http://www.louisamayalcott.org/vote2009.html">http://www.louisamayalcott.org/vote2009.html</a>.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-32491376906623055592009-04-23T19:15:00.013-04:002015-01-28T22:28:26.820-05:00Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House makes the front page of The Concord Journal (and on-line at Wicked Local, too)!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbtLP2Kj1L0qCR9_Nmn8oDLqj1-3l-uWAOkoAND-oOihF8N5DR47A-GEo9uleUeRoZxkBYznvHItK2SgsIsHtn-ecqjp2I0Z3i1qlmH8Bgqt65cL_OuB550mDsgVqiGaH9NUdwt0QjYXT/s1600-h/CPA+PIX+4-09+004.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbtLP2Kj1L0qCR9_Nmn8oDLqj1-3l-uWAOkoAND-oOihF8N5DR47A-GEo9uleUeRoZxkBYznvHItK2SgsIsHtn-ecqjp2I0Z3i1qlmH8Bgqt65cL_OuB550mDsgVqiGaH9NUdwt0QjYXT/s320/CPA+PIX+4-09+004.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328031374299671538" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 149px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 193px;" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Read the story, check out the cool pix of "Miss Alcott" supervising the Preservation Project, and watch the video (if you haven't already). Then ... VOTE!<br /><br />Once a day every day through May 17th at <a href="http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/">www.PartnersinPreservation.com</a>!</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-79028415760118102132009-04-21T18:37:00.003-04:002015-01-28T22:28:41.831-05:00Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House vying for $100,000 in guaranteed grant money<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Watch as Executive Director Jan Turnquist explains why we need to win the Partners in Preservation contest!</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5192707291577442967.post-35820485923632212932009-04-21T15:49:00.004-04:002015-01-28T22:29:02.660-05:00"Spruce Up for Spring" Volunteer Gardens & Grounds Clean-Up Fast Approaching!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year marks the tenth time Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House has asked volunteers to help with our annual gardens and grounds clean-up. In the past, this event has not only helped us to save on costly landscaping fees, but also promotes a spirit of camaraderie that is beautiful to experience -- young and old and everyone in between working alongside each other to make "America's House" awake from its long Winter nap and look beautiful for the new tourism season!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The clean-up date of Saturday, April 25<sup>th</sup> also happens to fall on "Global Youth Service Day," an international effort to encourage youth volunteerism to make a difference in local communities. We provide Community Service credits to students and boy/girl scouts, so it's a terrific way to get what you need and have a good time doing it! (For more info on Global Youth Service Day, visit www.gysd.org.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p>Finally, this year's clean-up is vital to our success, as it will help us "put our best face forward" when we host our Open House for the Partners in Preservation contest on May 2nd & 3rd. If we win, we will receive $100,000 to preserve Orchard House! (For details -- and to vote for us every day through May 17th! -- visit www.PartnersinPreservation.com.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Volunteers can help out for the entire day or for an hour or two. Families are welcome, and you don't need previous gardening experience -- we have all manner of activity to keep folks busy! Healthy snacks and lunch are provided too, so what's not to like? (In the event of rain, "Spruce Up for Spring" will be held on Sunday, April 26th.) Hope you can help!</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Support Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House!
Vote once per day every day until 17 May 2009 at
www.PartnersinPreservation.com</div>Louisa May Alcott's Orchard Househttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13109903338492117587noreply@blogger.com0