In 1930, the R.W. Emerson Memorial Association determined that the year-long demand for visitation by pilgrims to Emerson’s doorstep was better met at the Concord Museum than at the house, and sent the Study’s contents to an exact reproduction of the room at the Museum. The Study was the center of much of the “great activity of thought and experimenting” that stirred New England in the 1830s and 40s. Here, Emerson entertained a steady stream of visitors and friends—Daniel Webster, Louis Agassiz, John Brown, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody to name a few.
The Study contains the rocking chair drawn up to the round center table. Emerson spent much time in this chair writing on a pad held on his knees. The Study shelves house Emerson’s working library that changed over time. The books there now are those that were there in the 1870s. Included are books in English, German, French, and Latin, languages that Emerson read with comparative ease.