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When You Come to Cambridge, You Will Find Front Hall, 1917 "The house is square, The house was built Getting Around. with Longfellow's study in 1759 for Maj. John Cambridge is a historic where he read and Vassall, a wealthy Tory city with buildings both old and new but with Front Hall, ca. 1870 wrote on the right of who fled Cambridge the door, and a statelier very limited parking. "When you come to on the eve of the Rev­ library behind it; on The easiest way to see Cambridge, you will the left is the drawing- olution. Neither of the some of Cambridge's find George Wash­ room, with the dining- next two owners lived sights including the ington brought down room in its rear. ." in the house for very Longfellow House is to long. Andrew Craigie park in Boston, under from his station on —William Dean the Common, and take Howells, Literary bought the property in the stairs, and stand­ Friends and 1791, and shortly the red line subway to Acquaintance. Harvard Square, the ing in the hall below, thereafter added the end of the line. where he can be bet­ piazzas and rear ell. Drawing Room, ca. 1870 To pay his debts, his From the square walk ter seen. In his place widow was forced to down Brattle Street you will see an Old Dutch clock, whose take in lodgers, one of about 1 kilometer (0.6 silver chimes will lull you to sleep at whom was Longfellow. mile) to Longfellow In 1843, Nathan Apple- House. On your way night. At the half-hours it strikes the you will pass two colo­ ton bought the house coming hour, to give timely warning. nial mansions, the Wil­ as a wedding gift for The hours are struck on a larger bell, liam Brattle House and his daughter, Fanny, the John Vassall, Sr., and the chimes 'shiver the air into a and her husband, House. On your return mist Of SOUnd.' ' Henry W. Longfellow to Henry W. Longfellow. to Harvard Square, you George Washington Greene, may wish to go via May 28, 1877 Mason Street and Cam­ /As the Nation's principal bridge Common. On / conservation agency, the De- the common a bronze ^ partment of the Interior has For 45 years Henry Wadsworth plaque marks the site responsibility for most of Longfellow lived in this house. our nationally owned public of the "Washington ands and natural resources. Here he wrote his most famous Elm" under whose This includes fostering the poetry and received visitors from branches George Wash­ wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting around the world. ington took command our fish and wildlife, pre­ of the Continental serving the environmental Years earlier, George Washington Army. and cultural values of our used this house as his headquar­ national parks and historical places, and providing for the ' ters during the siege of Boston. The house is open daily enjoyment of life through Here he and Martha celebrated except January 1, outdoor recreation. The De­ their 17th wedding anniversary in Thanksgiving and De­ partment assesses our energy cember 25. For addi­ and mineral resources and January 1776. works to assure that their tional information, development is in the best write the superintend­ interests of all our people. ent, Longfellow Na­ The Department also has a major responsibility for Amer­ Watercolor of Library tional Historic Site, ican Indian reservation com­ by Mary King Long­ 105 Brattle St., Cam­ munities and for people who fellow, 1876 bridge, MA 02138. live in Island Territories under Study, ca. 1870 U.S. administration. ..GPO 1979-281 353/27 Reprint 1979 Cover: Longfellow and daughter Edith National Park Service U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR "When he walked, he Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born Feb­ children. In 1854, he resigned his professor­ had a kind of spring in Henry W. Longfellow ruary 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, into a ship and devoted his time to writing and to by Samuel his gait, as if now and Laurence, 1854 distinguished family with ties to some of the enjoying the fame that increasingly came again a buoyant thought earliest settlers of New England. In 1825, he his way. He received honorary degrees from LONGFELLOW: HIS TIMES, HIS FRIENDS lifted him from the was graduated from Bowdoin College in the Cambridge and Oxford universities and his ground. It was fine to In the middle half of the 19th century, litera­ same class with Nathaniel Hawthorne and bust is in Westminster Abbey's Poets' ture, in all its forms, blossomed in New Eng­ meet him coming down Franklin Pierce. The trustees of Bowdoin Corner, the only American poet so honored. land. The Brahmins in Cambridge and Boston, a Cambridge street; you offered him a teaching position provided he the Transcendentalists in Concord, and the felt that the encounter A few of Longfellow's major works are: spend sometime in Europe studying modern abolitionist writers throughout New England made you a part of lit­ Evangeline (1847), Hiawatha (1855), The erary history, and set languages. After three years in Europe, Long­ were the people with whom Longfellow con­ Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and you apart with him for fellow began teaching, and two years later versed and corresponded. These were the The (our portraits below 7a/es of a Wayside Inn (1863-72). were prawn by the moment from the he married Mary Storer Potter of Portland. men and women who were helping to create Eastman Johnson in 1846 poor and mean." an American literary tradition. They wrote out In 1835 he accepted a post at Harvard, but of an experience that was uniquely shaped by —William Dean Howells before taking up his full-time duties, he re­ Literary Friends and turned to Europe to study German. In Rotter­ life in the United States, a young nation that Acquaintance. Charles and Ernest was manifestly proud of its accomplishments, Longfellow by Eastman dam, his wife died after a miscarriage. On yet unable to correct the flaws in its social Johnson, 1848 July 13, 1843, Longfellow and Frances Eliza­ fabric that led to Civil War. beth Appleton, daughter of Nathan and Maria Gold Appleton, were married. They had six Amazingly, Longfellow remained some what aloof from the storms, enjoying the company of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Well-educated and widely traveled, Fanny "Under the Ralph Waldo Emerson, spreading chest­ Charles Sumner, Appleton Longfellow nut-tree and Cornelius Fel- was a perceptive liter­ "From my study I see The village ton, president of ary and art critic in her smithy stands; own right, well quali­ in the lamplight,/de­ Harvard. scending the broad hall The smith a fied to share in her mighty man husband's intellectual stair,/grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,/and is he life. The Longfellow Edith with golden hair./ With large and marriage was an ex­ A whisper, and then a sinewy hands." tremely happy one Ralph Waldo Emerson silence:/yet I know by —from "The Village whose memory lin­ their merry eyes/they Blacksmith" Cornelius Felton gered long after are plotting and plan­ Fanny's death in 1861. ning together/to take quent forays into contemporary politics. In 1879, Longfellow me by surprise." Charles Sumner wrote a poem, "The Generally, however, Longfellow stayed away —from "The Children's Cross of Snow" that Hour." The girls in the from political issues and remained a part of includes these lines: poem are Longfellow's the world of letters. Aside from scathing criti­ daughters (left). On Longfellow's 72nd birthday, the school­ Longfellow's friendship with Sumner, a U.S. cism by Edgar Allen Poe, Longfellow was Three Daughters of children of Cambridge gave him this chair "Such is the cross I wear Longfellow by T. B. made from the wood of the "spreading Senator from Massachusetts and an opponent admired and respected throughout North upon my breast/these Read, 1859 of slavery, perhaps prompted his own America and Europe. His poetry struck a re­ eighteen years, through chestnut-tree." The tree was cut down when Fanny Appleton the road was widened. Three years later, on Poems on Slavery (1842), one of his infre­ sponsive chord in people's hearts and minds. all the changing scenes/ Longfellow by Samuel His readers genuinely loved him. and seasons, changeless Rowse, 1859 March 24, 1882, Longfellow died in his home since the day she died." here on Brattle Street. .
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