Concord
CHAPTER one
The Place
That Shaped Her
Nestled along Lexington Road in Concord, Orchard House became the living heart of Louisa's imagination. She wrote Little Women here in just ten weeks — in a room her father built for her, overlooking an apple orchard in full bloom.
Concord was not merely a backdrop. Emerson was a neighbor. Thoreau walked the same woods. Louisa grew up inside an intellectual salon disguised as a village, and it made her.
"I am more than I seem, for I have a great deal more in my head than ever gets written."
— LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, JOURNAL, 1868
30
YEARS AT ORCHARD HOUSE
ORCHARD HOUSE · LEXINGTON ROAD, CONCORD · EST. 1858
The writer
CHAPTER TWO
Little Women
PUBLISHED 1868
Chapter One — Playing Pilgrims
'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. 'It's so dreadful to be poor!' sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
First edition · Roberts Brothers, Boston · 1868
When Louisa Alcott Was a Girl · The Ladies' Home Journal
"LAURIE"
The Woman Behind
Little Women
Before Little Women made her famous, Louisa published Gothic thrillers under a pseudonym, worked as a seamstress, a teacher, and a Civil War nurse — and sent every penny home to her family.
Her publisher asked for a "girl's story." She delivered a novel of uncommon emotional honesty that sold out within weeks of publication in 1868. She was 35. She had been writing since she was a child.
270+
PUBLISHED WORKS
1868
LITTLE WOMEN
$200K
EARNED IN A DECADE
The characters were drawn from life. Jo March was Louisa — restless, ambitious, and unwilling to be diminished by the expectations of her era.
270+
PUBLISHED WORKS
$200K
EARNED IN A DECADE
1868
LITTLE WOMEN
"I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it."
— L.M.A., JOURNAL, 1852
Legacy
CHAPTER THREE
Why She
Still Matters
More than 150 years after publication, Little Women remains one of the most-read novels in the world. It has never been out of print. It has been adapted into films, operas, ballets, and graphic novels on every continent.
But Louisa May Alcott herself — the suffragist, the abolitionist, the writer who published under pseudonyms to say what society wouldn't allow — remains underknown.
This exhibition exists to change that. To introduce the full human being: fierce, funny, unconventional, and completely, irreducibly herself.
50+
LANGUAGES TRANSLATED
10M+
COPIES IN PRINT TODAY
4
MAJOR FILM ADAPTATIONS
2019
LAST FILM RELEASE
L. M. Alcott · Formal portrait with signature · circa 1880
CHAPTER THREE
Louisa May Alcott
A digital exhibition celebrating the life, work, and enduring legacy of one of America's greatest writers.
CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS · 1832–1888
EXHIBITION CHAPTERS
ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION
Curated from primary sources, historical archives, and scholarship on nineteenth-century American literature.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
A DIGITAL LITERARY EXHIBITION
"She is not merely a character. She is a declaration."