How to Follow in the Footsteps of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth was born in Portland, Maine, in 1807 and attende Bowdoin College, located next to the city of Brunswick, Maine. He was an exceptional student of linguistics and after a short sojourn in Europe, studying foreign languages, he was offered a professorship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One can learn quite a bit about one of this country’s most treasured authors by visiting several historical sites in these cities that are dedicated to the man and his work.
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Instructions
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Go to Portland, Maine, and visit the family home, which is located in the city center on Congress Street. The family home is now administered by the Maine Historical Society, which charges an admission fee, but quite a lot can be learned by visiting the two-story house and historical museum that is situated next door.
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Visit the First Parish Church (also in Portland) where the Longfellow family was a member and had their own private pew. This was the custom of the day, where church-going families would pay for the privilege of sitting in a specific seat within the church. The First Parish is a historic Maine church where the state constitution was first signed. It is also located on Congress Street, not far from the Longfellow House.
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Visit the Portland Head Light where Longfellow wrote one of his more notable poems, “The Lighthouse. In Henry’s day, the lighthouse, which is located less than 10 miles from the city, was a very popular place to visit, just as it is today.
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Go to the Charles River in Massachusetts, and walk across the river on the Longfellow Bridge. This was one of the poet’s favorite walks, and today, it is still possible to walk across the bridge, even though it is a busy thoroughfare between Boston and Cambridge. Longfellow's poem "The Bridge" is written about this Boston landmark.
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Visit Longfellow’s house in Cambridge. It is a popular site that is presently maintained by the National Park Service. The house is located at 105 Brattle Street, which is not too far from Harvard Square.
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Visit Longfellow's grave at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Tips & Warnings
There is an abundance of information available to literature buffs who are fascinated by the life of this writer.
“The Song of Hiawatha," one of Longfellow’s most commonly read works, is not written from the first person experience, but instead it was inspired by a popular retelling of the Chippewa myth that was penned sometime around 1840 by Henry Schoolcraft, who lived in upper Michigan and was married to a Native American woman.
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- Photo Credit Henri Bauholz
