Boston II: Little Women and Turner's Seascapes

Dave and I joined Camille’s family at the Louisa May Alcott house in Concord on the afternoon of June 16, 2022.  I especially enjoyed the introductory movie, shown in the barn-like building behind the house that Louisa’s father, Bronson, had used as one of America’s first adult education facilities.  An actress portrayed Louisa, telling us about her life, her house, and the writing of “Little Women.”  

There were wonderful portraits throughout the house of Alcott's family and her father's distinguished friends, including the writers, Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne.  

We saw the desk at which Alcott wrote her books.

 

We also saw charts of the many languages into which the books were translated and the many films based upon them.

Camille usually builds an outdoor event into her trips.  We walked the mile around Walden Pond, where sunbathers lounged on the beach.  Camille recalled how, when her children were little, they jumped in and out of the pond as they walked around it.

It was then time for treats.  The Eberts know all the best places.  We stopped at Coco for smoothies.

We then ate pizza at Berlucci's.  It was a deja vu time for the Ebert children, as they remembered the many times they had eaten Berlucci pizza during the five years that they lived in Boston as children.

Camille and her family were on "vacation time" during the morning, so Dave and I visited one of my favorite places in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts.  

The special exhibit gathered many of the works of the great English painter, Turner, who is most famous for his impressionistic paintings of the sea.

Turner began as a romantic historical painter, documenting such famous English sea battles as Trafalgar, and became more impressionistic as he grew older.

One of Turner's most famous paintings is "Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On.)"  The painting was created in the 1840s, after England had outlawed slavery, but while slavery was still allowed in the United States and while some slave ships still defied European laws..  It was a controversial painting that stoked abolitionist fires.