Author Description

Excerpt from Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site, 1993, Vol. 1: Site History and Existing Conditions In 1844 Henry Longfellow described the grounds of his home on Brattle Street in a letter to his father: I have also planted some acorns and the oaks grow for a thousand years, you may well imagine a whole line of little Longfellows, like the shadowy monarchs of Macbeth, walking under their branches for countless generations, to the crack of doom all blessing the men who planted the oaks. The line of little Longfellows has long since disappeared; in their place successive (if not yet countless) generations of visitors from near and distant places walk under the branches of Longfellow's oaks, elms, and lindens. When the ownership of Longfellow House passed to the National Park Service in the mid twentieth century, so did the responsibility for stewardship of its landscape. In defining stewardship, Webster's Dictionary refers to the word obligation. And it is with nothing less than a deeply felt sense of obligation that we carry on the tradition of Longfellow family stewardship that has now been carefully documented in this Cultural Landscape Report. I would like to recognize and thank the Cultural Landscape Program of the National Park Service's North Atlantic Region for funding and writing the Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site. We are particularly grateful to the author, Catherine Evans, whose thorough research and thoughtful writing are a reection of her commitment to the subject and the integrity of her work. Cultural landscape reports such as this are absolutely essential if we are to manage our historic landscapes confidently and professionally. Responsible stewardship depends on knowledge, without which management no matter how well intended, may eventually destroy more than it preserves. Visitors come to the Longfellow National Historic Site seeking out the poet's spirit in different ways;