Henry David Thoreau

On July 12, 1817, John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar welcomed their third child. They named him "David Henry," but after college he changed it to "Henry David." It was one of many unconventional moves that would cause comment among his neighbors and friends in Concord, Massachusetts.

This statue, erected at Walden Pond State Reservation (Park), shows Thoreau as his neighbors remembered him — walking — and as the world remembers him — in contemplation. He is looking at his hand. Perhaps he had read these words of Thomas Carlyle: "... the true inexplicable God-revealing Miracle lies in this, that I can stretch forth my hand at all; that I have free Force to clutch aught therewith."

Thoreau tried his hand at many things. He was a factory worker, inventor, teacher, naturalist, and surveyor. Today he is best remembered, however, as a thinker and writer.