History
Whittier moved to this house in 1836, where he lived with his mother, aunt, and sister Eliza. Whittier wrote most of his poetry and prose in this house, including his classic "Snow Bound" written in the Garden Room. During his 56 year residence, he enlarged the house several times, raising the original building at the left up and adding another story, then adding the section to the right. Since 1918, the house has been owned and maintained by the Whittier Home Association.
The house and its furnishings essentially unchanged from the poet's death, including living rooms, bedroom, and Whittier's writing study with all its furnishings.
Whittier's birthplace in nearby Haverhill, the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, is also open to the public.
Read more about this topic: John Greenleaf Whittier House
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)