Richard Smith (public historian)
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living history interpreter
Richard Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Cleveland, Ohio, US |
| Education | University of Akron |
| Occupations | Public historian living history interpreter |
| Known for | Impersonation of Henry David Thoreau |
Richard Smith is a public historian and writer known for his writings on New England history and for his living history interpretations of Henry David Thoreau.
Smith was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.[1] According to the LA Review of Books, "Richard grew up 'obsessed' with 19th-century American history, and his supportive parents took him to battlefields and historic houses on family vacations."[2] He graduated from the University of Akron with a B.A. in history in 1985.[3] After college, he continued to study "the spiritual teachings of Native Americans" and Transcendentalists.[4] In his spare time, he took part in re-enactments of the American Civil War and Revolutionary War,[2] and performed with several punk rock bands.[5][6]
Career
Smith began his career as a public historian while working "as" an Ohio schoolmaster of 1848 for an Akron living history museum.[2] After reading about the life and works of Henry David Thoreau, Smith decided to visit Concord, Massachusetts,[4] where he then moved a year later, in 1999.[6]
Thoreau is just a small part of this radical, vibrant group of thinkers in the mid-19th century. People like Theodore Parker, or Margaret Fuller, or Lizzie Peabody. These people are all fighting for women's rights, they're fighting for African-Americans' rights. They're fighting for an end to unjust war.
In addition to writing and giving talks about his historical research, Smith also performed as a living history interpreter. In period costume as Henry David Thoreau, he gave public readings from Thoreau's works, responding in character as Thoreau to audience questions.[7][8][9]
Explaining his interest in living history work, Smith told an interviewer (who wondered "if he might be the closest I'd get to a ghost") that "I want people to be aware of the fact that Thoreau was a living, breathing, funny, spiritual guy."[6] Smith thinks of Thoreau not a peaceful hippie but as a rebel, or even "the first punk rocker. He didn't care what people thought. He questioned the government. Hippies tend to be peacemakers, peace and love. But Thoreau saw nothing wrong with someone like John Brown trying to violently end slavery."[6]
At Thoreau-related sites such as Walden Pond or Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts), Smith also did tour-guiding, sometimes in character and costume.[2][10] His talks and readings, either in costume as Thoreau or as himself, have taken place around New England and beyond,[11][12] including work for CSPAN and Public Radio's Living on Earth.[7][13][14][15] He also expanded and presented his research on Native American history while he was scholar in residence at the Longfellow's Wayside Inn Museum.[16][17]
He is the author of eight books,[18] including Quotations of Henry David Thoreau (2017)[14] and A Short Biography of John Muir (2018).[19] He contributed a foreword to The Other 'Hermit' of Thoreau's Walden Pond: The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham.[20]
References
- ↑ "A Day With the Father of Transcendentalism". Scituation. December 7, 2016. Archived from the original on December 17, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
Smith argued that he is 'a historian, not an actor,' when being questioned about the origins of his interest in acting. He found himself agreeing with the basic principles of Thoreau's way of life.
- 1 2 3 4 "Town of the Living Dead". LA Review of Books. October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on December 17, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
"I use the term 'historic interpreter' or 'living historian.' But when people say 'impersonator,' that doesn't bother me."
- ↑ "Social Awareness: Thoreau and the Reform Movement" (PDF). The Thoreau Society. 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 17, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
Richard Smith received his BA in History from the University of Akron in 1985. For the last nine years he has lived and worked in the Concord area. Richard has appeared as Henry Thoreau at various sites in Concord, Boston, Maine, and Tennessee, as well as on C-Span and on the Boston television show "Chronicle" and is a regular at Walden Pond. He currently works for the Thoreau Society and is writing a book on 19th-century Concord.
- 1 2 Flanigan, Robin L. (March 23, 2017). "Why Richard Smith impersonates Thoreau". Democrat and Chronicle. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
He got into hiking as a Boy Scout, and after college focused his personal studies on the spiritual teachings of Native Americans and Transcendentalists, who put a higher value on the inherent goodness of people and nature over the corruption that can come with social institutions.
- ↑ Madrigal, Alexis C. (October 26, 2010). "The punk rocker who 'becomes' Thoreau". The Atlantic Monthly. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
But few people, not even the most dedicated greens enchanted by Thoreau's environmental ethics, can match Richard Smith's dedication to the man. Smith practices "living history," dressing up as and acting like Thoreau.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Marovich, Beatrice (October 25, 2010). "Becoming Thoreau". Killing The Buddha. Archived from the original on December 17, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
I was always attracted to the troublemakers in American history. Not just Thoreau, but Abby Hoffman, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Paine. All of the rebels...Thoreau is just a small part of this radical, vibrant group of thinkers in the mid-19th century. People like Theodore Parker, or Margaret Fuller, or Lizzie Peabody. These people are all fighting for women's rights, they're fighting for African-Americans' rights. They're fighting for an end to unjust war.
- 1 2 "Living on Earth". Living On Earth. July 7, 2017. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Richard Smith does a professional impression of Henry David Thoreau, and all of a sudden it's a warm July day in 1847.
- ↑ "Why Thoreau still matters". Boston Globe. January 4, 2017. Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
'I'm as well as I deserve,' said Thoreau, as portrayed by historian Richard Smith, during a First Day hike Sunday at Walden Pond. Smith was seated by the woodstove inside the replica of the American philosopher's cabin in the shadow of the new visitors' center at Walden Pond State Reservation.
- ↑ "A Thoreau Impersonator Bids a Fond Farewell to Walden Pond". The New York Times. September 11, 2025. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
This is the day Henry Thoreau left the pond, on Sept. 6, 1847. And after 26 years, this is my retirement.
- ↑ "'Wild and Noble Sites': A Walk to Egg Rock". Concord Land Conservation Trust. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States and 19th-Century American history and literature since 1995.
- ↑ "Thoreau is Alive and Visiting Bedford!" (PDF). The Preservationist. Bedford MA Historical Society. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-01-12. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
He also has appeared in some of the locations that Thoreau visited, including Lowell, Boston, Salem, Fitchburg, Framingham, Cape Cod, Brattleboro, Vermont and Moosehead Lake in Maine.
- ↑ "One Honest Walk". Thoreau Farm. October 11, 2016. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
I left Concord, Massachusetts, Wednesday morning, September 25th, 1850, for Quebec. … I wished only to be set down in Canada, and take one honest walk there as I might in Concord woods of an afternoon. ~ Henry Thoreau, in his opening paragraph of A Yankee in Canada.
- ↑ "Richard Smith". CSPAN. Archived from the original on February 17, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Actor Richard Smith, portraying Henry David Thoreau, read Thoreau's "Slavery in Massachusetts". He then talked about the role of slavery in Thoreau's lifetime. Thoreau was an abolitionist who helped runaway slaves and worked to repeal the fugitive slave law. He answered questions from the audience.
- 1 2 "Transcendentalists, Abolitionists, John Brown and Beyond: How New England Writers Made John Brown a Hero". The Thoreau Society. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
- ↑ "A Conversation with Henry David Thoreau". WGBH. October 24, 2014. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Step back in time to 1855 as Henry David Thoreau, the "Hermit of Walden Pond," visits Old South Meeting House! Was noted Transcendentalist, abolitionist and naturalist Thoreau really a hermit? What did he think of Boston, where he regularly visited the Athenaeum? Get the answers to these and other questions as you visit with Mr. Thoreau, portrayed by historian Richard Smith.
- ↑ "'For Indian Deeds There Must Be Indian Memory': Native Peoples of 17th-Century Sudbury Before European Contact". The Wayside Inn (Sudbury). March 15, 2022. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
- ↑ "The Facts and Myths about Thoreau's First Year at Walden Pond with Richard Smith". The Jenks Center, Winchester, MA. January 18, 2022. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Richard Smith .. is the current Scholar in Residence for Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury.
- ↑ ""SWEET AND BEAUTIFUL SOULS: LONGFELLOW AND THE CONCORD WRITERS" WITH RICHARD SMITH". Maine Historical Society. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th-century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry Thoreau at Walden Pond and around the country.
- ↑ "Wildheart: The Daring Adventures of John Muir". Idaho Commission for Libraries. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
- ↑ "The Other 'Hermit' of Thoreau's Walden Pond: The Sojourn of Edmond Stuart Hotham: A Review" (PDF). Thoreau Society Bulletin (308): 8. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
In the Foreword to this book, Thoreau interpreter and historian Richard Smith argues that Hotham was not an imitator of Thoreau and that his sojourn at Walden Pond was distinct from Thoreau's earlier and more famous experience.