How to Use This Site
Searching the Database
The drawings are searchable by the name of an object, date, and category
The name (or title; the “unique ID”) of each drawing, whenever possible, reflects Thoreau’s own language as he describes or names things. (The exception to this practice: when Thoreau doesn’t directly identify something, but offers a description that is embedded in a long string of words that would be unwieldly to reproduce.) Sometimes, Thoreau doesn’t give a name to a thing because he doesn’t know what it is. For example, he asks “what is that white hairy plant with lanceolate leaves and racemes,” which we simply identify as “white hairy plant” (July 23rd, 1852). Even when we are pretty sure what something is, we do not presume to name it.
1852_07_23_white_hairy_plant
1852_07_23_white_hairy_plant
When searching by date, use year, month, or day, or this format: yyyy_mm_dd. That is, 1855_03_04.
1855_12_26_aster
1860_05_19_bear_foot
All items in the drawings database have been sorted into categories. Search the archive by the following keywords (or tags).
Plantae
Trees
- Blossoms
- Cones
- Leaves
- Seeds
- Twigs or branches
Shrubs (or bushes)
- Blossoms
- Leaves
- Seeds
- Twigs or branches
Herbaceous perennials and grasses
- Leaves
- Seeds or blossoms
- Stems
Annuals & biennials
- Blossoms
- Leaves
- Seeds
- Stems
Animalia
Mammal
- Burrows
- Nests
- Tracks
Fish
- Eggs or spawn
Amphibians
- Eggs or spawn
- Frogs
- Toads
Reptiles
- Snakes
- Tortoises (land) and turtles (water)
Birds
- Eggs
- Nests
- Tracks
Arthropods (beetles, centipedes, insects, spiders)
Annelids (earthworms, leeches)
Molluscs
- Snail