. Gleason used Thoreau’s writings as his starting point. He consulted the 1852 and 1856 Walling maps of Concord and the extensive collection of manuscript Thoreau surveys in the Concord Free Public Library.
He made many field trips, retracing Thoreau’s footsteps through close reference to the author’s own written accounts of his wanderings.
He talked to Concord residents (Frank Sanborn, John Shepard Keyes, and Edward Waldo Emerson among them) who remembered Thoreau.
Thoreauvians will always be indebted to Gleason for his careful research in preparing the map of Thoreau localities included in Volume 20 of the 1906 Manuscript and Walden Editions of Thoreau’s writings."
Gleason’s map of 1906 Concord environs takes on new significance 100 year later because many of the specific sites and trails referred to by Thoreau in his writing and located on that 1906 map are still available to be found and experienced today.
Gleason’s 1906 map may be accessed COURTESY CONCORD FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY at http://www.concordnet.org/library/scollect/Gleason/Map.html