Follensby Pond from southeast

Harrietstown, NY, Adirondacks

In the summer of 1858 an expedition of ten scholarly men from Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts embarked on a trip to Follensby Pond in the Adirondacks, creating what came to be known as the Philosophers’ Camp at the shore of the pond.

The trip is remembered not only for the well-known artists and intellectuals who ventured together into the Adirondack wilderness but also for the lasting impact on the region and notions of preservation.

In spite of the name that became associated with the outing, the men were not necessarily “philosophers” by training or occupation. The party consisted of two poets, Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Russell Lowell; two scientists, Louis Agassiz and Jeffries Wyman; two lawyers, Ebenezer Hoar and Horatio Woodman; two doctors, Estes Howe and Amos Binney; John Holmes, the younger brother of writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, and William James Stillman.

(From Adirondacks Museum Website)

So Many Thanks to LightHawk for flight support!