“Why Litchfield? Grounding Town History to the Land Itself” Luncheon and Talk with Dr. Robert Thorson
May 14 @ 1:00 pm
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Luncheon and Talk / America 250 Presentation
James Fischer, Research Director of The White Memorial Conservation Center, carried grist to my metaphorical mill when sending me his manuscript “Geology as Destiny?” My job in this presentation is to grind that grist into the bread of Litchfield history, following the example Robert Gross and I set for our article “Why Concord?” published recently in a special issue of The Atlantic titled The Unfinished Revolution. During my talk, I hope to sway you to the realization that social history is the tail on the dog of Earth history. Fischer was convinced, having written:”Litchfield’s history, like Concord’s, is not simply something that happened on the landscape. — it is something that emerged from it.” And also: “The value of reading Litchfield though Gross and Thorson’s lens is not to reduce culture to geology, but to restore continuity between the town’s celebrated stories and the grounded conditions that made them possible.” I love his word “restore” because the citizens of Litchfield during the “Age of Homespun” understood this continuity far more than most of us in the age of AI.
This will be a mixed-media oral presentation with slides, readings, demonstrations, discussion, and Q&A. Points of interest will be the Litchfield’s varied terrain, rock ledges, erratic boulders, streamlined hills, hardscrabble pastures, wetland pastures, stone walls, streams, mill seats, aquifers, Bantam Lake, and other ponds. One specific point of special interest will be a beautiful slab of Litchfield rock that records eight events in deep time.
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., Carriage House, Lunch included. All tickets:$25 You must pre-register online HERE.
REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE AT 5PM MAY 12th!
This program is presented as part of America’s 250th in Litchfield, CT!
LINKS
The Land – Ten mini-essays from Connecticut Magazine – “The Hills” describes Litchfield.
Shape of Storrs – A cover essay for UConn Today featuring the landform and soil that made Litchfield such a productive agricultural town.
Stone Wall Science – Essay in The Conversation with multiple links.
Robert M. Thorson (Thor) is a Midwestern native, turned Northwestern geologist, turned Northeastern academic. Currently, he’s a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut with a research focus on the link between New England’s landscape, archaeology, history, ecology, and literature. His work as an author includes The Walden Experiments, upcoming from Princeton University Press and seven previous books, one of which, Stone by Stone, won the Connecticut Book Award for nonfiction, remains a regional bestseller, and is now available in audio.
His work as a journalist was recently featured by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. He’s also a talking head for a three-part Ken Burns-PBS reframing of Henry David Thoreau that will air nationwide on March 30-31. This is his fifth appearance in Litchfield for conservation-minded audiences since 2003.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Luncheon and Talk / America 250 Presentation
James Fischer, Research Director of The White Memorial Conservation Center, carried grist to my metaphorical mill when sending me his manuscript “Geology as Destiny?” My job in this presentation is to grind that grist into the bread of Litchfield history, following the example Robert Gross and I set for our article “Why Concord?” published recently in a special issue of The Atlantic titled The Unfinished Revolution. During my talk, I hope to sway you to the realization that social history is the tail on the dog of Earth history. Fischer was convinced, having written:”Litchfield’s history, like Concord’s, is not simply something that happened on the landscape. — it is something that emerged from it.” And also: “The value of reading Litchfield though Gross and Thorson’s lens is not to reduce culture to geology, but to restore continuity between the town’s celebrated stories and the grounded conditions that made them possible.” I love his word “restore” because the citizens of Litchfield during the “Age of Homespun” understood this continuity far more than most of us in the age of AI.
This will be a mixed-media oral presentation with slides, readings, demonstrations, discussion, and Q&A. Points of interest will be the Litchfield’s varied terrain, rock ledges, erratic boulders, streamlined hills, hardscrabble pastures, wetland pastures, stone walls, streams, mill seats, aquifers, Bantam Lake, and other ponds. One specific point of special interest will be a beautiful slab of Litchfield rock that records eight events in deep time.
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., Carriage House, Lunch included. All tickets:$25 You must pre-register online HERE.
REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE AT 5PM MAY 12th!
This program is presented as part of America’s 250th in Litchfield, CT!
LINKS
The Land – Ten mini-essays from Connecticut Magazine – “The Hills” describes Litchfield.
Shape of Storrs – A cover essay for UConn Today featuring the landform and soil that made Litchfield such a productive agricultural town.
Stone Wall Science – Essay in The Conversation with multiple links.
Origin of Stone Walls – Audio segment on NPR’s Academic Minute
Stone by Stone – Award-winning nonfiction book by Bloomsbury on Stone Walls
Signature Landform – Award-winning Smithsonian essay on New England’s stone walls.
Stone Wall Initiative – All-purpose information website at UConn.
About Our Speaker:
Robert M. Thorson (Thor) is a Midwestern native, turned Northwestern geologist, turned Northeastern academic. Currently, he’s a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut with a research focus on the link between New England’s landscape, archaeology, history, ecology, and literature. His work as an author includes The Walden Experiments, upcoming from Princeton University Press and seven previous books, one of which, Stone by Stone, won the Connecticut Book Award for nonfiction, remains a regional bestseller, and is now available in audio.
His work as a journalist was recently featured by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. He’s also a talking head for a three-part Ken Burns-PBS reframing of Henry David Thoreau that will air nationwide on March 30-31. This is his fifth appearance in Litchfield for conservation-minded audiences since 2003.
Details