{"53803":{"#nid":"53803","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Thoreau\u2019s Cabin Reconstructed at Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Honors Program students\u2019 examination of Henry\nDavid Thoreau\u2019s writings took a physical turn as School of Literature,\nCommunication and Culture Associate Professor Hugh Crawford\u2019s class\nreconstructed Thoreau\u2019s famed cabin.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsing only the instructions recorded by the author in his\nwork, \u201cWalden,\u201d the class and numerous other students raised the cabin\u2019s walls\nand rafters this past Saturday on the lawn in front of the College of Architecture\nBuilding.\u0026nbsp; What began as a seminar\non the writings of Thoreau became a search for meaning beyond the analysis of\nwords on a page. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are searching for a greater understanding of Thoreau\u2019s\nexperience at Walden and of knowledge embodied in practices and processes,\u201d\nsaid Honors Program student and builder Victor Lesniewski.\u0026nbsp; \u201cThere is a case to be made for gaining\na perspective on the world\u2014an additional context for meaning\u2014through material\npractices.\u0026nbsp; It means understanding\nthat there is knowledge and intellect that cannot be represented through a\ngraph, a lecture, or a college classroom. It is a tacit knowledge that can only\nbe achieved through an interaction with the materiality of a tree, a tool, the\nworld.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents only used tools that would have been available to\nThoreau to recreate the famed cabin.\u0026nbsp;\nNo nail guns, power saws, or pressure-treated two-by-fours\u2014students used\nfelling axes, broadaxes, crosscut saws, adzes, chisels, augers and bores, chalk\nlines, squares, froes, and mallets.\u0026nbsp;\nThey also relied on Thoreau\u2019s sparse instructions to guide them through\nthe building process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor all his prolixity regarding his house, Thoreau\nprovides little detail about the actual construction,\u201d said Crawford.\u0026nbsp; \u201cAll we know is that he went to the\nwoods in late March 1845, felled a number of white pines with his borrowed axe,\nsquared them\u2014probably with a borrowed broadaxe\u2014and constructed a 10-foot by\n15-foot by 8-foot timber-frame with six-by-six beams joined by mortise-and-tenon\njoints.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeginning in October, students began felling yellow pine\ntrees from a farm near Monticello and squaring them by hand, no small\nundertaking considering each log weighed hundreds of pounds.\u0026nbsp; Each mortise-and-tenon joint that\nconnects the beams took anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours to complete,\nand the house has more than 20 joints.\u0026nbsp;\nThe cabin\u2019s beams require little storage space, stacking neatly together\nin what could be considered an early version of flat-packing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThoreau didn\u2019t detail how much labor it took to build a\ncabin like this,\u201d Lesniewski said.\u0026nbsp;\n\u201cIn trying to figure out how he built this, we are gaining an experience\nsimilar to Thoreau\u2019s.\u201d\u0026nbsp; Also\ninforming the experience, Lesniewski added, were conversations prior to\nconstruction. \u201cWe have conducted interviews with Thoreau scholars, timber\nframers, and latter day Thoreaus to continue adding depth to our understanding,\u201d\nhe said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe result of the class\u2019s innovative approach to research\nyielded a new insight about the author.\u0026nbsp;\n\u201cMany people see Henry David Thoreau as an anti-social crank who chose\nto spend his time alone, counting ants or measuring the ice at Walden Pond,\u201d\nCrawford said. \u201cWhile there is some truth in that perspective, the students\nhave also learned how many of his activities demanded community, particularly\nthe raising of his house.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThoreau spent many a long day squaring up large timbers,\npausing occasionally to talk with the casual passerby. But he also needed the\nhelp of a good number of friends and townspeople to raise the frame, an\nactivity that requires team-work, patience, and good spirits, and is usually\naccompanied by music, feasting, and all around good times.\u201d\u0026nbsp; Crawford observed this sense of\ncommunity first-hand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany students who were not enrolled in the class joined\nthe self-dubbed Thoreau Housing Collective, their interest piqued by the\never-present crew of flannel shirt-clad Honors Program students working in\nfront of the Architecture Building.\u0026nbsp;\nOften spending their weekends and afternoons with Crawford working on\nthe cabin, more than 20 students from a wide range of colleges and majors\ndonated thousands of hours to the project.\u0026nbsp; Many of them now find themselves with a new appreciation for\nthe craftsmanship and skills required to build a timber-framed house.\u0026nbsp; \u201cI had never even hammered before this,\nnow I love it,\u201d said Honors Program student Sarah Mudrinich.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents will hold a March 16 poster presentation of the\nproject during the Undergraduate Research Spring Symposium in the Student\nCenter Ballroom, and a student video about the project is in production.\u0026nbsp; The Thoreau Housing Collective also has\ndocumented its experience at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.thoreauhouse.org\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ewww.thoreauhouse.org\u003C\/a\u003E, which includes\nmovies, pictures, journals, interviews, and research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe cabin will be displayed on campus for an\nindefinite amount of time.\u0026nbsp; While\nthe ultimate fate of the structure is uncertain, the legacy of the project is\nalready making an impact across the country.\u0026nbsp; High school students in Cincinnati used a Skype connection\nto hear a lecture about the project and learn more about Thoreau.\u0026nbsp; Plans for additional Skype lectures\naround the country may be on the horizon.\u0026nbsp;\nIn addition, Lesniewski plans to present a summary of the experience to\nthe American Literature Association in the coming months.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Honors Program\u0027s examination of Thoreau leads to new discovery about the author.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Honors Program\u0027s examination of Thoreau leads to new discovery about the author"}],"uid":"15436","created_gmt":"2010-02-22 09:13:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:05","author":"Automator","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-02-22T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2010-02-22T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"53802":{"id":"53802","type":"image","title":"Thoreau 1","body":null,"created":"1449175342","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:42:22","changed":"1475894403","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:03","alt":"Thoreau 1","file":{"fid":"190081","name":"Thoreau1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Thoreau1_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Thoreau1_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":237085,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Thoreau1_0.jpg?itok=GE3bn8km"}}},"media_ids":["53802"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.honorsprogram.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Honors Program"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.lcc.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Literature, Communication, and Culture"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.thoreauhouse.org\/","title":"Thoreau\u0027s House"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8754","name":"Communication and Culture"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"},{"id":"4201","name":"honors program"},{"id":"8755","name":"Hugh Crawford"},{"id":"3747","name":"literature"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERebecca Keane\u003C\/strong\u003E, Ivan Allen College Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-894-1720\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}