This is an easy but interesting merit badge. In the northeast, we’re blessed with numerous early American history sites, but I bet wherever you are you can find something interesting. I’ll work on some training material, in the meantime, I’ll share this one piece I was working on:

The Concord Hymn

 ”…And fired the shot heard round the world.” so wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. This famous poem (actually a sung hymn) is studied & analyzed from grade school through college, but the history of the poem is what I was interested in. I knew it was prepared for the dedication of the battle monument at the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA, but I wanted to get a feel for the circumstances. I visualized the famed orator standing near the obelisk, one arm on the monument, one arm raised high, flags around him ‘unfurling in the April breeze,’ but alas, it was much different. Surprisingly, very little is available on the web, it took hours/weeks to find out what I could.  I eventually had to make a trip to the Special Collections vault at the Concord Library. Maybe you’ll find interesting…

story-of-concord-hymn.pdf

Here is a midi of the tune sung: old_100th.mid

This is a great read on Emerson and transcendentalism: ralph-waldo-emerson.doc