Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Emily Dickinson Collection 1847- (bulk 1924-)

Finding Aid

Encoding funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

© 2004

Biographical Note

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts to Edward Dickinson, a lawyer and treasurer of Amherst College, and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She graduated from Amherst Academy in 1847 then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year, 1847-1848. Benjamin F. Newton, a law student in her father's office, and Henry Vaughan, an Amherst College student, influenced her literary development by encouraging her to write. By the late 1850s, Dickinson had written hundreds of poems. She became more and more reclusive and only a few of her poems were published during her lifetime (the first edition of her poems was published in 1890). She died in Amherst on May 15, 1886, at the age of fifty-five.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Emily Dickinson Collection contains correspondence, a collection of poems, subject files, writings about Dickinson, and reproductions of photographs and other images. The bulk of this collection consists of secondary sources concerning Emily Dickinson and dating from 1924 to the present. Most of this material is written in the English language; the collection also includes writings in Japanese and other languages. Of particular note is a letter that Dickinson wrote on November 6, 1847, while she was a student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. The letter discusses her examinations and studies, Mary Lyon and the teachers, her schedule and domestic work, and the food at the school. There are also published copies of other letters that Dickinson wrote while at Mount Holyoke in 1847-1848. The collection of poems, published in 1988, contains some of Dickinson's works translated into the Estonian language. The subject files include documents concerning the Emily Dickinson International Society, the Emily Dickinson postage stamp, and films, music, novels, plays, and poems relating to Dickinson. The writings about Dickinson consist of books, articles, newspaper clippings, and published and unpublished papers. These writings discuss a wide variety of topics, including Dickinson's time at Mount Holyoke, her health, forgeries of her poems, and the history of the one known daguerreotype of her. Several clippings also relate to the celebration at Mount Holyoke College commemorating the 150th anniversary of her birth in 1980. The reproductions of photographs and other images include a print of the 1847 daguerreotype of Dickinson, copies of portraits based on the daguerreotype and on an 1840 portrait of Dickinson and her siblings, and a reproduction of an 1848 silhouette of Dickinson and her family.

Material from this collection is available in an online digital format.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into five series:

• Correspondence
• Collection of Poems
• Subject Files
• Writings About Dickinson
• Reproductions of Photographs and Other Images

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Correspondence 1847-1848 3 folders

This series includes an orginial letter by Dickinson written to her friend and Amherst Academy classmate Abiah Root on November 6, 1847. The letter reflects Dickinson's first experiences as a student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and describes her grueling examinations, studies, daily schedule, and domestic work. She writes that although she was homesick upon arrival, "I am now contented and quite happy, if I can be happy when absent from my dear home and friends." She also comments on the faculty: "One thing is certain and that is that Miss Lyon and all the teachers seem to consult our comfort and happiness in everything they do and you know that is pleasant." This series also contains copies of all of her letters written as a Mount Holyoke student as printed in "The Letters of Emily Dickinson," edited by Thomas H. Johnson and published in 1958.

Arranged chronologically.

Collection of Poems 1988 1 folder

This series contains a collection of Dickinson poems translated into the Estonian language by Doris Kareva and published in 1988.

Arranged chronologically.

Subject Files 1962- 1 box

This series includes documents about the Emily Dickinson International Society; articles and information about a 1977 film about her called "A Certain Slant of Light;" music about Dickinson; a 1996 novel about Dickinson "I Never Came to You in White," by Judith Farr; articles and information about the play "The Belle of Amherst;" a poem about Dickinson; and information about the 1971 Emily Dickinson postage stamp.

Alphabetically arranged by subject

Writings About Dickinson 1924- 4 boxes

This series consists of books, articles, newspaper clippings, and published and unpublished papers about Dickinson. Most of this material is in the English language; some writings are in Japanese or other languages. Of particular note are a series of clippings describing the celebration at Mount Holyoke College commemorating Dickinson's 150th birthday in 1980 which featured a marathon twenty-four hour reading of her poems. There is an article from the Spring 1986 "Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly" by Anna Mary Wells concerning Dickinson's experiences at Mount Holyoke and a paper entitled "Mount Holyoke Female Seminary's Unique Effect On Emily Dickinson," written in 1991 by Middlebury College student Jeannette Squires. An article by John Felix in the 1995 "New England Journal of Photographic History" discusses the history of the only known photograph of Dickinson. This series also includes "An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia" and "The Emily Dickinson Handbook," both published in 1998, as well as articles that concern Dickinson's health and the various forgeries of her poems.

Arranged chronologically.

Reproductions of Photographs and Other Images circa 1960s- 1 box

This series consists of reproductions of portraits and other images of Dickinson and her family. Most of these reproductions are prints and photocopies that were made between the 1960s and the 1990s. The series includes prints of the 1847 daguerreotype of Dickinson owned by Amherst College and reproductions of an 1848 silhouette of Dickinson with her family. This series also contains copies of portraits based on the 1847 daguerreotype and a of the childhood portrait of Dickinson with her siblings that was painted in 1840.

Arranged by type of image

Correspondence 1847-1848