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MUSEUM CLOSED

The Emily Dickinson Museum is currently CLOSED to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Guided tours and public programs are suspended.

The Museum is offering virtual programming and resources.

The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College. Find more information on Amherst College’s actions.

Emily Dickinson daguerreotype portrait, showing the poet wearing a black dress and a ribbon on her neck

Welcome

The Homestead & The Evergreens

The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two historic houses in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts associated with the poet Emily Dickinson and members of her family during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Homestead was the birthplace and home of the poet Emily Dickinson.

The Evergreens, next door, was home to her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and their three children. Learn more about the Museum.

News & Virtual Events

<b>A Poetry Month Archives Tour at Houghton Library</b></br>Wed., April 14, 6:30pm

A Poetry Month Archives Tour at Houghton Library
Wed., April 14, 6:30pm

A very special behind the scenes look at the Dickinson collection at Harvard University's Houghton Library ...
<b>Virtual Poetry Discussion Group</b></br>April 16 & April 20

Virtual Poetry Discussion Group
April 16 & April 20

A monthly lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters ...
<b>Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series</b></br>Thursday, April 22, 6-7pm

Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series
Thursday, April 22, 6-7pm

Phosphorescence April 2021 featured poets:
Jennifer Franklin, Philip F. Clark, Fred Marchant and Mervyn Taylor ...
<b>Major Restoration Project Launches</b>

Major Restoration Project Launches

The Emily Dickinson Homestead embarks on the next phase of historic restoration. 
This project will restore more of the National Historic Landmark home of one of America's greatest poets to its period of historic significance ...
Emily's handwriting on paper and envelope on a desk

Poem of the Day

A Bird, came down the Walk (359)

A Bird, came down the Walk –
He did not know I saw – 
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass – 
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass –

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad – 
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. –

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home –

Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim

Posted in Poems by Emily Dickinson.

Education

People standing and listening during an event outside, with flowers in the foreground

At the Museum

Field trips, special tours, workshops, and fun for students of all ages.

A book of Emily Dickinson's poetry being held open by someone reading

In the Classroom

Lesson plans, resources for students, and more.

Manuscript of Emily's handwriting, not quite legible in photo

Research

Resources, bibliography, and more.

Digital Dickinson

The Emily Dickinson Museum welcomes inquiries from researchers and strives to support their work.

Research at the Museum can be useful not only to Dickinson scholars but also to researchers interested in nineteenth-century material culture, social and cultural trends, domestic life, architecture, and decorative arts.

The Museum does not own Dickinson manuscripts or family papers but works closely with the institutions that do. The two major repositories for Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts and family papers are Amherst College and Harvard University. Additional repositories exist at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA, Mt. Holyoke College, Yale, and the Boston Public Library.

To learn more about digital and electronic Dickinson research resources, visit these institutional archives:

Amherst CollegeBoston Public LibraryHarvard UniversityBrown UniversityJones Library, Amherst MA Mt. Holyoke CollegeYale University

daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson fading into pixels

MISSION STATEMENT

It is the Museum’s mission to spark the imagination by amplifying Emily Dickinson’s revolutionary poetic voice from the place she called home.

Museums 10      Mass Cultural Council       National Endowment for the Humanities      Institute of Museum and Library Services