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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.

Tell It Slant Poetry Festival

Tell It Slant Poetry Festival

Virtual • September 14-20, 2020

BROWSE EVENTS AND SIGN UP »

A series of free virtual events, the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival celebrates the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and the contemporary creativity of the Pioneer Valley and beyond. Listen to readings by award-winning poets Ada Limón and Franny Choi, take a masterclass with Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown, go on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Dickinson collections at the Amherst College Library, participate in a marathon reading of all 1,789 Dickinson poems, and much more. SIGN UP »

News & Virtual Events

Emily Dickinson’s Amherst College, December 4, 12-1:15pm

Emily Dickinson’s Amherst College, December 4, 12-1:15pm

  Join Museum staff for a lively lunchtime talk about the impact of Amherst College on the life of poet Emily Dickinson.  The Dickinson family were instrumental to the College during its first 75 years, beginning with Samuel Fowler Dickinson’s part in its founding and continuing with Edward and Austin’s combined 60 years of service
My Emily Dickinson: A Story Collecting Project, 2020

My Emily Dickinson: A Story Collecting Project, 2020

In honor of Emily Dickinson’s 190th birthday, the Museum is collecting your stories! This project seeks to document the many Emily Dickinsons that exist in the hearts of contemporary readers. So many of us feel a deep connection to Dickinson’s life, her poetry, or to both. For some, we read her work as young students
Statement in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Statement in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Today, in our distress over recent devastating events, we stand with our community and with the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice and inequality.
#Emilytober Prompt List – Be Inspired, October 1st – 31st!

#Emilytober Prompt List – Be Inspired, October 1st – 31st!

We are so excited to be participating in #Artober, by releasing our own list of prompts consisting of lines from Emily Dickinson poems!
Emily's handwriting on paper and envelope on a desk

Poem of the Day

“Faith” is a fine invention (202)

“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

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