Private tour with Museum Executive Director Jane Wald
Space is limited — registration required.
Tickets TBA!
During this once-in-a-lifetime program, witness the discoveries emerging within the walls of Emily Dickinson’s 1813 home as the Museum enters the final phase of Homestead restoration. Executive Director Jane Wald leads a private tour of the architectural and forensic investigations illuminating the original condition of the Homestead’s service wing during the poet’s writing years, including the kitchen where she baked her famous gingerbread, the pantry where she composed and read poems, the family dining room and second floor bed chambers, and rooms that housed the Amherst residents who worked for the Dickinson family. . Now in the exploratory phase–a brief window when modern finishes have been removed and restoration work has not yet begun–this wing of the house has never been seen this way and will not remain in its current condition for long! From wear patterns on the original floor boards, to the “ghosts” of the poet’s pantry cupboards, you’ll see up close how new understandings of everyday life at the Homestead are shaping the final restoration plan.
Jane Wald is the Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum. She has worked in the public history and literary sites for more than thirty-five years and has been executive director of the Dickinson Museum for twenty years. Her interests in literary and cultural history, combined with her background in historical archaeology and material culture, have been a particular strength at the Emily Dickinson Museum in its first decades. In 2006, Wald helped to create a master plan for stabilization, preservation, and restoration of the two Dickinson family homes, grounds, and collections, and has systematically implemented each of its recommendations ever since. Critical projects have included restoration of Emily Dickinson’s bed chamber; reconstruction from original materials of the Dickinson’s cherished conservatory; restoration of the original 1813 Homestead; installation of fire detection and suppression systems; reduction of water intrusion in the historic houses; and new museum-grade mechanical systems.
Wald has presented numerous lectures, talks, and papers about Emily Dickinson, the Museum, and especially the material and cultural contexts of Dickinson’s environment. Of particular relevance to this “Behind the Restoration” program are publications including “A Short Biography of the Homestead and The Evergreens,” in The Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson, (2022); “’The Poet Hunters’; Transforming Emily Dickinson’s Home into Literary Destination” in the Emily Dickinson Journal (2017); “’Pretty Much Real Life’: the Material World of the Dickinson Family” for the Blackwell Companion to Emily Dickinson (2014); and “’Better than Heaven’: Emily Dickinson’s Religious Texts” for the Emily Dickinson Archive. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, graduate degree in American History from Princeton University, and historical archaeology graduate work at the College of William and Mary.