I had some things that I called mine –
F101
A Timely Invitation to Support our Collections Work
What does it mean to discover a long-forgotten box filled with dozens of two-inch squares of delicate silk in surprisingly bold colors and patterns?
And what does it mean to recognize that some of those patterns are identical to items of Dickinson family clothing recently cleaned, tagged, and catalogued?
What does it mean to realize that each tiny square of silk is stitched to equally small pieces of paper? And then to notice that the bits of paper include tantalizing handwriting? Whose handwriting?
What can these pieces of material, attached to bits of envelopes, receipts, and invitations tell us about fine handwork, thrift, creativity and manufacturing? About the “slant of light” in the room where the stitcher – or stitchers – started, but never finished the quilt?
Welcome to collections management at the Emily Dickinson Museum.
With support from a federal grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Emily Dickinson Museum is working to preserve, catalog, and digitize records related to its collection and to locate Dickinson-related materials at other institutions. Museum staff and Amherst College interns digitized institutional records, including historic structures reports, catalog cards from the 1980s, and old photos of objects that had remained in place since the early 20th century, and added relevant information from these records into our publicly accessible collections database. Museum staff also conducted surveys of Dickinson material at other institutions, including Amherst College Library, Jones Library, Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University, Brown University, and Yale University, in order to gather information on the extent of primary sources related to EDM collections objects.
“This project has resulted in a better understanding of the Museum’s collections objects, enabling the Museum to interpret the poet’s life and times more fully, and provide public and scholarly access to an important cultural collection.” – Megan Ramsey, Collections Manager
For example, this image of Susan Dickinson, sister-in-law to Emily Dickinson and resident of The Evergreens, is held in the collection of Houghton Library at Harvard University. The image was taken in a photography studio in Germany during one of Susan’s trips to Europe with her daughter, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, circa 1910. The articles of clothing and accessories worn by Susan in this photo are all represented in the Museum’s collection, some of which can be accessed here:
Ensemble dress: 2023.3.260a-b: Database record
Hat: 2023.6.178: Database record
Eyeglasses: 2021.7.458: Database record
By linking the Houghton Library photo and the circumstances of its creation with the physical objects in our collection, we now understand the larger context of these objects in terms of the associated person, her interests and activities, and the timeline of her life. Archival materials are the key to unlocking new interpretations within the world of Emily Dickinson. As we explore the objects in our collection, we find ourselves asking questions such as:
How might a handwritten recipe inform plans to restore the north wing of the Homestead, which housed the kitchen, dining room, pantry and domestic labor living spaces?
What can the birth, and death, of a beloved child help us to understand about the choice of decor in The Evergreens?
What insights can middle-school teachers and students gain about the Civil War by working with museum educators to look closely at a children’s toy from the era?
These are just some of the questions that our ongoing collections work will answer.
How You Can Help
On April 9, 2025, the Museum received notice that our federal IMLS grant supporting this project had been terminated. We invite you to help us cover the gap in funding so we can complete the project in full and on schedule by the end of 2025. By supporting our Collections Project you will be supporting all of the work essential to our mission.
“Our work to amplify Emily Dickinson’s revolutionary poetic voice – by opening her family homes to visitors, by interpretive and educational use of her family’s material legacy, by holding up her enduring poetry – continues with your support and our unending gratitude.” – Jane Wald, Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director
To learn more about this timely initiative, please contact Senior Director of Development Erin Martin: erimartin@emilydickinsonmuseum.org
Rachelle Toarmino is a poet from Niagara Falls, New York. She is the author of the poetry collections Hell Yeah (Third Man Books, 2025) and That Ex (Big Lucks Books, 2020), as well as several chapbooks, most recently My Science (Sixth Finch Books, 2025), winner of the 2024 Sixth Finch Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in Poets.org, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, American Poetry Review, Bennington Review, Southeast Review, The Slowdown, and Omnidawn, which awarded her its 2024 Single Poem Broadside Prize. She earned her MFA in poetry at UMass Amherst, where she received an Academy of American Poets Prize. She is also the founding editor-in-chief of the literary publishing project Peach Mag and the creator and lead instructor of Beauty School, an independent poetry school. She lives in Buffalo.
Avia Tadmor is the author of the poetry collection “Song in Tammuz,” winner of the Tupelo Press International Berkshire Prize, forthcoming 2026. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Best New Poets, The New Republic, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Avia’s poetry received support from Yaddo, the Rona Jaffe Foundation/ Bread Loaf Writers’ Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Adroit Journal’s Gregory Djanikian Scholars Program. Previously, she has taught writing at Columbia University, where she directed the Columbia Artist/Teachers program, promoting no-cost arts education in schools and community organizations in NYC. Currently, she is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. Born in Jerusalem, she lives in New York.
Silvia Bonilla was born and raised in South America. She received an MFA in Poetry from The New School. She is the author of a chapbook called “An Animal Startled by The Mechanisms of Life” (Deadly Chaps 2024) and “Town of Eves,” forthcoming from Arizona University Press. Her work has been featured in Blackbird, Green Mountains Review, Cream City Review, Reed, Cimarron Review, among others. She has received support from Kenyon Writers Workshop, The Staltonstall Foundation, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Community of Writers, Napa Valley, The Frost Place, Colgate Writers Workshop and The Post Graduate Conference at The Vermont College of Fine Arts.
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
Musical performance featuring the poems of Emily Dickinson with music and lyrics by Rosemary Caine!
Join us in Emily Dickinson’s garden or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips and Sebastian Merrill, read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with moderator Kirun Kapur.
Nicole Callihan, Pichchenda Bao, and Jennifer Franklin, the editors of Braving the Body (Harbor Editions, 2024) will discuss a group of Dickinson’s poems about the body and embodied experience, particularly her exploration into the often-contradictory needs between body and mind. We will also read a selection of contemporary poems by women and non-binary poets from Braving the Body who have been inspired by Dickinson’s work. We will provide prompts for a generative writing exercise inspired by Dickinson and/or the poems from the anthology. There will be time for interested participants to share their drafts and to receive feedback from the editors.