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A Mighty Room

Although no photographs of the room from Dickinson’s time exist, her niece Martha carefully recalled many of her aunt’s possessions that occupied this space. Having been restored in 2015, the bedroom appears today as the poet saw it in her later years. Using clues such as the wear patterns found on the preserved original floorboards, the Museum displays Dickinson’s bed, replica bureau and writing table, a washstand, Franklin stove, and rocking chair.

View of the bedroom with the bed in the foreground, and the desk and windows in the background. Between them stands a manikin with the poet's replica white dress

This fragment of Emily Dickinson’s original wallpaper, which dates to the final decade of her life, was discovered above the modern ceiling when bedroom restorations began. Restoration specialists worked by hand to recreate the climbing rose pattern that encircled the poet’s “mighty room”.

Sweet hours have perished here,
This is a mighty room;
Within its precincts hopes have played, –
Now shadows in the tomb.

Emily Dickinson, J1767, Emily Dickinson Archive, http://www.edickinson.org.

Fragment of wallpaper with torn edges. The paper shows a repeated chevron pattern over faded pink and green roses.