IN-PERSON PAINTING EXHIBITION
On view Tuesday, November 10 through December 20
“That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flower of life, seems almost supernatural.”
The installation is included with admission during the Museum’s open hours and will be on view beginning November 10.
An opening reception will take place on Tuesday, November 10, Mabel Todd’s 170th birthday, 5:30 to 7:30 pm at both the Emily Dickinson Museum at 280 Main Street and the Amherst History Center, the Society’s satellite location at 45 Boltwood Walk, just a five-minute walk from each other. Participants are encouraged to begin their evening at the Amherst History Center where opening remarks will occur at 6:00 pm. A shuttle between sites will be running between 6:15 pm and 7 pm. The public is warmly invited to attend; refreshments will be provided.
The Emily Dickinson Museum and the Amherst History Center are pleased to announce The Preferred Flower, an exhibition illuminating the expressive botanical paintings of Mabel Loomis Todd (1856–1932). Best known as the primary editor of Emily Dickinson’s posthumously published poetry, Todd was also an accomplished painter whose vivid renderings of flowers captured the natural world with precision and vitality.
The exhibition title originates from an 1882 letter Emily Dickinson wrote to Todd after receiving a painting of “Indian Pipes” (Monotropa uniflora): “That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flower of life, seems almost supernatural.” A few days later, Dickinson followed up with one of her favorite poems “A Route of Evanescence” indicating “I cannot make an Indian Pipe but please accept a Humming Bird.” Todd’s “Indian Pipe” illustration went on to grace the cover of every 19th-century edition of Dickinson’s poetry.
The exhibition features eighteen floral studies, including detailed renderings of Monotropa uniflora, trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), fringed gentian (Gentianopsis crinita), arrowheads (Sagittaria latifolia), wild mountain pinks (Silene caroliniana), bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata), witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), and more. The 18 paintings on view were donated to the Emily Dickinson Museum by 40-year Emily Dickinson scholar and former guide at both Amherst History Museum and the Emily Dickinson Homestead, Ruth Jones. Nine of the paintings will be on view at the Emily Dickinson Museum and nine at the Amherst History Center on Boltwood Walk.
Emily Dickinson Museum
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Admission: Free and open to the public
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Hours: 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
Amherst History Center
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Admission: $5 regular | $3 with Emily Dickinson Museum admission button
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Hours: Wed–Fri 1:00–4:00 PM | Sat 11:00 AM–3:00 PM
ABOUT MABEL LOOMIS TODD
Writer, editor, lecturer, traveler, conservationist, and artist, Mabel Loomis Todd (1856–1932) exercised her agile curiosity across the fields of literature, arts, and science. Best known today for her critical role in bringing the poetry of Emily Dickinson to the public, Todd also pursued creative work of her own, including theater, music, and painting. She painted on textiles, ceramics, screens, and wall surfaces, most often capturing wildflowers and other features of the natural world. This collection of her botanical oil paintings offers a uniquely intimate glimpse into an artistic practice of a lifetime. Small in scale, these works invite close looking and become occasions for studying color, form, texture, and the distinctive character of individual plants.
Born in Washington, D.C., Todd studied voice and piano at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she also cultivated a talent for flower-painting and writing. She married astronomer David Peck Todd who, in 1881, joined the Amherst College faculty. In Amherst, Mabel Todd found a lively intellectual community and a vivid, inspiring natural landscape. Always industrious and energetic, she accompanied her husband on scientific expeditions; wrote about their travels, astronomy, art, literature, and other subjects; lectured publicly on all these topics; and cultivated a lifelong engagement with the arts. Her contributions to the town included founding roles with the Amherst Historical Society, the Amherst Woman’s Club, and the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Arriving in Amherst in 1881, Mabel Loomis Todd grew to be closely connected with the Dickinson family and ultimately became a romantic partner of the poet’s married brother, Austin. But it was through her friendship with the poet’s sister, Lavinia, that Todd would eventually become the first editor of the poems. Todd’s own momentous correspondence with Emily Dickinson led to one of the most famous exchanges in American poetry—Todd’s gift of a painting of “Indian Pipes” (Montropa uniflora), which Dickinson acknowledged as her “preferred flower of life.” An illustration of this painting later adorned the cover of the collections of poetry and letters Todd saw into publication between 1890 and 1896.
The collection of eighteen paintings in The Preferred Flower was the gift of Ruth Owen Jones, Dickinson scholar, historian, and longtime guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum and Amherst Historical Society. The paintings span a significant decade, from 1876, when Mabel Todd studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, to 1886, the year of Emily Dickinson’s death.
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