a message from the meadows - emily dickinson … a message from the meadows from the directors...

A Message From The Meadows

Newsletter of the Emily Dickinson MuseumVolume 5, No. 1 Spring 2006

280 Main Street | Amherst, MA 01002 | www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org [email protected] | tel 413-542-8161 | fax 413-542-2152

A Packed Schedule. The Emily Dickinson Museum has an-nounced its schedule for the 2006 “A little Madness in the Spring,” to take place April 21-23. The Museum’s third annual celebration of National Poetry Month will be a varied weekend of Dickinsonian revelry with such highlights as a reading by poet Mary Jo Salter; an all-day, all-night marathon reading of Emily Dickinson’s 1,789 poems led by a number of prominent local poets and writers; and a celebration of the 30th anniver-sary of The Belle of Amherst. All events are free and open to the public.

“This tremendous scene” also includes a lecture by Karen Sánchez-Eppler, professor of American studies and English at Amherst College and author of the newly-published Dependent States: The Child’s Part in 19th Century American Culture; a children’s mini-marathon reading of selected Dickinson poetry; and a nature walk, led by John Green of the Hitchcock Cen-ter for the Environment – a co-sponsor of the nature program – along the Emily Dickinson Trail in Groff Park. A complete schedule of events follows this article.

“‘Madness’ gives us a chance to celebrate Emily Dickinson’s poetry and legacy in a variety of ways, and in a short period of time,” said Cindy Dickinson, the Museum’s director of programming and interpretation. “Bringing people together to celebrate poetry and Emily Dickinson is something we hope to achieve year-round, but in especially “mad” and creative ways during National Poetry Month.”

Poetry and Panelists. Mary Jo Salter, this year’s featured poet, will inaugurate the festival on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. with a reading on the Homestead grounds. Author of several collections of poems, her most recent work is Open Shutters

(please see “Madness” on page 4)

A Circus-themed Anniversary. The Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates the 150th anniversary of The Evergreens this year on July 1, with a circus-themed Amherst Day to take place on the Museum grounds. The third annual Amherst Day also marks the anniversary of the merger of the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens into a single Museum in 2003. All events are free and open to the public.

“Inspired by a visit to a traveling circus, the Dickinson chil-dren – Ned, Mattie, and Gib – put together their own version of a backyard circus with the help of their friends,” explains Jane Wald, the Museum’s director of resources and collec-tions. “The tree swing easily became a trapeze, the neighbor-hood pets became the circus menagerie, and a board laid across barrels turned into circus horses. The Dickinson children were certainly creative, and their parents and aunts delighted in their loud, energetic play. Our Amherst Day will honor the spirit of the Dickinson children.”

The Evergreens was built by Edward Dickinson, Emily and Austin’s father, on the occasion of Austin’s marriage to Susan

(please see “The Evergreens” on page 8)

A Year of Celebration “A little Madness in the Spring” Marks 30th Anniversary of “The Belle of Amherst”; Poetry Marathon Returns

150th Anniversary of The Evergreens on July 1; Museum to Commemorate the Milestone With a Circus-themed Event

2 A Message From the Meadows

From the Directors

Anniversaries prompt reflection. In 2005 and now entering 2006 we find ourselves in the midst of several noteworthy mile-stones. Fifty years since the publication of The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955), edited by Thomas Johnson and Theodora Van Wagenen Ward, the first complete compendium of Dickin-son’s work ever published. Forty years since Amherst College bought the Homestead and began to open it for public visitation (1965). Thirty years since Julie Harris brought Emily Dick-inson to life in William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst (1976). Fifteen years since the Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust was established to preserve The Evergreens (1991). Perhaps most significant, though, are the 175th anniversary of Emily Dickin-son’s birth (December 10, 1830) and the 150th anniversary of The Evergreens (1856).

In thinking about these anniversaries, we reflect on Emily Dickinson’s legacy. Known as the “myth of Amherst” even in her own lifetime, Emily Dickinson is the subject of countless books, a handful of plays, numerous musical compositions, and visual art work. All of these grapple with the elements of myth and reality that surround Dickinson’s life and work. Who is the “real” belle of Amherst?

The search for the belle can begin right here, at the Emily Dick-inson Museum. In the coming year we invite you to explore with us her work, her world, and her legacy. On Sunday, April 23, as part of “A little Madness in the Spring,” we will focus on The Belle of Amherst anniversary to examine the effects of artistic, scholarly, and popular portraits on the public’s concep-tions of Dickinson’s significance. The poet herself wrote about artistic legacy: “The Poets light but Lamps / Themselves - go out . . . . Each Age a Lens / Disseminating their / Circumfer-ence.”

The search for the belle also leads us to the home of her family next door at The Evergreens. As a young woman, Emily Dick-inson was very much a part of what Susan called “home talk with magnetic visitors” - “the constant association with high-minded earnest men and women, and the refreshment of their informal talk - of literature, affairs, [and] religion. . . .” Eventu-ally, “home talk” for the poet more often took the form of notes and verse carried back and forth across the grounds. Yet, the complex and abiding relationships between the residents of the

two Dickinson family homes had much to do with the preserva-tion of their overlapping material and manuscript legacies.

We honor this intertwined legacy at the annual Poetry Walk in May, with readings of some of the nearly 300 poems known to have been sent to family members at The Evergreens. “One Sister have I in the house - / And one a hedge away. / There’s only one recorded - / But both belong to me.” With poems such as these, Emily Dickinson’s artistry enveloped and traced the ups and downs of the familial relationships so vitally important to her.

While not the first champion of Dickinson, the poet’s niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi fulfilled her desire, early in the twentieth century, to memorialize the friendship between her mother and aunt in part by preserving at The Evergreens the material context of the poet’s life for “pilgrims” on their own search for the elusive belle. Bianchi’s preservation activi-ties and those of her heirs, Alfred and Mary Hampson, left to future generations a remarkable manuscript record and a vast assemblage of household objects that help us, as Bianchi put it, to “realize the environment of the poet’s life.” In a series of workshops this fall we will examine more closely the kinds of furnishings and embellishments at The Evergreens that made everyday life for nineteenth-century families “pleasant and perfect.”

We hope you will enjoy peering through the many “lenses” at the Emily Dickinson Museum this year to reflect on Dickin-son’s legacy and to continue in your own search for the belle of Amherst. - Cindy Dickinson and Jane Wald

Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens Board of Governors Julie Harris John A. ArmstrongHonorary Chair Kent W. FaerberPolly Longsworth Leslie A. MorrisChair Cullen MurphyElizabeth S. Armstrong Betsy McInnisSecretary Karen Sánchez-Eppler William McC. Vickery Philip S. Winterer

Museum Staff Cindy Dickinson Director of Interpretation and Programming Jane Wald Director of Resources and Collections Tricia Gilrein Coordinator of Programming Tony Maroulis Coordinator of Development and Marketing

MissionThe Emily Dickinson Museum is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about Emily Dickinson’s life, family, creative work, times, and enduring relevance, and to preserving and interpreting the Homestead and The Evergreens as historical resources for the benefit of scholars and the general public.

A Message From the Meadows is published semi-annually by the Emily Dickin-son Museum and is distributed free of charge. Call 413-542-8161 or e-mail [email protected] to subscribe or unsubscribe.

A Message From the Meadows 3

2006 Programs

The Art of Display: Collecting and Displaying Art in a Nineteenth-Century Amherst Home Wednesday, March 29, 4 p.m. Katharine Martinez, Librarian of the Fine Arts Library of Har-vard College, will discuss the ways in which the nineteenth-century American middle class collected and displayed art in their homes. She will focus on the Dickinson family at The Evergreens. At the Amherst College Alumni House on Spring Street. No charge. A GoDutch! event.

“A little Madness in the Spring”Friday, April 21 - Sunday, April 23The Museum’s third annual celebration of National Poetry Month. This year’s activities will include a marathon reading of all of Dickinson’s poems, a poetry reading by Mary Jo Salter, and a celebration of The Belle of Amherst in honor of the play’s 30th anniversary. (see article on page 4 for full schedule; no charge, although registration is required for some events)

The Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk and Open HouseSaturday, May 13, 1 p.m.The Museum’s annual walk to commemorate Emily Dick-inson’s death (May 15, 1886). In honor of The Evergreens’ 150th anniversary, the poems read this year will be those sent to Dickinson’s relatives and friends who are associated with that house. No charge. Walk begins at the Museum. An open house at the Museum follows the walk from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Emily Dickinson’s GardensSunday, June 25, 2 p.m. A lecture and garden walk with Marta McDowell, landscape historian and author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens. A book-signing will follow. Fee; advance registration required. Call 413-542-2034. At the Amherst Woman’s Club. In collabo-ration with the Amherst History Museum Garden Tour on Saturday, June 24.

“Creatures of Bliss and Mystery”: A Nineteenth-Century Children’s Circus and Open HouseSaturday, July 1, 1-4 p.m.In honor of The Evergreens’ 150th Anniversary and Amherst Day. The Museum grounds will be alive with bliss and mystery as we recreate a children’s circus in the spirit of Ned, Mattie, and Gib Dickinson, who organized such events

at The Evergreens for the amusement of their friends. Magi-cian Bob Olsen will perform feats from the nineteenth century, and visitors can try their own hands at the ring toss, “tight rope” walking, stilts, and other circus fun. The Evergreens will be open for self-guided tours. No charge. July 1, 1856, was the wedding date of Austin and Susan Dickinson. The couple moved into The Evergreens immediately after.

Poetry in the GardenSundays, July 9, 16, 23, 2 p.m. Join us under the summer sky for readings of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, selected and read by members of the Amherst community. No charge. At the Museum on the Homestead lawn.

“Pleasant and Perfect” Sundays, September 17, October 1, October 15, 2-4 p.m.Lecture and workshop series in honor of The Evergreens’ 150th anniversary. This series will examine three aspects of the nineteenth-century American home—dining, furnishings, and decorating—through the material world of The Evergreens. Each program will include a lecture by a distinguished scholar, followed by a first-hand look at the Museum’s extensive collec-tions. Fee; advanced registration required. Call 413-542-2034.

Christmas with the Dickinsons: Bedpost Stockings and Laurel WreathsThursday, December 7, 4 p.m.From the stocking hung on Emily Dickinson’s bedpost when she was a girl to the scandalous hanging of laurel wreaths on The Evergreens’ front door, Christmas in the Dickinson family did not go unnoticed. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum, author of The Battle for Christmas, will discuss the changing meaning of Christmas in nineteenth-century America through the practices of two generations of the Dickinson family. No charge. Loca-tion TBA.

Open House in honor of Emily Dickinson’s Birthday(December 10, 1830) Saturday, December 9, 1-4 p.m. Join us for our 11th annual “At Home” celebration of Emily Dickinson’s birthday. Take self-guided tours of the Homestead and The Evergreens, enjoy Dickinsonian refreshments, and visit our shop for great holiday gift ideas. The first 176 visi-tors will receive a rose, courtesy of an anonymous donor. No charge.

Thank you for your generous support of the Emily Dickinson Museum!Enclosed is my check, payable to the “Emily Dickinson Museum,” for $ ____________________________

Name: _______________________________________________________________________________Address: _____________________________________________________Phone: ___________________City, State, Zip:______________________________________ E-mail:_____________________________

Please mail to Office of the Comptroller, Amherst College, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent pro-vided by law.


“Madness”(continued from page 1)

The Emily Dickinson Senior Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College, Ms. Salter is an essayist and reviewer for such publications as the New York Times Book Review and The Yale Review, and has received numerous awards for her work, including fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Since 1995, she has served as the Vice President of the Poetry Society of America. Ms. Salter will read from her own work, and will discuss the significant influence Emily Dickinson has had upon her poetry.

The growing list of confirmed readers participating in Sat-urday’s poetry marathon includes Doris Abramson, Annie Boutelle, Corinne Demas, Deb Gorlin, Stephanie Grant, Jay Ladin, David Lenson, Cammie McGovern, Marilyn Nelson, Susan Snively, Ellen Dore Watson, Dara Wier, Jane Yolen, and Matthew Zapruder. Slated to begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday morn-ing on the Homestead lawn, the marathon will continue until all of Dickinson’s poems have been read. There will be opportuni-ties throughout the marathon for audience members to read, and special recognition awaits the audience member or members who attend the entire event. The Poetry Center at Smith College is collaborating with the Museum on this event.

The three-day festival concludes on Sunday afternoon with a celebration of The Belle of Amherst, the one-person play by Wil-liam Luce that has had a profound effect on the public’s interest in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. To mark the play’s 30th anniver-sary, a panel discussion will follow the showing of a filmed version of the play. Under the guidance of moderator Cullen Murphy, former managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, the panel will explore the role that performances and presentations of different media have played in our modern-day perception of the poet, her times, and her work. Panelists are scholar Christo-pher Benfey, visual artist Lesley Dill, playwright William Luce, author Elizabeth Spires, historical reenactor Belinda West, and filmmaker Jim Wolpaw. The Museum has received a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in support of this program. The Valley Advocate is generously sponsoring the weekend’s events.

Said Cindy Dickinson: “Emily Dickinson once wrote ‘A word is dead, when it is said, some say, I say it just begins to live that day.’ Her words will certainly be thriving throughout our Mad-ness weekend

“A little Madness in the Spring” Schedule of Events

All programs are free and open to the public; one program (na-ture walk) requires advance registration.

Friday, April 21

4 p.m. Poetry Reading and Appreciation by Mary Jo Salter. On the Homestead lawn.

Saturday, April 22

9 a.m. The Marathon. A marathon reading of all 1,789 Dick-inson poems begins and will continue until we finish! On the Homestead lawn.

2 p.m. “Some Other Nineteenth-Century Manuscript Books: The Hale Children’s Homemade Libraries.” A lecture by Karen Sánchez-Eppler. Location TBA.

4 p.m. The Mini-Marathon. Children will read selected poems by Emily Dickinson in an hour-long mini-version of the poetry marathon. At the Homestead.

Sunday, April 23

11 a.m. “’Some keep the Sabbath.’” A nature walk along the Emily Dickinson Trail at Groff Park on Mill Lane in Amherst. Led by naturalist John Green. Advance registration required; call 413-542-2034 to register.

2-5 p.m. “’The Poets light but Lamps’: A Viewing and Dis-cussion of The Belle of Amherst and Modern Perceptions of a Major Poet” in celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Belle of Amherst. At Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall at Amherst College.

“A little Madness in the Spring” design by Mary Zyskowski


Lunatic on Bulbsby Janelle Bissonnette (Mount Holyoke College ‘07), Erin Cox (MHC ‘07), and Kate Robinson (Amherst College ‘08)

This spring The Emily Dickinson Museum will participate in “Go Dutch!”— a regionwide celebration of Holland and Dutch culture. Since Emily Dickinson neither visited Holland nor mentioned the country in her writing, it might seem that the poet would have little connection to this theme. Yet, as Judith Farr has shown in The Gardens of Emily Dickinson, one of Dickin-son’s great passions was gardening, and the poet certainly loved Dutch bulbs.

In an 1883 letter Dickinson declared, “I have long been a Luna-tic on Bulbs” (L 823). Bulb flowers were enormously popular in nineteenth-century America, especially tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils, all of which were imported from Holland. According to Karl Longto, the Homestead’s gardener, daffodils planted by the Dickinson family still bloom today. He speculates that the Dickinsons bought their bulbs from Dutch salesmen who sold bulbs in the area. The poet was probably aware of the tulip’s grand history in Holland, since it was recounted in Joseph Breck’s 1851 The Flower Book, which Judith Farr argues the Dickinson sisters consulted for gardening instructions. Discovered in Turkey in the 1500s, the tulip became wildly popular in Holland. Tulip bulbs sold for thousands of dollars until 1637, when severe inflation caused a stock market crash in Holland. Despite the crash, bulbs maintained their popularity, and the Netherlands has been the leading exporter ever since.

During her lifetime, Dickinson enjoyed her summer garden and in the winter forced bulbs indoors. In a section of The Flower Book entitled “Directions for the Flowering of Dutch Bulbs in Pots and Glasses,” Breck gives instructions for growing hya-cinths indoors during the cold months. “I have made a perma-nent Rainbow by filling a Window with Hyacinths -” (L 882), Dickinson wrote during the winter of 1884 to her friend Mrs. Holland.

In another letter the year before, Dickinson exclaimed, “Is not a bulb the most captivating floral form?” (L 824). Farr suggests bulbs mesmerized Dickinson partly because “bulbs, like poems, are rich worlds unto themselves.” Bulbs are self-contained and self-sufficient, containing both the emergent shoots of the plant as well as the food needed to sustain those shoots.

To Dickinson, the bulb was also an embodiment of resurrection:“So from the mould/ Scarlet and Gold/ Many a Bulb will rise-” (Fr 110). “Mould” means loose soil suitable for planting and also means the earth of the grave. As flowers die in autumn and then rise again from the mould in spring, they show the promise of resurrection.

To a poet who chose to build a life of privacy that enabled her to live more fully in the world of her mind and imagination - a world which contained vast realms of poetry as well as the nourishment for that poetry - the mysterious and self-con tained world of the bulb, hidden source of stunning blossoms, may have held particular fascination.

Emily Dickinson’s “Geneva Connection”by Cynthia Sanden (MHC ‘06), Erin Vogel (MHC ‘06), and Kristina Rosenberg (MHC ‘06)

One of Emily Dickinson’s closest connections to Dutch culture came through her sister-in-law’s associations with Geneva, New York, a small town in western New York state. After both of her parents died, Susan Gilbert moved to Geneva in 1837 with her older sister, Martha, to live with her maternal aunt, Sophia Arms Van Vranken and her aunt’s family.

(please see “Geneva” on page 6)

emily dickinson in her times During the Fall 2005 semester, students in “Emily Dickinson In Her Times,” taught by Mount Holyoke College professor Martha Ackmann met weekly at the Emily Dickinson Museum. As part of their work, the students explored themes related to the Museum’s participation in the Museums10-sponsored GoDutch! festival, a regionwide celebration of Dutch art and culture. in addition, the students reported on a lecture by Jane Eberwein of Oakland University that explored the poet’s relationship to religion in the revival-charged world in which she lived. the students also planted bulbs on the Museum grounds. The following are their final class projects.

Mount Holyoke College seminar after bulb planting (l to r): Cynthia Sanden, Mar-tha Ackmann, Janelle Bissonette, Erin Cox, Sandra Kereakoglow, Mishka Murad, Cassidy Smith, Hanna Pylvainen, Kate Robinson, and Kristina Rosenberg


“Geneva”(continued from page 5)

Geneva was founded in 1793 and, like many towns in upstate New York, grew out of the large immigrant movement following the Revolutionary War. Among the settlers were many Dutch immigrants seeking new opportunities, including the family of Sophia’s husband, William Van Vracken. In today’s Geneva, many older homes and barns provide evidence of Dutch archi-tecture from the town’s early years.

While in Geneva, Susan Dickinson would have been exposed to her aunt and uncle’s religious influences. The Dutch in New York originally were Dutch Reform Calvinists. The Dutch Reform Movement lasted until the mid 1700s, when the influx of Puritans and Anglicans from New England caused a schism within the Dutch Church. By the 1800s, the time during which Susan lived in Geneva, most of the former Dutch Reformers had been absorbed into the Presbyterian Church. Among the core principles of religious faith that descended from the Dutch Re-formed Church were the sovereignty of God, the authority of the scripture, and the justification by grace through faith. Susan’s exposure to the Dutch Reformed faith would have provided Em-ily Dickinson with a broader sense of religious experience be-yond the Connecticut Valley Congregationalism of her parents.

From the late 1830s through the early 1850s, Susan shuttled between Geneva and Amherst, where she lived with an older married sister. In 1848, after school terms at Amherst Academy, Susan returned to New York to study at Utica Female Academy. According to Dickinson biographer Alfred Habegger, Utica Female Academy was the “best girls’ school west of Troy” and its educational instruction and leadership surpassed Amherst Academy. Susan attended Utica quite possibly at the sugges-tion of her uncle, whose Dutch heritage would have instilled in

him the importance of a good education. Unlike many girls’ schools of the era, Utica placed less emphasis on religious study and salvation, and its curriculum prepared students for teaching careers. Following her education at Utica, Susan taught math-ematics in Baltimore.

In a letter that scholars Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith date as late 1850s, Dickinson may have been felt a contrast be-tween what she perceived as the provincialism of Amherst and Susan’s broader political and cultural landscape in Geneva. “I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with the Dandelion, make but sorry figure in a Drawing - room.”

On July 1, 1856, Susan Gilbert and Austin Dickinson were married at Oak Grove, the home of Susan’s aunt and uncle Van Vranken, located at 35 William Street (now 108 William Street).The couple then moved into The Evergreens in Amherst.

After her marriage, Susan visited annually in Geneva with her aunt and uncle Van Vranken and her sister Martha. From the poet’s letters, it seems these trips took place in the fall, usually for about a month between the end of August and the end of No-vember. Austin did not often travel with Susan and the children, as a letter from Emily Dickinson to Elizabeth Holland in late January of 1875 reports that “Austin’s family went to Geneva, and Austin lived with us for four weeks.” There is no evidence that Susan’s Geneva relatives ever reciprocated the visits.

The world of Dutch culture, religion, education and politics were brought to Emily Dickinson’s attention through Susan Gilbert Dickinson’s many years in Geneva, New York. As a poet, Dickinson “never saw a Moor” or saw the sea, but partly through Sue’s Geneva experiences, she was able to imagine a larger world beyond her second story window.

Erin Cox plants bulbs in the Homestead garden.

Mishka Murad plants bulbs.


Jane Eberwein Presents Museum Fall Lecture

By Sandra Kereakglow (MHC ‘06), Mishka Murad (MHC ‘07), Hanna Pylvainen (MHC ‘07), and Cassidy Smith (Smith College ‘07)

Jane Donahue Eberwein, Distinguished Professor of English at Oakland University in Michigan, delivered the fall 2005 Dickin-son Museum lecture entitled “Household of Faith: The Reli-gious Climate of Emily Dickinson’s World.” Eberwein spoke before a gathering of 50 Dickinson enthusiasts at the First Con-gregational Church in Amherst, Massachusetts—the church the poet’s family attended in the nineteenth century. In her lecture, Eberwein discussed the religious climate in Dickinson’s time, the poet’s resistance to conversion, and the impact Dickinson’s view of religion had on her poetry. Prior to her lecture, we sat down with Professor Eberwein for an interview.

Did Emily Dickinson stop going to church at a young age? Why do you think she stopped attending religious services?

Eberwein: Going to church is one of the last things she’s ceasing to do, and when she’s not going to church much, she’s visiting a minister, Edward Dwight, regularly and his wife. I do think that she’s just not a person oriented toward institutions.

Do you view Dickinson’s absence at church as a reflection of her feelings toward religion?

Eberwein: I think she has a tendency to—tendency would be the wrong word—a gift for cutting away what’s extraneous in things. To zero in on the essence of something. And, I think the community she was in—and in religion in most places of the world—a lot of what’s taking up people’s time isn’t the essence of the direct encounter with God. The church is oriented toward community service and works of charity and a lot of good causes to which she wasn’t very committed. And the church was oriented toward morality rather than spirituality. So, I don’t think going to church is necessarily going away from the es-sence of religion for her, which would have been the encounter with God. And [that encounter] might have been better achieved at times in her garden, with a book, or with a friend.

If this direct encounter with God was not fulfilled for Dick-inson by the church, was she rejecting Calvinist theology?

Eberwein: When you think of what’s at the essence of Calvin-ist theology, the big paradox at the center of that is that God doesn’t need a church. Really, if you think about it, grace is ir-resistible and God will reach whoever He has chosen: members of the elect. My guess is that [Dickinson] dispensed with what she didn’t need. But I don’t think it’s outright rejection—there is a kind of myth that she’s outright rejecting the church.

Dickinson frequently writes about immortality. How do you conceptualize her notion of immortality?

Eberwein: In one letter she talks about eternity as something dreadful, as though it’s just an endless continuation of what now is: and wouldn’t that be awful and wouldn’t you just want that to end. I’m not really satisfied about this myself—whether eternity and immortality are synonyms for her. Immortality becomes the goal. It becomes something very important. It’s a key word. It’s what she’s not sure of—that letter to Washington Gladden, “Is immortality true?” (L752a) It’s the centering ques-tion of her life. If it’s not true then death is the end. And I think she never really wanted to believe that.

With whom was Dickinson most apt to share her spiritual doubts?

Eberwein: It’s interesting that in her letters when she asks that question fairly directly or even when she expresses doubts, it’s not when she’s writing to friends. It’s when she’s writing to people who she thought could give her a more assured answer, a more positive answer. Her greatest doubts seem to come in letters to ministers.

Could you describe in three words Emily Dickinson’s experi-ence with religion?

Eberwein: “Searching” would be one of them. “Questioning,” I suppose that’s like searching. And “expectant.”

Kate Robinson decides which bulbs to plant.

Mount Holyoke seminar students meet with Professor Eberwein. (l to r): Mishka Murad, Hanna Pylvainen, Jane Eberwein, Sandra Kereakoglow, and Cassidy Smith.


“The Evergreens”(continued from page 1)

Gilbert on July 1, 1856, and to entice his son and daughter-in-law to settle in Amherst, rather than to entertain possibilities of a move to Chicago. The home, just west of the Homestead on a tract of the family’s land, was designed by well-known Northampton builder and architect, William Fenno Pratt, who appears to have based his plan on the published work of Andrew Jackson Downing, an influential architect whose work Austin Dickinson particularly appreciated. The home is one of the earliest and best-preserved examples of Italianate domestic architecture in Amherst. Under Susan Dickinson’s direction, The Evergreens became a center of the town’s social and cul-tural life, reflecting the wide-ranging aesthetic and intellectual interests of the entire family.

A More Complete Understanding. While throngs of visitors make their way to the Museum each year to visit the birthplace of Emily Dickinson and the home in which she wrote most of her nearly 1800 poems, the world of the poet is incom-plete without a tour of The Evergreens. The Dickinson family’s intricate relationship with Amherst’s institutions comes to light in the history of the house, and its existence largely charts the fortunes of the family. Indeed the home was completed in 1856, only a year after Edward Dickinson reacquired the Homestead from the Mack family. A succesful community leader who had completed a stint as a United States congressman, Edward returned to the family’s ancestral home after many years on West Street (now North Pleasant). He solidified his family’s role in the community by building The Evergreens and partnering with his twenty-seven-year-old son, Austin.

Befitting the prominence of a successful family and a young attorney much engaged in the town’s fortunes, The Evergreens became a center of social activity in Amherst. Luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, and Fredrick Law Olmstead were guests of the Dickinsons, and Susan’s atten-tions to her visitors within this sophisticated atmosphere made her a memorable leader of Amherst society.

The Dickinsons’ stature in town did not insulate them from tragedy and scandal, however. Jane Wald explains: “Not many months after the sounds of the circus faded, young Gilbert Dickinson died from typhoid fever at the age of eight. By all accounts, he was the sort of boy who loved fun, charmed young and old alike, and saw life with a clear and child-like wisdom. The tragedy of Gib’s death permanently fractured the family, an injury that only grew worse with the revelation of Austin’s infidelity with Mabel Todd, a young woman who had been a frequent and welcome guest in their home.”

Austin and Susan lived at The Evergreens until their respective deaths in 1895 and 1913. Their only surviving child, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, continued to live in the house until her own death in 1943. Her heirs - co-editor Alfred Leete Hampson, and later his widow, Mary Landis Hampson - recognized the tremendous historical and literary significance of a site left completely intact. The Hampsons sought ways to ensure the preservation of The Evergreens as a cultural resource. The house is still completely furnished with Dickinson family furniture, household accoutrements, and decor selected and displayed by the family during the nineteenth century.

The future plans for The Evergreens will be included in the Museum’s comprehensive master plan. Consulting architects Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, of Albany, New York, will complete this blueprint for the restoration of both houses and grounds and the development of the entire Museum later this spring.

The Dining Room at The Evergreens.

The parlor at The Evergreens.


Visitors Have a New Tour Option for 2006

The Emily Dickinson Museum has designed a new visitor ex-perience. “This was a Poet,” an introduction to Dickinson and her poetry, is perfect for families with children and for visitors whose interest in Emily Dickinson is just beginning. As part of “This was a Poet,” visitors will tour the Homestead, where the poet lived, to learn about her daily life and to experience the power of her poetry. The tour will last about a half hour and will conclude outside (in good weather) with a short poetry reading under the Homestead’s oak tree.

The new tour will complement the Museum’s in-depth tour of the Homestead and The Evergreens, which chronicles more com-pletely Dickinson’s biography and the lives of her family.

“This was a Poet” will be offered at the Museum during regular open hours beginning in mid-March. For information about the tour schedule, please call 413-542-8161. Admission for the new tour is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and college students, and $3 for students ages 6 to 17. There is no charge for children under 6.

New Guide to Dickinson Historic District

The Amherst Historical Commission has published a new Guide to the Dickinson Historic District, the first in a proposed series about the nine historic districts in Amherst. Written by Com-mission member Paul F. Norton, the 42-page book includes color photographs, maps, an introduction and information for a walking tour of the area. It tells about the early residents and builders and describes the architectural details and history of the Homestead, The Evergreens, the First Congregational Church, Masonic Hall, the Amherst Police Building, and the Amherst De-pot. It also includes as well as homes, inns, and former Amherst College fraternities, now used as dormitories, on Main Street, Lessey Street, Spring Street, Tyler Place and Triangle Street.

Author Paul Norton, a longtime professor of art at the University of Massachusetts, holds a doctorate in the history of art from Princeton University. He is also the author of Amherst: A Guide to its Architecture, published in 1975 by the Amherst Historical Society. He is the co-author of Arts in America: The Nineteenth Century, and has contributed to the Britannica Encyclopedia of American Art and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The publication of the guide book was paid for by Community Preservation Act funds approved by Amherst Town Meeting. The book was published by the Commission’s Publication Com-mittee: Gai Carpenter, chair, and Paul Norton. The guide books cost $7.50 and are available in the Museum gift shop. All profits from the sale of these books will fund subsequent guidebooks and publications on Amherst’s history.

Museums10 Receives State Grant

Museums10 has just received its second grant in two con-secutive years from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s John and Abigail Adams Arts Program to promote their collective identity. This year’s award, a matching grant of $50,000, will largely be used to support the regionwide festival GoDutch! featuring dazzling displays of tulips as a backdrop for exhibitions of Dutch paintings and drawings as well as Delft porcelain.

One of the goals of the funding program, according to MCC’s program director Meri Jenkins, is to encourage mutually beneficial collaborations between the arts and the business sector. “With GoDutch! this collaboration promis-es to establish itself and the area as an exciting new destina-tion with something for every age group and taste. We’re equally impressed by the model of collaboration it represents between academic and cultural institutions and community interests.”

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s contribution to GoDutch! is a lecture by Katharine Martinez of Harvard’s Fine Arts Li-brary “The Art of Display: Collecting and Displaying Art in a Nineteenth-Century Amherst Home,” on March 29 at the Amherst College Alumni House. In addition, the Museum grounds will bloom with an impressive array of bulbs.

Area communities and businesses are joining in the spirit of GoDutch! by offering special menus and “package deals” for a day or a weekend sojourn. Visitors will also be able to take advantage of a special “passport” that entitles them to be entered into a raffle for an all expenses paid trip to Hol-land for two in the spring of 2007, courtesy of CrossCultural Tours of Amherst.

More information about GoDutch! is available on the Muse-ums10 Web site (www.museums10.org).

Kinsmen of the Shelf/Poetry Groups in Session

The Museum hosts two discussion groups: a reading group, “Kinsmen of the Shelf,” to discuss books, poems, and es-says read by Emily Dickinson and her family, and a monthy poetry group, devoted to the pleasures and challenges of reading Dickinson’s poetry. For more information on the Kinsmen program, contact Tricia Gilrein at [email protected] or call 413-542-2034. For the poetry group, contact Cindy Dickinson at [email protected] or call 413-542-8429.


Cullen Murphy and Betsy McInnis Named to Museum’s Board of Governors

Cullen Murphy, former managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and Betsy McInnis, a former business executive, have been elected to the Emily Dickinson Museum’s Board of Governors.

Mr. Murphy was elected to the board on June 23. He was manag-ing editor of The Atlantic for twenty years, beginning in 1985. In his monthly column, “Innocent Bystander,” he once suggested that a new, revised issue of the Bible might be well served to sub-stitute Dickinson’s poems for the book of Psalms.

For thirty years, Mr. Murphy had written the syndicated comic strip Prince Valiant. He is the author of three books, including Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage (1992), with William L. Rathje.

In addition to his work with the Emily Dickinson Museum, Mr. Murphy serves on a number of boards of trustees, including those of Amherst College, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and he serves as vice president of the board for the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanities. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Anna Marie, and their three children.

Betsy McInnis is a former marketing executive who applies her business background to developing innovative programs and strategies in the non-profit sector. She was voted to the Museum board October 27.

Some of Ms. McInnis’s career highlights include assignments with American Express in New York, London, and Paris, where she marketed the American Express card to some of France’s fin-est restaurants. She has also been a Vice President at Citibank, as well as a Vice President of Marketing at Katherine Gibbs Schools, where she directed a successful turnaround and repositioning of the school during its ownership by Macmillan, Inc.

Ms. McInnis is on the Advisory Board for Family Outreach of Amherst, a human services agency dedicated to helping families in crisis; the Amherst Town Committee for International Stud-ies; and Round the World Women. She lives in Amherst with her husband, Bruce, and daughter, Micki.

The Fox and the Hound

A full house was on hand at the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections on December 8, 2005, as Professor Dorothy Huff Oberhaus of Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, presented “Emily Dickinson’s Fascicles: The Fox and the Hound.” The provocative lecture, followed by a spirited discussion, launched the Museum’s 175th anniversary celebration of Emily Dickinson’s birth, and covered Oberhaus’s recent work, a book-in-progress that follows up on her groundbreaking 1995 book, Emily Dickin-son’s Fascicles: Method & Meaning.

In Method & Meaning Oberhaus focused on the 40th and final fascicle, positing that “F-40” is a carefully constructed poetic sequence and the triumphant conclusion of a poetic and spiritual quest that begins in F-1, the first fascicle. She argued that the fascicles’ protagonist is both a seeker and finder who is on a merry poetic and spiritual chase. During her lecture, Professor Oberhaus described the focus of her book-in-progress, which is the aesthetic principles underlying each of the fascicles as well as those underlying all forty. She has concluded that each of the forty is a poetic sequence and that together they form a long single work, Emily Dickinson’s magnum opus.

Her newest findings culminate twenty-five years of dedication to Dickinson’s fascicles, the individual groups of poems hand-written and sewn together by the poet into booklets. Oberhaus finds meaning in the construction of each of them, arguing that Dickinson was practicing a form of self-publication from 1858 to 1864, the years she copied and bound the fascicles’ 814 known poems. While many scholars see Dickinson’s poem “Publication is the Auction/Of the Mind of Man -” (Fr 788) as evidence the poet did not want her work to be read by others, Oberhaus believes that Dickinson left many clues that she indeed wanted and planned to be known by a wide audi-ence. Oberhaus reads Dickinson as expressing scorn for writers concerned with contemporary publication, aspiring instead for poetic immortality. The opening line of the poem, “This is my letter to the World” (Fr 519), argues Oberhaus, refers specifi-cally to the fascicles and is among those poems that make clear the poet’s intention to have her work read widely.

The clues the poet left behind for her readers were carefully planned and meticulously plotted throughout the entire fas-cicular edifice, argues Oberhaus. In her reading of “Good to hide, and hear ‘em hunt!” (Fr 945) from which Oberhaus drew the title for her lecture, she states that the fascicles’ protagonist acts as the fox, slyly leaving clues and directing the reader on a chase through the thicket of her work and intensely engaging her readers who take on the role of the hound.

Scholar Dorothy Huff Oberhaus discusses her lecture with Mount Holyoke professor and fellow Dickinson scholar Christopher Benfey and photog-rapher Jerome Leibling. Photo courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.


“At Home” December 10, 2005, was the 175th Anniversary of Emily Dickinson’s birth. In our last issue, we asked our readers to tell us what Emily Dickinson meant to them. Below are some excerpts from the dozens of responses along with images from the Museum’s Birthday Open House.

“No matter how the world changes, the fundamental truths evident in Dickin-son’s work will never be outdated. ... It is her eternal spirit that whispers to dreamers everywhere reminding us that sometimes ‘reverie alone will do’” - Donna Dietrich Minford, OH

“I only discovered Emily when I was forty, but she dazzled me then and forever more: her absolutely essential words reach heights - or depths - of Truth never reached by anyone before or after her.” - Gabriella Mongardi Mondavi, Italy

“You asked what Emily Dickinson means to me, and I would say, courage, strength, love, and freedom to be yourself.” - Margaret E. Peirson Mays Landing, NJ

“Emily continues to weave in and out of my life through a continuing appreciation of her poems, and through family history and letters. Like that ancient unseen relative, she still makes her presence felt, and a very welcome presence it is too.” - Angela Potter Devon, England

“Let’s see, what does Emily Dickinson mean to me? Well, for starters, my lovely wife, Carolee, refers to the Belle of Amherst as, ‘that other woman!’” - Tod McGinley Sun City Center, FL

Scenes from Open House 2005. Clockwise from top. 1. Roses from an anon-ymous donor; 2. Cupcakes from a Dickinson family recipe; 3. Museum guide David Garnes (with nametag) and visitor; 4. Reveling in Dickinson’s poetry; 5. Guitarist Katie-Rose DeCandia at The Evergreens; 6. Museum guide Joni Denn reading selections of Dickinson’s poetry. Photos by CQ Photography.


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Museum Hours ‘06 March Wednesday and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.

April - May Wednesday - Saturday, 1-5 p.m.

June - August Wednesday - Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, 1-5 p.m.

September - October Wednesday - Sunday, 1-5 p.m.

November - December 9 Wednesday and Saturday, 1-5 p.m. (closed Wed. Nov. 22)

Admission Information

Admission to the Museum is by guided tour only. Admission fee charged; tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The last tour begins at 4 p.m. All tours start at the Tour Center, located in the Homestead. The Tour Center has a museum shop and an orientation exhibit.

For information about directions, parking, accessibility, and special pro-grams, please call 413-542-8161 or visit our web site at www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org.

The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens consists of two historic houses in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts, closely associated with the poet Emily Dickinson. The Homestead was the birthplace and home of the poet. The Evergreens, next door, was home to her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and their three children.

a message from the meadows - emily dickinson … a message from the meadows from the directors...

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