Dickinson artifacts OK after ceiling collapse

By BEN STORROW Staff Writer

Published on November 06, 2009

Those who heard the ceiling collapse likened it to the sound of stampeding elephants. The plaster covering the front parlor ceiling at the Emily Dickinson Homestead crashed to the floor in one giant piece Oct. 24, closing the Amherst museum and leaving its staff worried that artifacts had been badly damaged or destroyed.

On Monday, after a week of sorting through debris, amazed museum officials announced that nearly all 12 items on display in the front parlor had escaped relatively unscathed, although a porcelain saucer and 19th-century card table were not as lucky. The museum was closed last week to facilitate cleanup efforts. On Saturday it reopened.

Jane Wald, the museum's executive director, said the ceiling's collapse was largely the result of nails that were too small and spaced too far apart. She noted that the plaster was not original to the homestead, but dated to renovations undertaken at the house when it was a private residence in the early 20th century.

"We were amazed and relieved that there was as little damage to the artifacts as there was," Wald said Monday. "When the ceiling fell, it sounded like a herd of elephants, according to the people in the building at the time."

Wald said the museum is conducting an investigation to see if any work needs to be done on ceilings in other rooms. A cost estimate of the damage is not available, she said, as the museum is still meeting with conservators to assess damage.

"The front parlor had been fairly sparsely furnished, so there was only about a dozen objects in the room at the time of the incident," Wald said. "Nearly all of them got off with scuffs, scratches and scrapes."

The museum was open for tours at the time of the collapse, but all those inside escaped without injury.

The Homestead and the Evergreens, the neighboring residence of the late Dickinson family's heirs, have been operated by Amherst College since 2003 and have been open to the public since 1965, the year the college purchased the residence.

Two items that were heavily damaged in the incident were a porcelain saucer, which was broken, and a wooden card table from the 19th century.

Wald said the legs of the card table were broken. She said both items belonged to Emily Dickinson's mother, Emily Norcross, who married the poet's father, Edward Dickinson, in 1828.

Museum officials originally feared that a family teapot, sofa and set of chairs had been badly damaged in the collapse. On Monday, Wald said they all had avoided substantial harm.