A snapshot of Emily Dickinson's Amherst

By Bonnie Wells

Published on August 31, 2007

Emily Dickinson is famed for the gingerbread she would lower from her bedroom window down to the neighbor kids in a basket tied with twine. But few know that in 1856 the poet took Second Place in the Rye and Indian Bread Competition at the annual Cattle Show on the town common. Full disclosure? Her sister, Lavinia, was one of the judges.

The fair, much like our modern state fairs, drew tens of thousands of people to the Amherst Common every year until Emily's brother, Austin, got it bumped to an East Amherst location so it wouldn't tear up the grounds he was lobbying to turn from a grazing field into a park-like plot.

Those tidbits of Amherstiana and much more are on offer at the Amherst History Museum at the Strong House through Oct. 27 in the 'Emily Dickinson's Amherst' exhibit.

'It's a snapshot of what the town of Amherst was like during her lifetime, from 1830 to 1886,' said museum director Patricia Lutz last week on a tour of the show.

The gallery, repainted in the rich hue of terra-cotta pots for the exhibition, presents the period through several themes, starting with Amherst's livelihood - with exhibits on the agricultural, manufacturing and educational complexion of the town - and moving on to what the townspeople did for fun during Emily's time; some major events that would have been the talk of the town; and finally, objects and documents related to the poet herself.

'It was an exciting time for America and for Amherst,' Lutz said, 'a time of great change.'

Still, some objects on display point to what has remained the same. A facsimile of the Town Meeting Record of 1868 reveals that Sec. 7 of the town bylaws dictated, 'No person shall cut down, mutilate or otherwise injure or destroy any fruit, shade or other ornamental tree now growing or which may hereafter be growing in any park, common grounds or cemetery in this town.'

That one has the fingerprints of Emily's brother, Austin, all over it. It was Austin who had founded the Ornamental Tree Society some years prior.

Who knows what curmudgeon was responsible for the decree in Sec. 9 that 'No person shall play at ball or fly a kite or a balloon in or upon any public street in this town.'

One sport that arose during Dickinson's time was biking. The center of the gallery is dominated by an enormous British-made Rudge High Wheel Bicycle with a 56-inch front wheel and a 17-inch rear wheel, created of steel and wood with Indian rubber tires. The bike weighs 40 pounds, was mounted like a horse from a peg near the rear wheel and could reach speeds of up to 60 mph.

'They called them boneshakers,' Lutz said, 'and there was some worry that men could become impotent from the shaking. There was a big controversy.'

Nonetheless, for a period of about a dozen years, starting in 1870, the bikes were all the rage, mostly among men, who formed clubs and pursued it like an extreme sport. 'It showed your manliness,' Lutz said, adding that as the predominance of agriculture gave way to manufacturing - in Amherst everything from artificial flowers to woolen cloth, pistols, carriages and, of course, the palm-leaf hats - white-collar men were looking for ways to do just that. A photo of four members of one Amherst biking club is displayed in the part of the exhibit devoted to what Amherst did for fun in those years.

The 'fun' section also sports a poster created by the Committee of the Village Improvement Society, announcing Amherst's Fourth of July lineup for 1879. There was dancing at the gymnasium for 10 cents a figure; a half hour of croquet for a quarter; bowling, a baseball game and, in the evening, a Grand Stereoscopic Exhibition at College Hall for 25 cents. A smaller version of the stereoscope, a kind of 2-D photograph viewer can be seen in the Emerson Parlor, one of five period rooms on the museum's guided tour.

It's unlikely fireworks would have been part of the festivities. One document on display declares that during the period 1842 to 1857, Amherst suffered a dozen major fires. Dickinson would likely have been as aghast as everyone else in town in 1879, when the posh Amherst House hotel and restaurant, on the site of the current Bank of America building downtown, burned to the ground, taking with it all of what was called Merchant's Row, down to the present location of The Jeffery Amherst Bookshop.

An 11-foot-long Amherst House sign, black with gold lettering and thought to have been salvaged from that first Amherst House fire, dominates one wall in the exhibit, and a glass case holds two pottery pitchers that were rescued from the blaze.

Emily was 45 when Amherst logged its first murder, and a grisly one at that. A reproduction of the Amherst Record for Nov. 27, 1875 announces a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the death of Moses B. Dickinson, a prosperous farmer who had lived on Northampton Street.

Perhaps the piece de resistance is the only surviving item of Emily Dickinson's clothing - the white dress - protected by a custom-made, humidity-controlled plexiglas case. The dress on display at The Dickinson Homestead is a reproduction.

After Dickinson's death in 1886, sister Lavinia gave the dress to a cousin, Lavinia Hall. Hall's daughter, Mrs. E. Abbot Bradlee, gave the dress to the Amherst Historical Society in 1946, accompanied by a note, which is included in the exhibit. In the letter she speaks of visiting cousin Lavinia, and being served 'cookies with caraway seeds, and cake with coconut - both of which I loathed!'

Another glass case houses copies of some of Dickinson's first posthumously published poems. A copy of Life Magazine shows the world's first glimpse of 'I'm nobody, who are you' in the March 5, 1891 issue. There are also poems in copies of the Atlantic and Scribners from 1891 to 1935.

Throughout the exhibit are homely objects and implements common to the period, including a scythe and a wire mousetrap, a butter dish and several maps of the town, as well as calling cards and a sterling silver lorgnette that reflect the town's growing refinement.

'It was exciting for us to bring out some really great objects that have been hidden away,' Lutz said. 'What I was looking at was the town's search for identity - what's this town going to be like? What's important to it?

The Amherst History Museum at the Strong House, is open Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m., from March through October at 67 Amity St., except this Saturday, when the museum will be closed. Admission is $5/$3 seniors and students/free for children under 6, five-college students and members. More information is available on the Web site www.amhersthistory.org or by calling (413) 256-0678.