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Virtual Tour of Emily Dickinson's Home

Emily Dickinson, the famous poet, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, at the home owned by her grandparents, Samuel Fowler Dickinson and Lucretia (Gunn) Dickinson. Her parents, Edward Dickinson and Emily (Norcross) Dickinson, and her brother, William "Austin" Dickinson, had moved into the home, or "Homestead" as it was called, just a couple months before Emily was born. A few years later, in 1833, her grandparents moved to Ohio and the homestead was sold to David Mack. Emily and her parents, brother, and younger sister, Lavinia, continued to live at the homestead with Mack's family until 1840, when her father built a new home on Pleasant Street. When David Mack died, Edward Dickinson bought the homestead back from the Mack family and moved back in. Austin lived next door in a home called "The Evergreens", with his wife and children.

Emily never married or had children. Preferring isolation, it is said that leaving her home caused her great anxiety. It was there at the homestead that she wrote hundreds of poems. Only a few were published during her lifetime, however. After her death, her niece published many of the works for which she is now famous.


Today the Dickinson home located at 280 Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, is home of the Emily Dickinson Museum. So great was her legacy, that the home has been preserved and items restored to represent what it looked like when Emily lived there, hosting tourists and guests to this day - 134 years later!


You can now tour parts of the home online. Shown here is Emily's bedroom, where she spent much of her time. It was also here that she died on May 15, 1886. Have a look around! Click on the icons for more information about certain items, such as her desk (table), lamp, bed, dress, and more.


To learn more about Emily Dickinson and her life, visit emilydickinsonmuseum.org.


Emily Dickinson's family tree:

Neither of Edward Dickinson's daughters married or had children and his son, Austin's children reportedly never produced offspring. Therefore, the line of Edward Dickinson is now defunct.


My ancestor, John Dickinson, came to America from Sheffield, England, around 1880. His father was William Dickinson, but I have yet to research much beyond his parents on my Dickinson branch. Any relationship between the two Dickinson families would be very remote since Emily descended from Nathaniel Dickinson (1601-1676), who came from Billingborough, Lincolnshire, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1636 and 1638 - about 250 years before my Dickinsons arrived. There was at least other connections to Dickinsons in New England, on other branches of my family tree, however. Perhaps later, a connection will be made to one of America's most renowned poets.



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