News from Emily Dickinson Museum
2009 Season Opens March 1
In this issue
-- Hedge and Fence Restoration Begins!
-- Vote for Putting the Dickinson Homestead on the U.S. Quarter
-- Emily Dickinson and Science: Poetry Discussion Groups
-- Lecture on Amherst Scientist Edward Hitchcock
-- A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson--Reading and Booksigning
-- THE BIG READ: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
-- Gordon Getty and "The White Election"
-- Help Support the Emily Dickinson Museum
-- Applications for NEH Summer Workshop Accepted until March 16
-- "my Verse is alive" Exhibition
-- About the Museum
The Emily Dickinson Museum is readying the Homestead and The Evergreens for another full season of informative tours and engaging programs. Come visit! Museum Hours |
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| Hedge and Fence Restoration Begins! 
Mid-February marked the start of an exciting "Hedge and Fence Restoration" project at the Emily Dickinson Museum. A carefully planned program to remove the long row of diseased, overgrown hemlocks in front of The Evergreens and the Dickinson Homestead properties, and to reset the tall picket fence and low hemlock hedge of the 19th century, has been a piece of the Master Plan that was adopted by the Museum's Board of Governors in 2006. Removal of the existing hemlocks, underway in the photo at left, will be finished by the end of February. Beginning in April, the stone steps in front of the Homestead will be re-set on a concrete foundtion and the granite coping wall, on which an elegant spindle fence sat, will be re-built. Following the masonry work, fences, gate posts and pedestrian gates reproduced from original parts still in the museum's collection will be installed. The final step will be planting of some 200 young hemlocks to form the new hedge behind the fence. The project is scheduled for completion in June 2009. Spurred by a challenge grant of $125,000 donated by Board member William McC. Vickery, the Museum has been able to raise in private contributions most of the $275,000 needed to complete the restoration project. More information and photos about the Hedge and Fence Restoration |
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| Vote for Putting the Dickinson Homestead on the U.S. Quarter  Beginning in 2010, the U.S. Mint will release five new quarter designs annually featuring sites of national significance. The Mint has asked Governor Deval Patrick to select one preferred and three alternate Massachusetts sites to be featured on the reverse of a quarter.
The Governor's office has drawn up a preliminary list of 114 important sites in the Commonwealth, including Emily Dickinson's Homestead. You can help put the Homestead on the U.S. quarter by visiting the Governor's web page "America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter". You may vote as often as you would like until 5:00 p.m. February 26, 2009. Spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to any and all who would like to see Emily Dickinson and her home so honored. |
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| Emily Dickinson and Science: Poetry Discussion Groups Poetry Discussion Group Converse Hall, Amherst College Registration fee. In this Charles Darwin anniversary year, the Poetry Discussion Group explores Emily Dickinson's interest in and knowledge of science in her poetry in two of its sessions. Discussion leaders are Harrison Gregg and Christopher Setzer. See also the related lecture, described below, about Edward Hitchcock on March 8. For information about the Poetry Discussion Group, contact Nan Fischlein (phone 413-542-2034). |
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| Lecture on Amherst Scientist Edward Hitchcock  Sunday, March 8, 2 p.m.Edward Hitchcock: Science and Religion in the Embrace of Nature A lecture and discussion (part of the Museum's Replenishing the Shelves Lecture Series and the "Kinsmen of the Shelf" discussion series) Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather Hall, Amherst College Free and open to the public. 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his The Origin of Species. In honor of that anniversary, the Emily Dickinson Museum offers this session to explore the work of eminent local geologist, Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864). An educator and minister as well as a scientist, Hitchcock served Amherst College for almost forty years as a member of the science faculty and as president, and is credited with providing Amherst with its reputation for scientific teaching. Robert L. Herbert, Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, Mount Holyoke College, is a distinguished historian of nineteenth-century art. He has also had a life-long interest in the relationship between art and science and has recently turned his attention to the Hitchcocks of mid-nineteenth-century Amherst. In 2008 he edited, annotated, and published A Woman of Amherst: The Travel Diaries of Orra White Hitchcock, 1847 and 1850, and is now editing Edward Hitchcock's travel writings for publication. Discussion of lecture and related readings with Mr. Herbert and the museum's "Kinsmen of the Shelf" book group continues at 3:30. For more information or to receive advance readings for the discussion, Nan Fischlein (phone 413-542-2034).
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| A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson--Reading and Booksigning  Sunday, March 22, 2 p.m.A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson A Reading and Booksigning by author Barbara Dana Trustees Room, Jones Library No charge Co-sponsored with the Jones Library Author and actor Barbara Dana will read from her new historical novel for young people, A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson, published by HarperCollins. She will talk about the process of writing the book, what inspired her to write it, and what she hopes the book will inspire in its readers. A booksigning and reception will follow. Ms. Dana is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults, plays, and screenplays. Her first adult book, Wider than the Sky: Essays and Meditations on the Healing Power of Emily Dickinson has recently been released. Ms. Dana made her New York stage debut as an actor at age 17 in Arthur Laurents' "A Clearing in the Woods" and has appeared in many Broadway plays, films and television programs.
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| THE BIG READ: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson  The Big Read: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson is part of a pilot initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Poetry Foundation to celebrate great American poets and the nation's historic poetry locales. For full information about the Emily Dickinson Museum's Big Read programs this spring, click here.
OPENING EVENT! The Future of Poetry. Keynote address by John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation, funding partner of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Barr shares reflections on the significance of poetry in American society today and in the future.
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| Gordon Getty and "The White Election"  Saturday, April 18, 3 p.m."The White Election" First Congregational Church, 165 Main Street, Amherst Suggested contribution: $15 adults, $5 students Composer Gordon Getty visits Amherst for a performance of his song cycle of 32 poems by Emily Dickinson as a new recording of this significant work is released. His composition was inspired by Dickinson's 1862 poetic declaration "Mine - by the Right of the White Election! . . . Mine - by the Grave's Repeal -- / Titled -
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| Help Support the Emily Dickinson Museum  The Emily Dickinson Museum has grown dramatically in its programs, audience, and impact in the five years since its creation in 2003. It owes its success in large measure to the generous encouragement of its many dedicated friends and supporters who have seen the rampant possibilities in the Emily Dickinson Museum.
We need your support to continue to offer the quality programs and opportunities such as those you see in these Emily E-Updates. Find out more about how you can assist the Museum by clicking on the link below, or by contacting executive director Jane Wald. Please send your contribution to: Emily Dickinson Museum Annual Fund, 280 Main Street, Amherst MA 01002. Your help is especially appreciated during these challenging economic times. Thank you in advance for your support. |
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| Applications for NEH Summer Workshop Accepted until March 16  The Emily Dickinson Museum is accepting applications for a Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for Schoolteachers in July 2009. The one-week workshop, "Emily Dickinson: Person, Poetry, and Place," will be offered twice, July 5-10, 2009, and July 12-17, 2009, and is open to K-12 educators from across the United States. The workshop is funded by a grant of $137,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Each session of "Emily Dickinson: Person, Poetry, and Place" will accommodate 40 participants, selected through a competitive application process. Participants receive a $750 stipend to help cover living expenses, books, and travel. More information about the workshop, eligibility requirements, and application procedures is available at the workshop's website: www.nehworkshopemilydickinson. |
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| "my Verse is alive" Exhibition  "my Verse is alive," a provocative exhibit exploring the intriguing posthumous publication of Dickinson's poetry, continues at the Emily Dickinson Museum Tour Center during regular museum hours. The exhibit takes its title from Emily Dickinson's 1862 query to author and activist Thomas Wentworth Higginson: "Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?" With documents and family artifacts, the exhibit traces the creation of her literary reputation through the competing efforts and loyalties of family members and intimates in the first fifty years after the poet's death.
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| About the Museum  The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about the poet'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. The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College and has its own Board of Governors, which is charged with the responsibility of raising the Museum's operating and capital funds. The Museum is a member of Museums10, a collaboration of ten museums linked to the five colleges in the Pioneer Valley.
The Tour Center may be reached at 413-542-2947, Wednesday through Sunday, during museum hours. |
