Where are Emily's original documents?

[Joe Schmoe]

I've searched the Internet in vain to try to learn where the orignal documents that Dickinson wrote are stored and/or displayed. Anyone know? A museum? Can they be seen by the public?

Also, I've searched the Internet to see photos/copies of these original documents in her own handwriting, and have only found bits and pieces. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Logos]

From American National Biography: (http://www.anb.org)

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"The two major collections of Dickinson manuscripts and other research materials are held by Harvard University's Houghton Library and Amherst College's Special Collections.

Joel Myerson, Emily Dickinson: A Descriptive Bibliography (1984), records the publication history of her poems and letters.

Thomas Johnson's editions of The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955) and The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958) remain the preferred scholarly editions, supplemented by R. W. Franklin's facsimile edition of The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (1981).

Although Dickinson's poems and letters have been released gradually and in varying forms since 1852, the Johnson editions are generally preferred to earlier printings as representations of the poet's intent."

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There are *many* institutions that house some of her works, they are not all contained to one.

Harvard University Library HOLLIS search (http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/VVDGBFCSUGM3FY6CFTLSL1JQTPEDM4K6D1JYUNGSI63ENT4RHI-08566?func=find-b-0)

Amherst College Library Search (http://www.amherst.edu/library/)

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Mount Holyoke Female Seminary houses a collection:
http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/mountholyoke/mshm122_scope.html

Jones Library of Amherst MA also houses a large collection of her writings, correspondence and poems:
http://www.joneslibrary.org/specialcollections/collections/dickinson/

I'm not sure where you live, but, you might want to check with your own local college/university/public library in person or their website, they might have some of their own Dickinson works. Or , they can direct you as to how to find them. That is what your local librarian/archivist is there for :D

Microforms of some of her works should be accessible at any public library, college or university? such as this one:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/MICROFORMS/emily_dickinson.html

Or, you might want to decide which poems or correspondence you wish to view and then find out who holds them.

[Joe Schmoe]

Thank you for the info. Much appreciated.

It would be nice if at least some of her manuscripts could be viewed on the Internet. Anyone know of any sites where this is possible?

[Logos]

It would be nice if at least some of her manuscripts could be viewed on the Internet. Anyone know of any sites where this is possible?

oops I'm sorry :) yes, although it is a work in progress, the Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives (http://www.emilydickinson.org/main_toc.html) has a number of digital images of her poems, although the site has a lot of dead links and is not very intuitive and there is restricted access to parts of it (?).

[Joe Schmoe]

Boy, you are not kidding that it's not intuitive (Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives). And I spent half an hour there and could not find a single digital image of any poem.

[danilangston]

http://www.emilydickinson.org/safe/safedex.html

click on the links on this page to see actual documents written by Emily Dickinson.

:wave:

[Joe Schmoe]

Thanks. At least that's something.

It's a shame we can't see them all on the Internet. Locked away all those years in her dresser, and now locked away in university library microfilms. Kind of like putting the Mona Lisa on microfilm and hiding it from everyone (or at least making it a chore to see).