A Literary Afternoon in Western Massachusetts

On Friday, June 9th, Ticknor members are invited to a lovely afternoon in Western Massachusetts touring two recently renovated literary sites: Neilson Library at Smith College in Northampton and the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. Neilson Library underwent a complete reconstruction from 2017-2021, and the new space, designed by renowned architectural designer Maya Lin, incorporates the original 1909 façade while reimagining the interior to make it more welcoming and useful for the Smith community. We will meet Head of Special Collections Elizabeth Myers at noon for a tour of the library building, which will culminate at the Special Collections Department, where Shannon Supple, Curator of Rare Books, will take over the tour. Shannon will show us highlights from the Mortimer Rare Book Collection and Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, including a Sylvia Plath draft poem, cartes-de- visite of Sojourner Truth, artist’s books, and a painted flowers album, plus more!

After our visit to Neilson Library concludes, we will drive 20 minutes to the Emily Dickinson Museum, which recently completed its own refurbishment project and reopened in Summer 2022. A tour guide will show us around The Homestead, where Dickinson was born, lived, and died, focusing particularly on Dickinson’s life and poetry. The tour is an hour, and from there, we will be free to wander the gardens around the museum before the day ends and we head home.

RSVP for this event is required by emailing ticknorinfo@gmail.com. Carpooling is available; let us know when rsvping where you’re located and we’ll help make arrangements. Visitor parking directions at Smith College can be found here. The Emily Dickinson Museum has two accessible parking spots on-site, otherwise, visitors can use metered parking spots in front of the museum on Main Street (click here for directions and parking information).