Emily Dickinson. Daguerreotype. Ca. 1847.

Amherst College holds the original of the only currently authenticated photograph of Emily Dickinson. The daguerreotype was included in Millicent Todd Bingham's gift of Dickinson material to Amherst College in 1956. Bingham acquired it from Wallace Keep (AC 1894) whose brother, Austin Baxter Keep (AC 1897), received the photograph directly from Lavinia Dickinson sometime in the 1890s.


Emily Dickinson

In 1978 the daguerreotype traveled to the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY for conservation treatment. The image was removed from its case, carefully washed, photographed, then re-sealed. The image above is a scan of a black and white photograph taken of the daguerreotype when it was unsealed during treatment at the George Eastman House.


 Emily Dickinson

This image is in the public domain and Amherst College claims no authority over its use and reproduction. Please note the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial, Share Alike license below, which applies to our reproduction of the original. While we do not charge any use fees or claim any rights in this image, we do ask that users cite Amherst College Archives & Special Collections as the home of the original.

Larger scans of the daguerreotype are available for use on the Archives' Flickr site.