Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830 to Edward Dickinson (AC 1823) and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She attended Amherst Academy from 1840 to 1847, then enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from 1847 to 1848. She remained in Amherst for the rest of her life, and traveled only briefly to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

For virtually her entire adult life, Emily lived in the Dickinson home at 280 Main Street with her father, mother, and her younger sister, Lavinia, who Emily called "Vinnie." Her brother, (William) Austin (AC 1850) lived next door with his wife, Susan Huntington Gilbert, one of Emily's closest friends. Emily was very close to their three children, Ned (Edward) (AC 1884), Mattie (Martha), and Gib (Thomas Gilbert). After the death of her father in 1874 and her mother the following year, Emily remained in the family home, living alone with Vinnie. Emily died there on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. Renowned for a severe reclusiveness that began when she was in her 20s, Dickinson maintained warm and close relationships with family and friends through the medium of letters, frequently containing poems. Some of her most frequent correspondents outside of her family were childhood friends Abiah Root and Emily Fowler (Ford); her friend and later sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert (Dickinson); Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican; Reverend Charles Wadsworth, a minister and poet; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writer and liberal activist; Josiah Gilbert and Elizabeth Chapin Holland; and Adelaide Spencer (Mrs. Henry) Hills. A significant correspondent around 1858-1861 was a mysterious love interest who Dickinson referred to as "Master." It is not clear who this person may have been or what form any relationship between them took - only three draft letters by Dickinson to "Master" are known. Another important person Dickinson's life was Judge Otis Phillips Lord, with whom Dickinson had a romantic relationship starting in the late 1870s until his death in 1884.

Although Emily and Lavinia were very close, and Lavinia was aware that Emily wrote poetry, she was not aware of the extent of her sister's writing. Upon Emily's death, Lavinia discovered how prolific and talented her sister had been when she found 1,775 poems in Emily's bureau drawer. Emily wrote some 1,789 poems, some contained in letters to friends and family, some sewn together in little bundles called fascicles that Emily stored in her drawers, some written on scraps of paper like shopping lists or envelope flaps. Lavinia preserved the poems she found, distributing them between Mabel Loomis Todd and Susan Dickinson, but destroyed all of Emily's correspondence in accord with her sister's previously expressed wishes.

Within 10 years of Emily's death, three volumes of her poetry and two volumes of her letters were published by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, a woman with whom Austin had a long-term affair during his marriage to Susan. Emily Dickinson's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi (Austin's daughter), also helped to publish her aunt's poetry beginning in 1914.

It was not until 1955, when Harvard published The Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas Johnson, that all of Dickinson's poetry was available in a single source. In 1960, Jay Leyda published The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson, a chronological documentation of the events in the lives of Emily Dickinson and her family and friends. In 1998, Ralph W. Franklin, published The Poems of Emily Dickinson, which documents revisions and different versions of the poet's work.

Unknown during her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is known today as one of the world's most important and loved poets of all-time, in any language.

This chronology was adapted from The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, edited by Wendy Martin; The Life of Emily Dickinson by Richard Sewall; and Archives and Special Collections files.

The Emily Dickinson Collection documents the creative work and personal life of Emily Dickinson, spanning her lifetime, from 1830 to 1886; her family and friends; and the early publication history of her work. The Collection also includes material from Dickinson scholars Mabel Loomis Todd, Millicent Todd Bingham, Jay Leyda, and others. The bulk of the material falls into the period 1850-1955. The Collection occupies approximately 20.5 linear feet of shelf space.

This collection includes original poems, manuscripts, and letters from Emily Dickinson to family and friends; images of the poet including the daguerreotype and silhouette; physical artifacts related to Emily Dickinson; manuscript transcriptions; printers' copies and proofs; Mabel Loomis Todd's correspondence, research indices, and writings; and material from or about Dickinson's friends and family, including correspondence, photographs, objects, and scrapbooks.

This collection is organized into seven series:

• POEMS AND LETTERS
• PUBLICATIONS: PRODUCTION MATERIAL
• OBJECTS: ARTIFACTS AND REALIA
• FAMILY AND FRIENDS
• BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MATERIAL
• MILLICENT TODD BINGHAM MATERIAL
• COLLECTION-RELATED MATERIAL

Since material in the Collection had been rearranged before it was received, there is no evidence of original order. The majority of the manuscripts were organized, listed and numbered by Jay Leyda prior to donation in 1956. After donation to Amherst, the manuscripts remained in the order given by Leyda and researchers used a card catalogue system created by him for access to the materials. Between 1999 and 2006, the Collection was reviewed and arranged and described following current archival standards, while maintaining the previous Leyda manuscript numbers. The result is more detailed access to information in all parts of the Collection. When possible, documentation about previous handling was maintained.