The majority of the materials in the Emily Dickinson Collection were given to the College on March 23, 1956, by Millicent Todd Bingham, the daughter of David Peck Todd (AC 1875) and Mabel Loomis Todd, and herself a Dickinson scholar and editor. The original collection consisted of 850 poems and fragments of poems; 350 letters, notes, and drafts to and from family and friends; the daguerreotype and silhouette of Emily Dickinson; and the extensive correspondence and publication material of Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham. The majority of the Dickinson manuscripts were given to Mabel Loomis Todd by Lavinia Dickinson after her sister's death. Others were gathered by Todd from Dickinson's correspondents through personal request and a number of well publicized efforts to gather Dickinson material. Millicent Todd Bingham inherited these from her mother. The remainder of the materials in the collection came to Amherst College from various sources beginning in 1936 and continuing to the present.

Information About Books Owned, Inscribed or Attributed to Ownership by Dickinson

Archives and Special Collections owns a number of books that were owned, inscribed by or attributed to the ownership of Emily Dickinson. The books are listed below; additional information is available through the Amherst College Library catalog.

These three books bear inscriptions by Emily Dickinson:

• Virgil, Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera, or, The Works of Virgil. New York: N. and J. White, 1838. (PS1541.Z9 V5)
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Aurora Leigh. New York, Boston: C. S. Francis, 1859. (PR 4185 .A1 1859)
• Browning, Robert, Men and Women. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866. (RBR D56Za Bro)

These seven books bear no mark of Dickinson's ownership but were found standing on the same shelf with two books bearing her inscription:

• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Essays on the Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets. New York: James Miller, 1863. (RBR D65Za Br Es)
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Last Poems. New York: James Miller, 1864. (RBR D56Za Br L)
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. New York: E. S. Francis, 1861 (RBR D56Za Br Po)
• Jameson, Anna Brownell, Memoirs of the loves of the poets. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1857. (RBR D56Za Ja M)
• Jameson, Anna Brownell, Studies, stories, and memoirs. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1859. (RBR) D56Za Ja St)
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, Poems. Boston, Ticknor and Fields, 1861. (RBR D56Za Lo)
• Whittier, John Greenleaf, The Poetical Works. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1861. (RBR D56Za Wh)