Amherst Academy Textbooks

Detail of "A plan of the Solar System" from Atlas, Geography of the Heavens. Digital image courtesy of the David Rumsey Collection, Cartography Associates.

Amherst Academy opened on December 6, 1814. As stated in its incorporation papers, it was established “for the purpose of promoting morality, piety and religion, and for the instruction of youth in the learned languages, and in such arts and sciences as are usually taught in other Academies.”

Emily Dickinson attended the Academy from 1840 to 1847. She studied in both the English and classical departments, which offered courses in Latin, Greek, German, ancient and modern geography, history, natural and intellectual philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, and rhetoric.

In a book entitled Emily Dickinson’s Textbooks written by Carlton Lowenberg, we find a list of textbooks that Emily Dickinson may have studied during her enrollment in Amherst Academy. Many of the textbooks mentioned in this book are available at Special Collections at the Jones Library. One of our favorites is by Elijah H. Burritt entitled Atlas, Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens published in 1835.