What Amherst Reads

In 1843, when Amherst had approximately 2,550 residents, there were 636 regular newspaper subscriptions in town and 256 subscriptions to periodicals. A total of 44,816 newspapers arrived that year or about 113 per family. In 1843, 4,100 magazines were bought in Amherst, half of them being the Missionary Herald and Sabbath School Visitor. Thus, in a year when no newspapers or journals were published in Amherst, townspeople bought nineteen newspapers and magazines per person from thirteen different states.

Two account books in the Jones Library explain exactly what people read in the mid-1860s. Apparently kept by the post office between 1862 and 1866, the account books list every subscriber in town, their box number, and the serials they received. More people subscribed to the Congregational publication Independent (117 subscriptions), than any other magazine. Next in popularity was the juvenile magazine Youth’s Companion (98 subscriptions). “Ladies’” magazines, like Peterson’s Ladies’ National and Godey’s Ladies’ Book, were popular, but more copies of Home Missionary and other religious publications were bought. John Lovell was the only one to subscribe to Daguerreotype Journal Monthly, Joseph Adams received Coachmaker, and Appleton Goodale received the American Bee Journal.

Under the listing for Box 207: the Honorable Edward Dickinson, we find fifteen magazines and newspapers. This is a greater number than taken by most in town, excepting ministers and professors. Emily Dickinson would have had access to the following:

  • Observer, a Presbyterian publication of religion, literature, and “general Intelligence,”; published in New York
  • National Intelligencer
  • New England Farmer
  • Harper’s Magazine
  • The Springfield Republican
  • The Boston Courier
  • Home Missionary
  • Congregational Quarterly
  • American Engineer Quarterly
  • The Greenfield Courier
  • The Monthly Law Reporter
  • Youth’s Companion
  • The Boston Transcript
  • Round Table

Though not included in the manuscript, it is known that the Dickinsons also subscribed to Atlantic Monthly, Scribner’s, and Century Magazine.

Excerpted from Tales of Amherst by Dan Lombardo and published by the Jones Library.

What Amherst Reads