Emily Dickinson is among the most beloved of American poets yet during her lifetime she was better known as a gardener. indeed, over one third of the nearly 1,800 poems she wrote and about half of her letters allude to her love of plants, flowers and the natural world

Emily Dickinson's Garden: The Poetry of Flowers is part of the Garden wide celebration of Dickinson's life as a poet and as an avid gardener. In addition to watercolors and books from the Mertz Library's rich collections, on display will be original letters and poems on loan from the Houghton Library, Harvard University and the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia. The centerpiece of this exhibition will be a replica of Dickinson's only surviving dress, on loan from the Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens in Amherst, Massachusetts. Increasingly reclusive during her thirties, Dickinson was known to wear mostly white.

This exhibition will provide a rare glimpse of Emily's world, her adoration of flowers and plants and her reluctance to share her poetry with outsiders. On display will be the links between her verse and the plants and flowers that were her motivation. Visitors will also be able to peruse a digital copy of Dickinson's own herbarium, examining specimens through an interative touch screen kiosk.

An illustrated catalog featuring essays by Dickinson scholars Judith Farr and Marta McDowell will accompany the exhibition.


Guided tours of the exhibition will be scheduled periodically. The schedule of tours will be available via the Botanical Garden's Web site at www.nybg.org/plan_your_visit/planyourvisit.php

This exhibition has been made possible with funding from The National Endowment for the Humanitites: Because democracy demands wisdom; New York State Council for the Humanitites, Kurt Berliner Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts.

Exhibitions in the Mertz Library are made possible by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.