The Eyes Have It

An English professor’s effort to confirm only the second known photo of Emily Dickinson is offering a new look at the reclusive poet.

By Kim Marselas, Terp Magazine

For more than three years, Martha Nell Smith worked to authenticate the image, found by a daguerreotype collector with the pseudonym “Sam Carlo” in a shop near Springfield, Mass.

The 1859 photo captures a forthright Dickinson (top) in her late 20s with her arm linked with that of friend Kate Scott Turner. One other photo of Dickinson exists, and it conveys a timid, teenage version of the prolific writer in 1847 (below).

“The most important thing is what this photo does to our readerly imaginations,” says Smith, author of five Dickinson books.

To confirm Dickinson’s identity, Smith and colleagues at Amherst College turned to Dr. Susan Pepin, a Dartmouth ophthalmologist. She found the women depicted in the 1847 and 1859 photos had similar eyelid shapes and signs of astigmatism, the probable cause of Dickinson’s debilitating vision.

Smith is taking the image on tour via conferences and an online exhibit.

To read Pepin’s report or comment on the research, visit the Dickinson Electronic Archives at www.emilydickinson.org.