Selected by Jane Austen
A Musical Evening featuring piano, violin, soprano and mezzosoprano
Friday, June 9, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
at the Strong House, 67 Amity St., Amherst
General tickets: $15
Benefactor tickets: $30
Click to buy tickets online
Join us for a concert of music referenced by Jane Austen in her literary and personal writings. This presentation will feature Graham Christian on the 1826 Chickering pianoforte, Steven Williams on violin, Libby Maxey soprano, and Heather Williams mezzosoprano. Refreshments will be served. Benefactors will be offered first seat selection. This July marks the 200th year anniversary of Jane Austen’s death.
The Spectacular Mabel Loomis Todd
What do you know about Mabel Loomis Todd?
For the majority of those who know her name, she is primarily associated with Amherst as the editor of Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters and her long-term relationship with Emily’s brother Austin. While true to fact, these details miss the spirit of a woman intensely involved in this community from her arrival in 1881 until the Todds moved to Florida in 1917. Those who knew her remembered “her vividness, her love of beauty, her ceaseless activity and her joy in the things she did, what she was is undoubtedly more than anything she did,” recalled her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, in Mabel Loomis Todd: Her Contributions to the Town of Amherst, our guide for this exhibition.
This exhibit was created with the research and assistance of Dr. Julie Dobrow, author of the upcoming book Outside Emily’s Door: Mabel Loomis Todd, Millicent Todd Bingham and the Making of America’s Greatest Poet, and Emma John, Hampshire College intern.
This exhibit is now open at the Simeon Strong House. Read more here.
The Value of Looking
Sweetser Family Portraits
Portraits are a window into the past. They not only give us information about the people in them, but they also tell us about the world in which these people lived. As both artistic objects and cultural artifacts, they shed light on the various social, aesthetic and economic elements that influenced their creation. Our collection includes two Sweetser Family portraits painted by H.R. Snyder in 1844 and a later portrait of Abby Sweetser by an unknown artist.
These portraits are the subject of recent research by Dr. Ian Cooke who curated this exhibit. Read more here.
These are all entries under the letter “C” in the book Amherst A to Z, written by Elizabeth Sharpe. The book is illustrated with pictures of artifacts from the Amherst History Museum, historic images from the Jones Library’s Special Collections, as well as photographs of our town and the folks who live here.