Interesting in delving deeper into the fascinating history of Amherst? Check out this reading list!
Historical Sketch, Articles of Faith, Covenant and Rules of the North Church, Amherst by
George E. Fisher, 1854
Reminiscences of Amherst College by Edward Hitchcock, Northampton, 1863
Historical Manual of the North Congregational Church and Society by George H. Johnson,
Amherst, 1889
An Historical Review, The First Church in Amherst, 1739-1887, Amherst, 1890
The Hand Book of Amherst Massachusetts by Frederick H. Hitchcock, New York, 1891
History of Amherst College by William S. Tyler, Springfield, 1873; rev. 1895
The History of The Town of Amherst by Edward W. Carpenter and Charles F. Morehouse,
Amherst, 1896
The Story of a New England Country Church by Alice M. Walker, Amherst, 1901
Diamond Jubilee of the North Congregational Church, Amherst, Massachusetts, November 15,
1901, Fitchburg, 1902
Historic Homes of Amherst by Alice M. Walker, Amherst, 1905
Brief History of the Massachusetts Agricultural College: Semicentennial, 1917 by Lilley B.
Caswell, Springfield, 1917
Amherst Academy by Frederick Tuckerman, Amherst, 1929
Amherst Past and Present by Anna Phillips See, Amherst, 1930
Yesterdays, At Massachusetts State College by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1933
Amherst, the Story of a New England College by Claude M. Fuess, Boston, 1935
History of Stockbridge House at Massachusetts State College by Charles H. Thayer, Amherst,
1936
The First Congregational Church in Amherst, 1739-1939 by John A. Hawley and Frank Prentice
Rand, Amherst, 1939
Around a Village Green: Sketches of Life in Amherst by Mary Adele Allen, Northampton, 1939
Heart O’ Town by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1945
Piety and Intellect at Amherst College, 1865 – 1912 by Thomas leDuc, New York, 1946
An Amherst Boyhood by Alfred E. Stearns, Amherst, 1946
Remembrance of Amherst: An Undergraduate's Diary, 1846-1848 by William Gardiner
Hammond and George F. Whicher, New York, 1946
A History of the Endowment of Amherst College by Stanley King, Amherst, 1950
The Consecrated Eminence by Stanley King, Amherst, 1951
The Village of Amherst: A Landmark of Light by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1958
The University of Massachusetts: A History of One Hundred Years by Harold W. Cary,
Amherst, 1962
In Other Words, Amherst College, 1964
Historical Sketch of Amherst Savings Bank, 1864 – 1964 by Winthrop S. Dakin, Amherst, 1964
The Jones Library in Amherst by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1969
The Trouble with Francis by Robert Francis, University of Massachusetts Press, 1971
Leave the Light Burning: South Amherst, Massachusetts by W.H. Atkins, 1973
Amherst: A Guide to its Architecture by Paul Norton, 1975
Essays on Amherst’s History edited by Theodore Greene, Amherst, 1978
An Amherst Chapbook by Stephanie Kraft, Amherst, 1979
Lost Amherst by Amherst Historical Commission, Amherst, 1980
North of Norwottuck: A sampler of South Amherst, Mass by Marjorie Elliott, Madison, 1985
Tales of Amherst: A Look Back by Daniel Lombardo, Amherst, 1986
Views and Re-views of Amherst by Perry Allen Thompson, 1995
Amherst and Hadley, Massachusetts by Daniel Lombardo, Charleston, 1997
A Hedge Away: the other side of Emily Dickinson’s Amherst by Daniel Lombardo,
Northampton, 1997
Amherst and Hadley: Through the Seasons by Daniel Lombardo, Charleston, 1998
The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870 by James Avery
Smith, Boston, 1999
Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis
Todd by Polly Longsworth, Amherst, 1999
Amherst, Massachusetts: One of the Best Small Towns in America by Vincent Cleary, Amherst,
Cleary, 2003
Manufacturing Industries in Amherst: Focus on the Hat Factories and the Hills Family by
Ruth C. Pratt, 2004
Amherst A to Z, 1759 – 2009 by Elizabeth M Sharpe, Amherst, 2010
Harvesting History: Amherst, Massachusetts Farms, 1700-2010 edited and with several
selections by Sheila Rainford and Ruth Owens Jones, Amherst, 2010
North Amherst and Cushman by Patricia Holland and William Robinson, Charleston, 2012
The Railroads and Trolleys of Amherst, Massachusetts by James Avery Smith, Amherst, 2014
Jewish Community of Amherst: the Formative Years, 1969-1979 by Irving Seidman, Amherst,
2017
History of the Amherst Woman’s Club, 1893-2016 by Libby Klekowski, Amherst, 2017
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.