Amherst Historical Society and Museum

History Begins at Home

Further Reading

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; OCLC 43526148
Reminiscences of Amherst College by Edward Hitchcock, Northampton, 1863; OCLC 978695591
Historical Manual of the North Congregational Church and Society by George H. Johnson,
Amherst, 1889; OCLC 34900383
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; OCLC 944467259
History of Amherst College by William S. Tyler, Springfield, 1873; rev. 1895; OCLC 982889471
The History of the Town of Amherst by Edward W. Carpenter and Charles F. Morehouse,
Amherst, 1896; OCLC 33022872
The Story of a New England Country Church by Alice M. Walker, Amherst, 1901; OCLC 16164744
Diamond Jubilee of the North Congregational Church, Amherst, Massachusetts, November 15,
1901, Fitchburg, 1902  OCLC 39318615
Historic Homes of Amherst by Alice M. Walker, Amherst, 1905; OCLC 586073005
Brief History of the Massachusetts Agricultural College: Semicentennial, 1917 by Lilley B. Caswell, Springfield, 1917; OCLC 499741374
Amherst Academy by Frederick Tuckerman, Amherst, 1929; OCLC 614815122
Amherst Past and Present by Anna Phillips See, Amherst, 1930; OCLC 11760130
Yesterdays At Massachusetts State College by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1933; OCLC 43792474
Amherst, the Story of a New England College by Claude M. Fuess, Boston, 1935; OCLC 561014109
Mabel Loomis Todd, her contributions to the town of Amherst by Millicent Todd Bingham, New York, 1935; OCLC 925431046
History of Stockbridge House at Massachusetts State College by Charles H. Thayer, Amherst,
1936  OCLC 43450625
The First Congregational Church in Amherst, 1739-1939 by John A. Hawley and Frank Prentice
Rand, Amherst, 1939  OCLC 43751045
Around a Village Green: Sketches of Life in Amherst by Mary Adele Allen, Northampton, 1939  OCLC 57248630
Ancestors’ Brocades by Millicent Todd Bingham, New York, 1945  OCLC 316012029
Heart O’ Town by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1945  OCLC 8262111
Piety and Intellect at Amherst College, 1865 – 1912 by Thomas leDuc, New York, 1946  OCLC 639675965
An Amherst Boyhood by Alfred E. Stearns, Amherst, 1946 OCLC 592107837
Remembrance of Amherst: An Undergraduate’s Diary, 1846-1848 by William Gardiner
Hammond and George F. Whicher, New York, 1946  OCLC 1667407
A History of the Endowment of Amherst College by Stanley King, Amherst, 1950  OCLC 52259626
The Consecrated Eminence by Stanley King, Amherst, 1951  OCLC 592107843
The Village of Amherst: A Landmark of Light by Frank Prentice Rand, Amherst, 1958  OCLC 742329537
The University of Massachusetts: A History of One Hundred Years by Harold W. Cary,
Amherst, 1962  OCLC 1023581122
In Other Words: Amherst in Prose and Verse by Horace Hewlett, Amherst College Press, 1964  OCLC 904774725
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 OCLC 577151096
The Trouble with Francis by Robert Francis, University of Massachusetts Press, 1971 OCLC 557919434
Leave the Light Burning: South Amherst, Massachusetts by W.H. Atkins, 1973 OCLC 668629
Amherst: A Guide to its Architecture by Paul Norton, 1975 OCLC 1583897
Essays on Amherst’s History edited by Theodore Greene, Amherst, 1978 OCLC 3869493
An Amherst Chapbook by Stephanie Kraft, Amherst, 1979 OCLC 137302671
Lost Amherst by Amherst Historical Commission, Amherst, 1980 OCLC 8739485
North of Norwottuck: A sampler of South Amherst, Mass by Marjorie Elliott, Madison, 1985 OCLC 742324096
Tales of Amherst: A Look Back by Daniel Lombardo, Amherst, 1986 OCLC 13009287
Views and Re-views of Amherst by Perry Allen Thompson, 1995 OCLC 621466700
Amherst and Hadley, Massachusetts by Daniel Lombardo, Charleston, 1997 OCLC 36847061
A Hedge Away: the other side of Emily Dickinson’s Amherst by Daniel Lombardo, Northampton, 1997 OCLC 469302624
Amherst and Hadley: Through the Seasons by Daniel Lombardo, Charleston, 1998 OCLC40651459
The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870 by James Avery Smith, Boston, 1999  OCLC 40948836
Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd by Polly Longsworth, Amherst, 1999 OCLC 939874685
Amherst, Massachusetts: One of the Best Small Towns in America by Vincent Cleary, Amherst, Cleary, 2003 OCLC 54412324
Manufacturing Industries in Amherst: Focus on the Hat Factories and the Hills Family by Ruth C. Pratt, 2004 OCLC 62675706
Amherst A to Z, 1759 – 2009 by Elizabeth M Sharpe, Amherst, 2010 OCLC 413359607
Harvesting History: Amherst, Massachusetts Farms, 1700-2010 edited and with several selections by Sheila Rainford and Ruth Owens Jones, Amherst, 2010 OCLC 698244660
North Amherst and Cushman by Patricia Holland and William Robinson, Charleston, 2012 OCLC 796757500
The Railroads and Trolleys of Amherst, Massachusetts by James Avery Smith, Amherst, 2014 OCLC 913887641
Jewish Community of Amherst: the Formative Years, 1969-1979 by Irving Seidman, Amherst, 2017 OCLC 1028051641
History of the Amherst Woman’s Club, 1893-2016 by Libby Klekowski, Amherst, 2017 OCLC 1028995559
After Emily: two remarkable women and the legacy of America’s greatest poet by Julie Dobrow, W W Norton & Co, New York, 2018 OCLC 1078526175

About the Museum

Visit the Amherst History Museum, located at the Simeon Strong House, 67 Amity St., Amherst MA. We held our first exhibition in 1899, received our charter in 1903, and are celebrating over 100 years of the Society’s ownership of the c.1759 Simeon Strong House.

The Amherst History Museum is open Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Fridays from noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment. You can find directions here.

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Support Us


The Amherst History Museum accepts donations of any size at any time of the year. We hold our Annual Appeal in late November and renew all memberships in the Spring.

A gift to the Amherst History Museum, whether in memory of a loved one or in honor of a special accomplishment, is always a unique way to help the Amherst Community and recognize an extraordinary individual.

BECOME A MEMBER

Amherst A to Z

Want to know where Amherst’s Cold War bunker is located? Or where the “curragh” district of Amherst was? Or learn about a local factory that made “collapsing skirts!”

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.

BUY THE BOOK