In her own hand

Emily Dickinson

The unpublished manuscripts of those who have passed is protected 75 years upon their death. So, there is a wonderful collection of beautiful pieces of original writing from the hand of Emily Dickinson herself to download, print and frame, whatever you wanna do!

These scans are from her own hand

You can see that she did weird things with her writing, like, glue stamps and names of people she found in magazines to her writing. She started writing in pencil later in her life because she was having trouble with her sight. Pencil drew a predictably neater script.

Also, she was practicing spacing her letters further apart, like the writing that can be found of Helen Keller. Before Braille, there was a handwriting that people who had trouble with sight or could not see at all. Look at the spacing above and consider that the spacing will vary after she starts using pencil.

A lady of faith

But no matter what happened with her sight, she knew she had things to say. What a lovely example of a strong, female spirit. And, for those of you who happen to be ladies of faith, you’ll find a friend in Dickinson. She loved to sing, and many of poems can be sung to the tune of Amazing Grace, not this one, but many. Can you hear the strong sense of music in this short quip about song?

Things may seem hard right now, having to stay at home to work, not going out to eat with friends. But, fellow people, if you need to see an example of a fiery hermit, she’s your lady. Explore her collection of visuals, get fired up yourself, and let me know if you want me to create an Emily Dickinson Collection Bingo by commenting below.