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ITEM Identifier: Dickinson Room

Writing stand; square-top table or stand; tapered legs; single drawer with brass pull. Probably New England, unknown maker; circa 1830., 1830. Digital

Writing stand; square-top table or stand; tapered legs; single drawer with brass pull. Probably New England, unknown maker; circa 1830. Digital Object
Writing stand; square-top table or stand; tapered legs; single drawer with brass pull. Probably New England, unknown maker; circa 1830. Digital Object

Dates

  • Creation: 1830.

Conditions Governing Access

The Dickinson Room and many of these objects can be viewed by guided tour Fridays at 2:00 p.m.

Examination of objects in the Houghton Reading Room requires advance notice, and the permission of the curator.

Extent

20 linear feet (68 items)

Physical Facet

Cherry, pine (secondary wood), brass;

Dimensions

height 66.6 cm., width 44.4, depth 44.4 cm.

General note

Emily Dickinson used this simple stand as a writing table or desk in her bedchamber where she composed many of her poems and letters. Small tables of this sort may more commonly have been used as "work" or sewing tables in 19th-century homes.

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440