Rare Photo of Emily Dickinson Found

 

Until now, only one authenticated image (shown above) of the poet and author Emily Dickinson is known to exist. But now, Amherst College in Massachusetts thinks it may have a 1859 daguerreotype of Dickinson in her mid-20s, sitting with her friend, Kate Scott Turner. Professor Susan Pepin of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center ran the image through some tests to try to confirm whether it was indeed Dickinson.
For example, she compared the measurement of eyelid and facial features of Dickinson in the 1847 image with the one from 1859.
Pepin told The Guardian, "Other similar facial features are evident between the women in the daguerreotypes. The right earlobe is higher on both women. The inferonasal corneal light reflex suggests corneal curvature similarity, allowing us to speculate about similar astigmatism in the two women. Both women have a central hair cowlick. Finally, both women have a more prominent left nasolabial fold."
Pepin thinks that if the image is confirmed to be real, it could change the public's perception of Dickinson from a teenager to a young woman with a "striking presence, strength, and serenity."

This daguerrotype is believed to be a photograph of Emily Dickinson in her mid-20s, seated with her friend Kate Scott Turner in 1859.