Researchers believe a new daguerreotype (c. 1859) of the great poet has emerged, only the second known photographic image of the iconic writer and recluse (this younger, more slight portrait is the first and previously only known photographic image). Dickinson would have been age 30 at the time, seated with her friend Kate Scott Turner (since the 1950s some scholars have speculated the two were romantically involved).

Researchers can’t yet definitively say the photo is Dickinson, but “I think we can get beyond reasonable doubt.” (Mike Kelly, head of the archive and special collections department at Amherst College)

Read the Associated Press story here. Dickinson readers or those curious about the poet and her writing should check out the Emily Dickinson episode of the excellent Entitled Opinions podcast. A superb conversation between poet and Dickinson scholar Katie Peterson and host Robert Harrison.