“Rarely photographed” does not accurately describe Emily Dickinson. There is exactly one authenticated photo of the famously reclusive poet — a daguerreotype showing her as a teenager in 1847. But a second photo believed to be Dickinson has just surfaced, and scholars are excited.

“Emily Dickinson is an icon in American literary history, but our image of her has been frozen,” says Martha Nell Smith, a professor at the University of Maryland who is credited with bringing the new image to light. “This powerfully changes our image of Dickinson.”