Amherst, town in Hampshire County, western Massachusetts, in the Pioneer Valley. Located in a rich farming area, it is an educational center, the seat of Amherst College (1821), the University of Massachusetts (1863), and Hampshire College (1965). Its many old homes include those of the poets Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, and novelist Helen Hunt Jackson. The lexicographer Noah Webster, one of the founders of Amherst College, and the sculptor Daniel Chester French also lived here. The town was named for the British commander Lord Jeffrey Amherst. The town was incorporated in 1776. Population 33,229 (1980); 35,228 (1990); 17,824 (1996 estimate).
