Amherst is a town located in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The earliest known document of the lands now comprising Amherst is the deed of purchase dated December 1658 between John Pynchon of Springfield and three native inhabitants, referred to as Umpanchla, Quonquont and Chickwolopp.

The town is located in the western part of the state east of the Connecticut River and is the host community for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Hampshire College.

Amherst was the birthplace and lifelong residence of Emily Dickinson. The house of her birth has since become a Mobil gas station; the house she spent her life in, the Dickinson Homestead, is now a museum. Amherst was also home to the poets Robert Frost and Robert Francis.