A Guide to the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1838-1987 Whitman, Walt, Papers 3829, etc., 5604

A Guide to the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1838-1987

A Collection in
The Clifton Waller Barrett Library
Special Collections
The University of Virginia Library
Accession Number 3829, etc., 5604


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Processed by: Special Collections Staff

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
3829, etc., 5604
Title
Papers of Walt Whitman 1838-1987
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Walt Whitman, Accession #3829, etc., 5604, Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

All deposits were made gifts on July 1, 1991.

Processing Information

Some entries for literary manuscripts include the "Bowers" number, originally assigned by Fredson Bowers.

Many letters in the correspondence series were subsequently used by Whitman to draft poems. The originals of these items are filed in the manuscripts series and photocopies inserted in appropriate folders in the correspondence series.

The description of the photographs includes the "Saunders" number, when known. An extensive description of the method used by Henry S. Saunders for cataloging photographs of Whitman is printed in The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, Fall/Winter 1986-1987, which can be found in Box 5, Folder 50 of this collection.

Biographical/Historical Information

For detailed biographical information, see the biography and chronology pages at the Whitman Archive.

Scope and Content

Literary Manuscripts (Series I) includes numerous drafts, editions, and revisions of many of Whitman's poems and articles. Included are manuscripts of Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself, Sea-Drift, As I Sit in Twilight, A Carol for Harvest for 1867, and biographical writings on Emerson, Carlyle, and Elias Hicks.

Miscellaneous Manuscripts (Series II), consists of legal documents, multiple versions of Walt Whitman's last will and testament, autograph signatures and envelopes, his Civil War diary written while visiting hospitals of the wounded in 1863, and a flower and pin he attached to his coat.

Correspondence (Series III), consists chiefly of Walt Whitman's personal correspondence; correspondents include Ellen C. Ahern, H. M. Alden, Jack Biriss, Richard Maurice Bucke, John Burroughs, Edward Carpenter, Edward Clifford, Peter Doyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles E. Feinberg, Charley Eldridge, Horace Howard Furness, Ann Gilchrist, J. B. Gilder, J. L. Gilder, Joseph Jackson, J. Johnston, Thomas Hancock Nunn, Jacob Klein, Edwin Miller, Albert B. Otis, James Parton, Abby H. Price, Ernest Rhys, T. W. Rollerston, J. H. Rome, Charles Rowley Jr., Oscar Wilde, and D. W. Zimmerman.

Miscellaneous Documents (Series IV), includes an advertisement for his lecture on Abraham Lincoln, publications, a mounted leaf from his tomb, the "Official Walt Whitman stamp and envelope" released in 1940, and a broadside for one of his poems: "Poem describing a Perfect School."

Photographs, Engravings, and Prints (Series V), consists of numerous photographs of Walt Whitman taken throughout his life, ranging from 1854 to 1892. There are also photographs of Mary Davis, Horace L. Traubel, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (Whitman's mother), Walter Whitman (Whitman's father), Walt Whitman's dog, and various photographs of his house, the Walt Whitman statue, and the beaches he frequented.

Odds and Ends (Series VI), consists of the wrappers in which Leaves of Grass was housed when acquired by Clifton Waller Barrett and an unbound copy of Whitman's Manuscripts: Leaves of Grass (1860): a parallel text by Fredson Bowers.

Arrangement

The Papers of Walt Whitman are arranged in six series: Series I: Literary Manuscripts (arranged alphabetically by title); Series II: Miscellaneous Manuscripts (arranged chronologically); Series III: Correspondence (arranged chronologically by author); Series IV: Miscellaneous Documents (arranged chronologically); Series V: Engravings, Prints, and Photographs (arranged chronologically); and Series VI: Odds and Ends.

Contents List

Series 1: Literary Manuscripts
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Series II: Miscellaneous Manuscripts
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Series III: Correspondence
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Series IV: Miscellaneous Documents
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Series V: Engravings, Prints, Photographs
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Series VI: Odds and Ends
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