Papers of Walt Whitman 1838-1987

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

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.

Summary

Language:
English
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.

Background

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.

Biographical / historical:

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

Acquisition information:

All deposits were made gifts on July 1, 1991.

3829: Deposit, November 20, 1951. 3829-a: Gift, December 1954. 3829-b: Gift, October 10, 1957. 3829-c: Void, books. 3829-d: Gift, February 11, 1958. 3829-e: Gift, November 30, 1959. 3829-f: Deposit, April 23, 1960. 3829-g: Deposit, April 30, 1960. 3829-h: Deposit, April 20, 1961. 3829-i: Deposit, April 24, 1961. 3829-j: Deposit, June 27, 1961. 3829-k: Purchase, November 29, 1962. 3829-l: Purchase, October 13, 1962. 3829-m: Purchase, October 2, 1962. 3829-n: Purchase, February 4, 1965. 3829-o: Archival transfer, July 23, 1965. 3829-p: Deposit, June 16, 1966. 3829-q: Deposit, March 9, 1967. 3829-r: Purchase, April 21, 1971. 3829-s: Deposit, September 29, 1971. 3829-t: Deposit, December 17, 1963. 3829-u: Deposit for copying, November 30, 1973. 3829-v: Gift, August 24, 1984. 3829-w: Purchase, November 5, 1985. 3829-x: Gift, November 7, 1986. 3829-y: Purchase, May 2, 1988. 3829-z: Transfer, July 12, 1989. 3829-aa: Purchase, July 15, 1996 3829-ab: Purchase, November 28, 2005 5604: Gift, May 1957. 7267: Gift, August 14, 1963 9778: Gift January 26, 1972 10204-az: Gift, December 28, 1998. 10602: Gift, June 18, 1984.

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.

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.