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Walt Whitman Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 24 Nov 2010



Biographical History

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an influential and well-known American poet, essayist and journalist. Among his best-known works are poems "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Song of Myself," and the poetry collection Leaves of Grass. He is buried at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey, where he lived for the last twenty years of his life.


Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Walt Whitman Collection consists of clippings, correspondence, one media item, and printed material.

Clippings consists of a scrapbook of clippings about Whitman and his work, compiled by William Douglas O'Connor and included his annotations on the articles.

The bulk of Correspondence is incoming, mostly from friends such as clergyman William Sloane Kennedy, publisher James Gordon Bennett, author William Douglas O'Connor, and journalist and reformer James Redpath. A complete list of correspondents is given in the inventory below.

Media consists of one reel of 16mm film, an 11-minute sequence consisting of a short biography of Whitman and one of his poems set to a scenic background. The film canister is labeled "color" but the accompanying card says "black and white."

Printed material contains a prospectus for book, a reprint of "At the Graveside of Walt Whitman," and several items related to a 1957 exhibit on Whitman mounted by the Rumanian Institute for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.


Arrangement of the Collection

Alphabetical.


Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Access to media requires advance notice to produce a use copy.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.


Related Material

Whitman-related material may be found in several other collections, particulatly the Charles Wharton Stork Papers and the Frederick P. Hier Papers. Please search the manuscript collections for "Whitman" to locate all relevant material.


Subject Headings

Persons

Whitman, Walt.

Subjects

Poets, American.

Genres and Forms

16mm (photographic film size)
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Prospectuses.
Scrapbooks.

Occupations

Poets.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Walt Whitman Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Unspecified, 1964.


Table of Contents

Clippings

Correspondence

Media

Printed material


Inventory