[Walt Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, wearing hat and sweater, holding butterfly]
still image
graphic
still image
Portrait photographs-1870-1880.
Albumen prints-1870-1880.
pau
1873
monographic
[1873]
eng
1 photographic print on card mount : albumen.
No known restrictions on publication.
Photograph by Phillips & Taylor, Philadelphia.
Caption from Library exhibition, Revising Himself: Walt Whitman and the Leaves of Grass (2005): "This photograph, taken in 1877, was one of Whitman's favorites. He used the butterfly-on-hand as a recurring motif in his books and intended for this photo to be reproduced as the frontispiece in a sample proof of Leaves from 1891. To foster the image of himself as one with nature, he claimed that insect was real and one of his "good friends." But a band visible around Whitman's finger matches the wire under the butterfly artifact. This colorful cardboard prop was tucked into one of the first Whitman notebooks donated to the Library in 1918. The word "Easter" is printed down its spine. Dr. Bucke, one of his literary heirs, said the butterfly was Psyche, the poet's soul."
Forms part of: Feinberg-Whitman Collection (Library of Congress).
Whitman, Walt,
1819-1892
Butterflies
1870-1880
Studio props
1870-1880
LOT 12038 [item]
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b24247
Saunders,
no. 48
00650593
LC-USZ62-77082 DLC
hdl:loc.pnp/cph.3b24247
aacr
gihc
DLC
000511
20250606182002.4
12005218
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(Revision 1.172 20230208)