{"id":136828,"date":"2019-05-31T12:44:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T16:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=136828"},"modified":"2019-05-31T14:11:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T18:11:49","slug":"walt-whitmans-right-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/05\/31\/walt-whitmans-right-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Whitman\u2019s Right Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The great Walt Whitman sang a song of himself, and that song has continued to resonate over the two centuries that have passed since his birth. As a poet, a queer icon, and a literary celebrity, his influence on the American consciousness was monumental. A new exhibition at The Morgan Library and Museum, \u201cWalt Whitman: Bard of Democracy<\/a>\u201d (on view from June 7 to September 15), examines how thoroughly Whitman\u2019s work is threaded into this country\u2019s DNA and mythology. A selection of artifacts from the show\u2014including a plaster cast of the poet\u2019s right hand, a notebook containing early versions of lines from <\/em>Leaves of Grass, and the cardboard butterfly he posed with in one of his infamous author portraits\u2014appears below.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Phillips & Taylor, Photograph of Walt Whitman, 1873. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Image provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Walt Whitman\u2019s cardboard butterfly<\/em>, 1850. Manuscript Division, Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of Walt Whitman Papers, Library of Congress. Image provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Truman Howe Bartlett (1835\u20131922), Plaster cast of Walt Whitman\u2019s hand, 1881. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of Walt Whitman Papers.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Joseph Pennell (1857\u20131926), Walt Whitman\u2019s house, Camden, New Jersey<\/em>, ca. 1924, etching. Purchased on the Edwin V. Erbe, Jr. Acquisitions Fund, The Morgan Library & Museum. Photography by Graham S Haber 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Moses P. Rice and Sons?, Walt Whitman and his rebel soldier friend Pete Doyle<\/em>, 1865, photograph; albumen print on card mount. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Image provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Walt Whitman (1819\u20131892), Notebook with trial lines for Leaves of Grass, ca. 1847-1854. The Library of Congress. Image provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Walt Whitman (1819\u20131892), Notebook with trial lines for Leaves of Grass<\/em>, ca. 1847-1854. The Library of Congress. Image provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman\u2019s Books<\/em>, broadside advertisement printed on linen, ca. 1871. The Morgan Library & Museum, gift of Charles
E. Feinberg, 1959; PML 50638. Photography by Graham S Haber 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

George Frank E. Pearsall (1841\u20131931), Walt Whitman, 1871, photographic print. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWalt Whitman: Bard of Democracy<\/a>\u201d will open at The Morgan Library and Museum on June 7.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in time for Whitman\u2019s two-hundredth birthday, a new show examines how thoroughly the poet\u2019s work is threaded into America\u2019s DNA and mythology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWalt Whitman\u2019s Right Hand by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just in time for Whitman\u2019s two hundredth birthday, a new show examines how thoroughly the poet\u2019s work is threaded into America\u2019s DNA and mythology.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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