Walt Whitman
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Object Details
- Artist
- G. Frank E. Pearsall, active c. 1871 - 1896
- Sitter
- Walt Whitman, 31 May 1819 - 26 Mar 1892
- Exhibition Label
- Creating a distinctly American verse, Walt Whitman kicked down the doors and jambs of genteel Anglo-American literature and took poetry out into the streets and roads of a turbulent and expansive democracy. Whitman sounded his "barbaric yawp" across rooftops and into Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855). His poetic tendency to list, categorize, or catalogue was a legacy of the Enlightenment, yet his joyful earthiness was a far cry from the Enlightenment’s cool rationalism. And whereas his contemporaries, especially Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, recoiled from the unfixed and unmoored nature of American society, Whitman alone vaulted into the future, not simply walking on the open road but building it as he went along, surveying the ever-changing face of America and Americans. Whitman was also one of the first Americans to comprehend the power of photography to shape a reputation. Photography’s ability to project multiple, diverse personas to the public was naturally appealing to a poet celebrating his—and our—multiple selves. Everywhere and nowhere—that is the paradox of Walt Whitman. In all of his chanting, he still has time to sum himself up in a way that endures: "I know I have the best of time and space, and was never measured and never will be measured. / I tramp a perpetual journey, (come listen all!)."
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Feinberg
- September 1872
- Object number
- NPG.76.95
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Photograph
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Dimensions
- Image/Sheet: 14.1 × 10.4 cm (5 9/16 × 4 1/8")
- Mount: 21.6 × 15.7 cm (8 1/2 × 6 3/16")
- Mat: 45.9 × 35.7 cm (18 1/16 × 14 1/16")
- Place
- United States\Pennsylvania\Philadelphia\Philadelphia
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Interior
- Costume\Headgear\Hat
- Printed Material\Book
- Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache
- Costume\Jewelry\Chain
- Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Beard
- Home Furnishings\Furniture\Desk
- Walt Whitman: Male
- Walt Whitman: Literature\Writer\Poet
- Walt Whitman: Communications\Journalist\Editor\Newspaper
- Walt Whitman: Education\Educator\Teacher
- Walt Whitman: Communications\Journalist\Reporter\Newspaper
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.76.95
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm41b2afef4-ef12-4bcd-9908-840bf441edf0
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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