The Walt Whitman Archive comprises a wide variety of resources, and conditions of use are governed by a range of rights. The policy of the Whitman Archive is to make as many of the resources as possible available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Users should consult each item to determine the rights governing use.

In cases where the Whitman Archive does not hold the rights, users should contact the rights holder directly. For permission to use images of manuscripts, contact the holding institution directly.

You do not need to request our permission to link to the Archive or to individual items within the Archive. If you reuse content on the Archive covered by CC-By-4.0, attribution should include the following elements: the complete title of the Archive (The Walt Whitman Archive), the names of the general editors, the names of contributors to the digital file, the title of the page or document, and the URL.

To cite the Archive as a source, please include the complete title of the Archive, its URL, and the date you accessed it, along with the other relevant documentation. The following citation examples are in Chicago Style:

To cite the entire project in a footnote: The Walt Whitman Archive, gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price, accessed June 27, 2023, http://www.whitmanarchive.org/.

To cite the entire project in a bibliography: The Walt Whitman Archive. Edited by Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price. Accessed June 27, 2023. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/.

To cite an individual page or item in a footnote: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1860–1861), The Walt Whitman Archive, gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price, accessed June 27, 2023, http://www.whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.01500.

To cite an individual page or item in a bibliography: Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (1860–1861). The Walt Whitman Archive. Edited by Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price. Accessed June 23, 2023. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.01500.