Content:
A brief note from Whitman's 1879 trip to attend the quarter-centennial celebration of the Kansas settlement and to visit his brother Jeff in St. Louis. Whitman journeyed as far as Denver and the Rockies before returning to Camden on January 5, 1880. Whitman first described this trip in
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882), and though no direct lines can be traced between this manuscript and Whitman's published prose, it is clear that these manuscript notes are related to portions of
Specimen Days
, specifically the section titled, "Missouri State." This manuscript is mounted in a copy of
Notes and Fragments
(1899), leaving the verso unavailable..
Content:
Pages of notes from Whitman's western railroad journey in September 1879. The pages describe his travels through Missouri and Kansas, and large portions of the notes would find their way into
Specimen Days
(specifically, the sections entitled "Missouri State," "Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas," "Art Features," and "A Silent Little Follower—The Coreopsis").
