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Early 1870s or perhaps late 1860s. Mathew Brady, New York. Saunders
#45. Courtesy Ohio Wesleyan University, Bayley Collection.
The photo has to be before 1871, since on 8 June
of that year, Whitman wrote to Ellen O'Connor, telling her he had
procured a copy for her ("the one with the hand up, which you
liked"). A few years later he wrote to Ellen again, describing
the photo as "the one with the hand up at the right side of the
head--so?" Whitman identified it as a Brady photo. In 1889 he
guessed "it must have been taken fully twenty years ago" on one
of his "flying trips" to New York from Washington. It was
while looking at this photo in 1889 that Whitman explained what he
saw to be the difficulty of photographing him properly: "my
red, florid, blooded complexion--my gray dull eyes--don't
consort well together: they require different trimmings: it is
very hard to adjust the camera to both." Whitman attributed
his photogenic qualities to his relaxed and natural attitude
before the camera: "I don't fix up when I go to have the picture
taken: they tell me nearly everybody does: that is a great item. . .
.Startle, strikingness, brilliancy, are not factors in my appearance--not
a touch of them. As for me I think the greatest aid is in my
insouciance--my utter indifference: my going as if it meant
nothing unusual. . . ."
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