The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Frederick Bourquin to Walt Whitman, 26 December 1890
Date: December 26, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01098
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Bourquin, F," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
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Camden Dec 26—90
Walt Whitman Esq.
Honoured & Respected Friend
Dear sir
I recd a beautiful Volume of your writings for which I return many thanks and shall preserve it as a [choise?] present in remembrance of your Frendship and Good Will.
Very Respectfully &c
F. Bourquin
Correspondent:
Frederick Bourquin
(1808–1897) was a Swiss-born lithographer and Whitman's neighbor on
Mickle Street in Camden, New Jersey. Bourquin immigrated to the United
States with his brother Charles in 1817 and became a citizen in 1834. In
1847, he was awarded a prize from the Franklin Institute for improvements to
lithography, and two years later he introduced the zincographic printing
process to America. Bourquin developed the anastatic printing process with
John Jay Smith, father of Whitman's acquaintance, Robert Pearsall Smith.
Described as a "Democrat of the Jacksonian type," Bourquin served on
Camden's City Council and in the New Jersey Legislature ("Frederick Bourquin
Dead," Philadelphia Inquirer [May 26, 1897], 2). For
more information, see Paul W. Schopp, "Camden and Mickle Street: A Cultural
History," Mickle Street Review no. 14 (Summer
2001).