loc.03180.001.jpg
Feb. 3 '881
—The little head in oil, with hat (of Elias Hicks2) sent me from Richmond
Indiana painted by Sidney Morse3—As I understand it is from a photo, or daguerreotype of Elias, from life, taken about
1828 or '29 there.4
Morse's letter
Richmond Indiana
January 31, 1888
..."a little sketch
in oil (on a box cover) from an old photo of a steel engraving brought me by
a Mr. Harris5 who heard Elias preach when he was 10 years old. He says my
copy [this picture] is quite as good as the original. I don't think so
myself; but it approximates."6
loc.03180.002.jpg
loc.03180.003.jpg
loc.03180.004.jpg
Correspondent:
Thomas Biggs Harned
(1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer
in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel (1856–1914), was
Horace Traubel's brother-in-law. For more on him, see Dena Mattausch, "Harned, Thomas Biggs (1851–1921)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). For more on his relationship with Whitman, see
Thomas Biggs Harned, Memoirs of Thomas B. Harned, Walt
Whitman's Friend and Literary Executor, ed. Peter Van Egmond (Hartford:
Transcendental Books, 1972).
Notes
- 1. The address on this letter
was crossed out with a diagonal line. Above it Whitman wrote: "send to T B
Harned." The letter was originally addressed by Sidney H. Morse: Walt Whitman |
328 Mickle st. | Camden.| New Jersey. It is postmarked: Richmond [illegible] | Feb 23 | 6 [illegible] AM | [illegible]88; Camden, N.J. | Feb | 24 | 7 AM | 88 |
Rec'd. [back]
- 2. Elias Hicks (1748–1830) was a
traveling Quaker preacher and anti-slavery activist from Long Island, New York.
Whitman's essay on Hicks, "Notes (such as they are) founded on Elias Hicks,"
appeared in November Boughs (1888). For more on Hicks,
see Henry Watson Wilbur, The Life and Labors of Elias
Hicks (Philadelphia: Friends' General Conference Advancement Committee,
1910). [back]
- 3. Sidney H. Morse was a
self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to 1872,
editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden many
times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an early bust by
Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan, Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850–1920
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006),
57–84. [back]
- 4. Whitman's transcription of
Morse's letter has been pasted onto the letter bearing the preceding
text. [back]
- 5. As yet we have no information about
this person. [back]
- 6. The verso of Whitman's
transcribed Morse letter contains an inscription, partially obscured: Camden |
N.J. This inscription is likely part of a letter that Whitman had previously
received from an unknown correspondent. [back]