J. E. Reinhalter of P. Reinhalter & Company to Walt Whitman, 27 October 1891
loc.03306.001_large.jpg
P. REINHALTER & CO.
GRANITE MONUMENTS
VAULTS AND STATUARY WORK.
WORKS AT WEST QUINCY, MASS.
OFFICE
18 SOUTH BROAD STREET.
Philadelphia, Pa.
October 27 1891
Walt. Whitman Esq.
Camden
N.J
My dear Sir
As all has been completed about the vault and all works first class in every respect I will call upon you tomorrow ab't 11.30 a.m. and leave a key with you also will bring all the particulars of its constructing &c. wich you have asked me for at my last visit to your house, hoping this letter will reach you enjoying good health I remain
yours as ever J. E. Reinhalter
loc.03306.002_large.jpg
Correspondent:
Little is known about the
Reinhalter Brothers—likely Joseph E. and Peter Reinhalter, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—beyond their work in designing and constructing
granite monuments. Their company, known as P. Reinhalter & Co. of
Philadelphia, built Whitman's tomb—an elaborate granite tomb of the poet's
design—in Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. The tomb cost
$4,000. Whitman covered a portion of these costs with money that his Boston
friends had raised so that the poet could purchase a summer cottage; the
remaining balance was paid by Whitman's literary executor, Thomas Harned. For
more information on the cemetery and Whitman's tomb, see See Geoffrey M. Still,
"Harleigh Cemetery," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).