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).