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Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, [June 1891]

About This Item

  • Title: Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, [June 1891]
  • Date: [June 1891]
  • Creator(s): Lavinia F. Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.04861
  • 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King Cristin Noonan Brandon James O'Neil Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Lavinia F.. "Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, [June 1891]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.04861.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.01300_large.jpg My dear friend

I am too sorry that you are not well enough to see me, but I trust I may be able to do so, when I come again—I read with much interest the celebration of your seventy second birth day—You & I are nearing the other land—I was seventy two in November last—

I did want to see you so much—I had a little old shoe with me, with which I wanted to inspire you to write me some verses—

It was once worn by my darling & only little grandchild—it always speaks volumes to me about her sweet ways & her new angel life—

Could you write me something  loc_vm.01301_large.jpg that I can preserve of your own, written in your seventy third year I should value it greatly—

I wish I could read you what is said in the "Lawyers and judges of Maine" about Judge Whitman. You would like him, so perfect a character—

But I have said too much.—

May our Heavenly Father spare both you & I for sometime yet

Truly your friend Lavinia F Whitman

My address is 2337 N. 18th st Phila

Correspondent:
Lavinia Fanning Watson Whitman (1818–1900) was the eldest daughter of John Fanning Watson—author of Annals of Philadelphia (1830) and a well known historian of Philadelphia and New York City—and his wife Phebe Barron Crowell. In 1846, Lavinia became the first woman to sponsor a United States Navy ship when she christened the sloop-of-war, the USS Germantown, in Philadelphia. She married Harrison Gray Otis Whitman, a son of Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ezekial Whitman.

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