I take the liberty of sending you a barrel of potatoes and some cider, it seeming to be the best way I know of expressing my feelings these Thanksgiving times, although in the act I am awkwardly re loc.03628.002_large.jpgminded of Uncle Pumblechook (in "Great Expectations") who yearly announced to Mrs. Joe, "I have brought you as the compliments of the season—I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry wine—I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of port wine"2
I hope you will not see it in the same light however, the potatoes were grown on our new place and the cider is a portion of some we have been preparing to keep through the winter, Mrs Reeder and I hope you will accept them as a token of our highest regards.
Very sincerely yours, Wm. Reeder loc.03628.003_large.jpg loc_tb.00031.jpg W M Reeder loc_tb.00030.jpgCorrespondent:
Dr. William M. Reeder was a Philadelphia physician and an admirer of Whitman. In May of 1891, he took "flash pictures in front and back bedrooms" of
Whitman’s Camden home. He also took photos of the poet's tomb at Camden's Harleigh Cemetery. Though Reeder was an amateur photographer, Whitman
appreciated his talent, telling Traubel that Reeder was "quite an artist," and that he possessed "taste" and a "good eye!" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman
in Camden, Wednesday, July 8, 1891).