Walt Whitman by Potter and Co., 1882

George C. Potter, who took an early 1870s photograph of Whitman in Washington, had moved to Philadelphia by this time. This and another photograph bear some resemblance in posture and expression to an 1880 Gutekunst photograph. One day Horace Traubel saw one of these three photos in a glass case in front of the Potter and Co. studio on Chestnut St., and mistook it for the Gutekunst; Whitman corrected him: "'there is another with which it gets confused. The Gutekunst picture is good: the other is not: the other I think was made by Potter, around on Chestnut Street—used to be there.' Then after a pause: 'Have you ever remarked the difference? The Potter picture is startling but it is not good—it don't hit me'" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, January 14, 1889). In 1889, Whitman described this photo as having "a shipmastery, country-storekeepery sort of swagger" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, March 25, 1889).

For more information on George C. Potter, see "Notes on Whitman's Photographers."