culture Honoring One of America’s Most Renowned Poets 200+ Years Later Through July 27, 2019, Whitman fans from near and far can visit this unique display to pay tribute to the icon who brought us some of the English language’s most famous poems, including “Song of Myself” (1855), “O Captain! My Captain!” (1867), “I Hear America Singing” (1860), among many others. Joining in celebrating the bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s May 31 birthday, the Main Gallery of the Harrison Institute and Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia (UVA) is displaying Encompassing Multitudes: The Song of Walt Whitman. To best share the extraordinary legacy of one of the world’s greatest poets, the anniversary exhibit features first printings of every edition of Leaves of Grass, early drafts of Whitman’s poems in manuscripts, personal correspondence, photographs and memorabilia. The exhibit goes above and beyond the materials already housed within UVA’s The Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, which includes 392 separate pieces of the manuscript of Leaves of Grass and represents the largest single accumulation in existence of Whitman verse. Early in his career, Whitman was a printer and journalist, and owned the newspaper The Brooklyn Freeman. He also spent several years serving as a nurse in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War, when he took notes and wrote letters about what the soldiers were going through. The display, created in coordination with the Whitman Consortium, promises to be one of the world’s most extensive and varied collections of Whitman located right here in Charlottesville. Images by Sanjay Suchak.
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