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Catalogs of Manuscripts at Individual Repositories

Catalog of the Walt Whitman Manuscripts in the Institute of Aerospace Sciences Archives, The Library of Congress

Original finding aid completed by the Library of Congress; revised and expanded by The Walt Whitman Archive and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. Encoded Archival Description completed with the assistance of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the University of Nebraska Research Council, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.


Title: Walt Whitman Manuscripts in the Institute of Aerospace Sciences Archives, The Library of Congress

Collection Number: MSS10694


Creator:  Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892


Repository:  Manuscripts Division, The Library of Congress

Abstract:
This catalog was created, in part, from digital images of the original manuscripts obtained by The Walt Whitman Archive. The original papers and finding aid are held at the Library of Congress.

Scope and Content: 
The Institute of Aerospace Sciences Archives holds one Whitman manuscript, a scrap of prose in which Whitman describes a balloon launch in Brooklyn that likely took place in 1849.

Biographical Information:
For additional biographical information, see "Walt Whitman," by Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, and the chronology of Whitman's Life.

Subjects:
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892;  Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Manuscripts; Poets, American--19th century



Whitman Archive Title: Nerve.—A Frenchman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05997
Date: 1849
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
View images: 1 | 2
Content: This manuscript describes the ascent of a French balloonist from the Brooklyn Military Garden. Whitman leaves out the balloonist's name, but it is likely that he is referring to the ascent of Victor Vardelle on September 19, 1849. A number of announcements of the event had appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the days leading up to the launch, and the launch itself was reported in an unsigned story in the issue of September 20. However, it is highly unlikely that Whitman was the author of that piece; while Whitman had written for the Eagle, his position at the paper was terminated in January 1848, and none of the specific wording from this manuscript appears in the Eagle article. At the time of the September 19 balloon launch, Whitman was apparently between jobs; having announced his resignation from the Brooklyn Freeman on September 11, 1849, he would begin publishing his series "Letters from a Travelling Bachelor" in the New York Sunday Dispatch in October 1849. No published version of this blurb of Whitman's has been located, but it is almost certain that the date of composition was shortly after the balloon launch, in September 1849. On the verso is a note written by antiquarian bookseller, collector, and Whitman bibliographer Alfred Goldsmith (1881–1947).




Restrictions on Original Materials: Please consult with repository.

Preferred Citation:  To identify this catalog as a source, see the Archive's "Conditions of Use" page.


Repository Contact Information:

The Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division
Room LM101, James Madison Building
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540-4680
http://www.loc.gov


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Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.