Staff page updated

Robert Gross has moved from the College of William & Mary to the University of Connecticut, so I have changed the staff page accordingly.

--Ken

Scribal documents now available and other changes

The first installment of 800 previously unidentified government documents in Whitman's handwriting is now available on the Whitman Archive. In 2012, we will add more than 2,200 additional documents to this section of the Archive.

Along with the release of the scribal documents we have made a number of other changes to the Archive between December 21 and December 22, 2011:

• The section of the Archive previously titled "Manuscripts" is now titled "In Whitman's Hand." This section includes Whitman's poetry manuscripts, scribal documents, and notebooks. We have moved the Integrated Guide to Whitman's poetry manuscripts and finding aids to Whitman's manuscripts at individual repositories to the Resources section of the site.
• The section of the Archive previously titled "Biography & Correspondence" is now titled "Life & Letters."
• The section of the Archive previously titled "Criticism" is now titled "Commentary."
• We have made changes to the site-wide xslt files that generate headers and footers for the pages to account for these revised section names and to make the navigation consistent throughout the site.
• We have modified a site-wide javascript file that generates the navigational breadcrumbs in order to take into account the revised section names and to make the navigation consistent.
• We have updated the Archive's Editorial Policy statement to include the scribal documents. We also corrected a typographical error in the editorial policy statement, fixing "eXtenxible" to "eXtensible."
  
• We have posted an updated version of the Spanish-language edition of Whitman's poetry, Álvaro Armando Vasseur's Poemas. The updated version is available both as an HTML rendering of our TEI-encoded XML and as an XML download. In 2012, we will migrate the encoding of the Vasseur text from the P4 TEI encoding standard to P5. At the time that we make the P5 version of the text available, we will also correct known issues in the HTML display of the text.
  
• We have fixed a broken links with our breadcrumbs navigation in the Civil War Correspondence and With Walt Whitman in Camden sections of the site.

~Liz

Typo corrected in encyclopedia entry

Archive user Andrew Rosa pointed out a typographical error in the encyclopedia entry for "Leaves of Grass, 1855 Edition," which I have fixed. In the bibliography section, the citation for Ed Folsom's article, "What We're Still Learning about the 1855 Leaves of Grass 150 Years Later," previously read "What We're Still Leaning about the 1855 Leaves of Grass 150 Years Later."

~Liz

Complete Prose Works (1892): corrected footnote

We have corrected the transcription of the footnote that runs in the bottom margin of pages 204-205 of Whitman's Complete Prose Works (1892) so that it appears in a pop-up page: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/other/ppp.00504.html?noteNumber=n19. Thanks to Carlos Elisio Nascimento da Silva for suggesting this correction.
-Katie Kruger

Civil War letter Archive ID updated

The Civil War era Letter from Walt Whitman to Anson Ryder, Jr., 14 December 1866 was formerly held by a private collector. This letter is currently held in the Gay Wilson Allen Papers, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. We have updated the Whitman Archive ID to reflect this information. Previously prc.00001, the Archive ID for this letter is now duk.00531.

The old url for this item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/prc.00001.html

The new url for this letter is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/duk.00531.html

~Janel

Middle initial changed in Whitman letter

In our title to Whitman's March 29, 1860 letter to Abby Price, Price's middle initial was identified as "M." However, her middle initial is actually "H." The title of the letter has been revised to reflect this information.

~Janel 

Civil War letter Archive ID updated

The location of the Civil War era Letter from Alexander Gardner to Walt Whitman, 26 November 1866 was formerly unknown. This letter has since been located at the Library of Congress and it is currently held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919. We have updated the Whitman Archive ID to reflect this information. Previously med.00329, the Archive ID for this letter is now loc.02115.

The old url for this item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/med.00329.html

The new url for this letter is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/loc.02115.html

~Janel

Civil War letter Archive ID updated

The location of the Civil War era Letter from Charles L. Heyde to Walt Whitman, April 1866  was formerly unknown. This letter has since been located at Duke University and it is currently held in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. We have updated the Whitman Archive ID to reflect this information. Previously med.00328, the Archive ID for this letter is now duk.00388.

The old url for this item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/med.00328.html

The new url for this letter is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/duk.00388.html

~Janel

Civil War letter Archive ID updated

The location of the Civil War era Letter from William D. O'Connor to Walt Whitman, 19 October 1865 was formerly unknown. This letter has since been located at the Library of Congress and it is currently held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919. We have updated the Whitman Archive ID to reflect this information. Previously med.00327, the Archive ID for this letter is now loc.01819.

The old url for this item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/med.00327.html

The new url for this letter is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/loc.01819.html

~Janel

Civil War letter Archive ID updated

The location of the Civil War era Letter from William D. O'Connor to Walt Whitman, 30 December 1864 was formerly unknown. This letter has since been located at the Library of Congress and it is currently held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919. We have updated the Whitman Archive ID to reflect this information. Previously med.00325, the Archive ID for this letter is now loc.01818.

The old url for this item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/med.00325.html

The new url for this letter is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/loc.01818.html

~Janel

Archive ID for a Feinberg poetry manuscript changed

The Whitman Archive ID for the Feinberg poetry manuscript, "?Some Hours of a half Paralytic" has been changed in the Feinberg finding guide (http://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/finding_aids/Library_of_Congress-Feinberg.html). The Archive ID for this manuscript was formerly loc.00307 and has since been changed to loc.03275.

Archive ID for a Civil War letter changed

We had inadvertently given two objects the same Whitman Archive ID (loc.00847), although both were entered into the project database with different IDs. I've assigned one, Letter from William E. Babcock to Walt Whitman, 21 January 1865, a new Whitman Archive ID. Formerly loc.00847, the letter is now loc.01069.

The old url for the item was http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/loc.00847.html

The current url is http://whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/loc.01069.html

~Janel

Archive ID for a review changed

We had inadvertently given two objects the same Whitman Archive ID (anc.00232), and neither were entered into the project database, so there were two documents on the Archive identified as anc.00232. I've assigned one, OBSERVER. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1867)]." The Massachusetts Weekly Spy  (2 November 1866): 1, a new Whitman Archive ID. Formerly anc.00232, the review is now anc.01069.

The old url for the item was http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/leaves1867/anc.00232.html

The current url is http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/leaves1867/anc.01069.html

~Liz

typo corrected in "Democratic Vistas" in the Complete Prose (1892)

On page 203 of Whitman's "Democratic Vistas" in the Complete Prose (1892), the text erroneously had read, "America, filling the present with greatest deeds and problems, cheerfully accepting the past, including feudalism, (as, indeed, the present is but the legitimate birth of the past, including feudalism,) counts, as I reckon, for her justification and success, (for i who, as yet, dare claim success?)". The "(for i who)" ought to read "(for who)". I have made this minor correction to the xml/tei file ppp.00504. Thank you to Carlos Elisio Nascimento da Silva for bringing this error to our attention.

--Katie Kruger

Note added to letter from Walt Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, 31 March 1863

A seemingly random "74" appeared in the body of the letter from Walt Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, 31 March 1863 (loc.00765), next to Probasco's name. This "74" corresponds with Edwin Haviland Miller's footnote 74 to the letter which appears on page 87 of the first volume of Whitman: The Correspondence (1842-1867). Miller's footnote reads, "See 31," which refers to the Letter from Walt Whitman to Thomas Jefferson Whitman, 16 January [1863] (wwh.00004), in which Whitman refers to Louis Probasco; on page 66, Miller offers the following footnote: "Louis Probasco, a young employee in the Brooklyn Water Works, probably the son of Samuel, listed as a cooper in the Brooklyn Directory of 1861-1862." I have therefore added the footnote 6 to this letter which reads, similar to Miller's text, "Louis Probasco was a young employee in the Brooklyn Water Works, was probably the son of Samuel Probasco, and was listed as a cooper in the Brooklyn Directory of 1861–1862. See Whitman's letter from January 16, 1863."

--Katie Kruger

typo corrected in Editorial Policy Statement

I've corrected a typo in our Editorial Policy Statement, where "copyright" read "coypright" in one instance.

~Liz

revision made to note in letter from Walt Whitman to William S. Davis, 1 October 1863

Note 3 in this letter was in the voice of the original editor, Edwin Haviland Miller, and said: "According to Whitman's notations, the material in this paragraph up to this point was to have been incorporated into the preceding paragraph. Since there are no indications in the manuscript as to where he intended to place it, I have transcribed literally." Now that the editing of Whitman's correspondence is being updated by the Whitman Archive staff, that "I" is misleading . Hence I've changed the last part of that note to read: "Since there are no indications in the manuscript as to where he intended to place it, the document has been transcribed literally."

--Ken

corrections made to letter from A. Van Rensellaer to Walt Whitman, 30 July 1865

Originally our text for this letter was derived from Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden. After examining a photostat copy of the original manuscript in the special collections department at the University of Chicago, I made roughly a dozen small changes, mostly in punctuation, though I also added one word that had been dropped, and added emphasis in two places where underlining had been used by Van Rensellaer.

--Ken

transcription error in With Walt Whitman in Camden fixed

In With Walt Whitman in Camden vol. 1, page 26, the word "received" had been transcribed as "recieved." I've corrected the error.

~Liz

transcription errors fixed in Nicholas D. Palmer letter

Archive user Michael Horne alerted us to errors in our transcription of Nicholas D. Palmer's letter to Walt Whitman of 24 June, 1865. In the letter opener, I corrected "near Lewis" to "near Louisville," and in the closer of the letter, I corrected "88th"  to "80th." I also fixed a transcription which had Palmer's misspelling "amediately" corrected to "immediately."

~Liz

author's name added to review

While working on annotations for the Reconstruction-era correspondence, Zachary King at the University of Iowa noticed that Edwin Haviland Miller identifies the author of a review of Drum-Taps, published in the Commonwealth of 24 February 1866, as Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. The review was presented on the Whitman Archive as by "[Anonymous]." I checked the bibliography of criticism and noted that Sanborn is acknowledged elsewhere as the author of the review (including in Giantvalley and in Lee Gougeon's 1992 article in WWQR), so I updated the author information in the TEI file and on the index page of reviews of Drum-Taps.

~Liz

transcription error fixed in 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass

Ken pointed out that our transcription of the poem title "Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and The Archipelagoes of the Sea" mistranscribed "archipelagoes" as "archipelogoes" in the body of the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass. I've fixed the error.

~Liz

Portuguese translation added

I have added the Portuguese translation to the Whitman Archive's translation section and created an index page that links to the essay "Whitman in Brazil" by Maria Clara Bonetti Paro. A Portuguese translation of the introductory page is currently not available but forthcoming. The main index page to the translation section has been modified to reflect some of the changes discussed at the translation symposium in Iowa City, though the homepage's general structure has not been changed yet.

--Vanessa

Error fixed in 1860 Calamus poem 35

I have added a missing "é" in line 5 of Calamus poem 35 in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. Thanks to Mario Corona for pointing out the missing final letter in "exalté."

--Vanessa

Review of "Poems of Walt Whitman" added

I added a review of Poems of Walt Whitman from The Australasian, July 4, 1868.  The review can be found here:

http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/tei/anc.01048.html

--Ashley

Transcription error fixed in three reviews

I have corrected a transcription error that was pointed out to us by a Whitman Archive user and that we were able to trace to three separate reviews of Two Rivulets:

http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/rivulets/anc.00201.html
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/rivulets/anc.00203.html
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/rivulets/anc.00200.html

In each case, there was a typo in the fifth line of the poem "The Beauty of the Ship," and I corrected "at least the beauty" to read "at last the beauty."

--Vanessa

Publicity video added to the Whitman Archive

I have added the 2004 publicity video about the Whitman Archive created by University Communications to the site. The video is available from the Articles and Interviews about the Archive page or directly here.

~Liz

Information about loc.00052 ("sorrow") corrected

Both the TEI transcription of and EAD record for this manuscript were missing links to some of the page images. I've added those and corrected the information in the tracking database.
~Brett

Creative Commons License Added

The Whitman Archive is now made available under a Creative Commons License. The homepage, Conditions of Use page, permission form, and the footer to all pages have been revised to reflect this change.

Criticism and bibliography pages updated

Ed pointed out that the Criticism index page and the Bibliography search page indicated that the bibliography included criticism only from 1975 to the present. Since we've incorporated the Giantvalley entries, the bibliography actually includes criticism from 1838 to the present. I've updated the date here and here.

~Liz

Liverpool Central Library Finding Guided added

I've added a finding guide for the Liverpool Central Library to the Archive. The guide is available linked from Finding Aids for Manuscripts at Individual Repositories and directly here. I've also revised the Contributors' Contact Information page to include information for the Liverpool Central Library.

~Liz

Duplicate letter removed

Ken noticed that we had up a partial transcription and a complete transcription for a piece of Civil War correspondence, the letter from Walt Whitman to LeBaron Russell of 3 December 1863. I've taken down the partial transcription.

~Liz

correction to Traubel Volume 3

I've fixed a transcription error in volume 3 of With Walt Whitman in Camden.

WWWC 3: 545 read, "A great many people down in Washington doubled it." I revised this to, "A great many people down in Washington doubted it."

~Liz

Correction made in Traubel Volume 3

I have made a small correction in Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, vol 3, which Ken pointed out to me. On p. 473, "Mr. Harland" at the beginning of the second paragraph was corrected to "Mr. Harlan." (I have corrected the error both in the file for the entire volume and in the file for the individual entry in question.)

-Vanessa

date error in Whitman biography fixed

An <em>Archive</em> user pointed out an error in a date in the biography. At the beginning of the section "New Orleans Sojourn," the first sentence read, "Fortunately, on February 9, 1846, Whitman met, between acts of a performance at the Broadway Theatre in New York, J. E. McClure, who intended to launch a New Orleans paper, the Crescent , with an associate, A. H. Hayes." I have revised the date to February 9, 1848. See "Walt Whitman," "New Orleans Sojourn."

~Liz

More changes and additions to the reviews section

I have encoded and posted a short review of Whitman's "Shirval; a Tale of Jerusalem" that was brought to our attention by Adam Bradford (http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/shirval/anc.00612.html). Since this is the first review of one of Whitman's shorter fictional works, I have added a new category on the index page for the reviews titled "Reviews of Individual Stories."

I have also revised a review of Leaves of Grass (1855) titled "A Strange Blade," which we originally thought first appeared in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, but which was in fact first published in Punch Magazine, as Eric Conrad has discovered (http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/leaves1855/anc.00338.html). The information about the review's subsequent publication is documented in an editorial note.

-Vanessa

New review of Drum-Taps added

I have transcribed, encoded, and uploaded a review of Drum-Taps that appeared in the New Haven Daily Palladium on November 28, 1865 (http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/drumtaps/anc.00611.html). The review was recently discovered and sent to us as a PDF by Stephanie Blalock.

-Vanessa

M-dash encoding error corrected in Traubel Volume 3

I have corrected a number of encoding errors in Volume 3 of With Walt Whitman in Camden (both in the individual entries and in the whole text file). The m-dash had been encoded incorrectly and was displaying as "#8212;" in the online text.

-Vanessa

Small correction made to third volume of "With Walt Whitman in Camden"

I have made a small correction in Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, vol 3, which Ken pointed out to me. On p. 465, near the bottom, the heading to a letter was given as "Port Hospital, Natchez, Miss.," and I have corrected it to read "Post Hospital, Natchez, Miss." (I have corrected the error both in the file for the entire volume and in the file for the individual entry in question.)

-Vanessa