Research Guides: WRPR 169: Imagining Other Futures: Art, Poetry, and Social Change (HC): Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

Many primary sources can be found in Haverford's Quaker & Special Collections which can be searched via Tripod.

Walt Whitman materials

Two rivulets: Including Democratic vistas, Centennial songs, and Passage to India
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Author's edition published in 1876, this work by Whitman includes poems and prose focused on a variety of different subjects.
Call No. PS3201 1876
"Poem: As the Greek's signal flame"
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Published in 1887, this broadside was written for John Greenleaf Whittier's 80th birthday and includes two letters about its composition.
Call No. MS110
Leaves of Grass
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Brooklyn, New York, 1856.
The second edition.
Leaves of Grass
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Boston : Thayer and Eldridge, year 85 of the States, (1860-61).
Spurious or pirated version of the third edition.
Leaves of Grass
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New York : [W.E. Chapin & co., printers], 1867.
Fourth edition, Third issue.

HC Special Collections copy.
Leaves of Grass
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New York : [W.E. Chapin & co., printers], 1867.
Fourth edition, fourth issue.
Leaves of Grass
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Washington, D.C. ; [New York : Electrotyped by Smith & McDougal], 1872.
Leaves of Grass
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Camden, N.J., 1876.
Author's edition. Inscribed by former owner, with a note on apparent uniqueness of this copy.
Autobiographia; or, The story of a life
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Published in 1892 this book was released after Whitman passed away and gives a short autobiography of his life.
Call No. PS3231 .A5
Whittier letter to the editor about his aid to Whitman in the latter's old age and claiming only "slight knowledge" of his writings
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Written around 1888 in Danvers, Massachussets to the editor of the Transcript, Whittier discusses his monetary support of Whitman.
Call No. MS851

Phillis Wheatley material

Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley: a native African and a slave
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The 1835 2nd edition, including an unsigned memoir of Wheatley's life.
Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley: a native African and a slave. Also Poems by a slave
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Also includes "Poems by a slave" by George Moses Horton. This is the third edition.
Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral by Phyillis Wheatley, 1773
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Phillis Wheatley was taken by slavers as a small child. Her slaveowners in Massachusetts taught her to read and encouraged her gift for writing poetry. Read more about her in the American National Biography.
Wheatley letter to Obour Tanner, 19 May 1772
This letter is a part of the American poet section of the Charles Roberts Autograph Letters Collection.
Call No. 110

John Greenleaf Whittier materials

Letter by John Greenleaf Whittier to Angelina and Sarah Moore Grimke, 1837-08-14
This letter is part of several in the American Friends' Letters Collection. It pertains mainly to slavery and the importance of the anti-Slavery movement in relation to the women's rights movement.
Call No. MS851 Box 18
The gift: a poetical remembrancer, selected from the works of native and foreign authors
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This book includes a collection of poems from John Greenleaf Whittier and Amelia (Alderson) Opie, published in 1835.
Call No. BX7796.3 .W63 G45
Mogg Megone, a poem
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First edition copy given to William Allinson by Whittier himself in 1863.
Call No. BX7723.4 .W62 M69
Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States
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Written by Whittier in 1837, this book of poetry was a controversial presentation of the issue of slavery during its time.
Call No. BX7723 .W62 P7 1837
Narrative of James Williams: an American slave
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This book was written by Whittier in 1838 and published by the American anti-slavery society.
Call No. BX7759 .W63 N2
Poems by John G. Whittier
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Existing in a few editions, this 1838 collection of anti-slavery poems may contain illustrations and plates.
Call No. BX7723 .W62 P7 1838 and PS3267 .S3 1850a
The North Star: the Poetry of Freedom by her Friends
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Published in 1840, this work features Quaker poets such as E.H. Whittier, W.J. Allinson, and J.G. Whittier and focuses on injustices of the trade of enslaved people and the quest for freedom.
Ballads, and other poems
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This 1844 edition of a collection of Whittier poetry was given to William J. Allinson in 1846.
Call No. BX7723 .W62 B18
The branded hand
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Published in Salem, Ohio by The Anti-Slavery Bugle around 1845, this pamphlet contains Whittier poetry and is part of the Easter Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society Tract.
Call No. BX7723.4 .W62 B8 1845
Songs of Labor, and other poems
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This is a first edition volume with an advertisement from May of 1850 at the front. This is a collection of various Whittier poems.
Call No. PS3267 .S3 1850
Chimes of Freedom and Union
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"A collection of poems for the times" published in 1861. It includes multiple authors besides Whittier.
In War Time and Other Poems
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Originally published in 1863; our copy is from 1864.
Call no. PS3259 .I5 1864
National Lyrics
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Published in 1865.
Call no. PS3264 .N2 1865
Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl
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Perhaps Whittier's most famous poem.
Call no. BX7723.W62 S6 1866
The panorama: and other poems
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First edition, one of the earliest copies, with 12 pages of advertisements.
Call no. BX7723.W62 P2 1856a
National Lyrics
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In addition to poems by Whittier, this 1866 collection includes poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes and William Cullen Bryant.
Call no. BX7723.4.W62 N27 1866
Home ballads and poems
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Published in 1860.
Call no. PS3258 .A1 1860

Photography and Fine Art

Haverford has an excellent collection of fine art, especially photography. Searching Tripod can locate many photographs, all of which can be seen in Special Collections; many are also available digitally.

Triarte
The digital art catalog of the TriColleges, Triarte includes digital copies of many of the photographs held in Haverford's Special Collections (all of which can also be seen in person in Special Collections).
Lewis Hine photographs
Hine was a photographer and sociologist who was instrumental in changing child labor laws in the U.S.
Dorothea Lange photograph
Lange, a photographer and photojournalist, is best known for her works taken during the Great Depression.
Walker Evans photographs
Evans wanted his photographs to be "literate, authoritative, transcendent." He is best known for his work during the Great Depression.