Blog Post 14
STEP 1) Go to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/documents/walt-whitman-and-abraham-lincoln. Click on the "Document" tab. Scroll through Whitman’s notebook and write down anything you notice- can you make out any words? Images? What might be significant? What is revealed about Whitman through his inner thoughts?
From the pictures of Whitman's notebook, initially it looks like nothing more than a diary. It has a lot of seemingly meaningless words (most of which I cannot read) which I am sure made perfect sense to him but have me pretty lost. On the first page, there is a few addresses it looks like, the one that I can make out is of Charles Hine. Also, for the first two pages, there are stamps printed on them. They remind me of the types of stamps that one can receive when they travel to different states and can collect the stamp of each state that they have been to. The second page has a few words that I can read that say "Brochure, two characters as of a dialogue between it". Later it talks about a "President elect" which maybe are where the stamps are from. Another interesting piece in his writing is how he talks about Libertad a lot. This is the Spanish word for liberty or freedom. Seeing this as a reoccurring thought of Whitman's, it must carry significance to him. I think it is significant because he values it, and wants equality in the world. A ship called Libertad is tossed in a storm later in his notebook, showing how freedom and equality may not be very consistent and always has a chance at sinking or failing in society. This shows some of his inner thoughts and how just because freedom can be there one moment, it may not be there the next.
In the last half of the pages of Whitman's notebook, there are a lot of pictures. Among these pictures, there are men with beards, hats, and a harp. It is noticed how every single person that was drawn was pictured facing to our left. They look like the same person just drawn slightly differently. This person, if it is not Whitman himself, was someone very important to him or someone that Whitman found fascinating. The very last picture is very unusual, and it shows a skeleton with a sword stabbed through it. While I am not exactly sure what this means, it could represent his inner thoughts on how at the end of your life, it does not matter how you die.
STEP 2) Now click on the "Notes" tab . Click on each yellow tag (or click “next”) to see what Whitman actually wrote and why he wrote it. Look back at your original observations and add to them. Again, consider what is significant and what is revealed about Whitman.
When Whitman was talking about the president elect, it was referring to how he saw Lincoln when Lincoln visited New York on February 19, 1861. Whitman and Lincoln never spoke to each other when they saw each other except for simple pleasantries as the notes tab says. It never mentions anything as to what the stamp means that are in several pictures. For "Libertad", what Whitman was actually saying was how "the ideal freedom was not limited to the borders of his own nation". This meant that anyone could have freedom and that Whitman may have just been expressing and making a stand to that. In reference to when I said that liberty and freedom can easily change, what Whitman was actually saying was how the idea of liberty outlasts even the longest lived regimes. Liberty and freedom will always have a place in the world no matter how bad the times are. There is always a time where it will come back.
The pictures that were drawn in the notebooks were actually of Whitman himself. They were drawn by other people most likely. They also suggest that Whitman liked to drink from time to time due to his red nose in one of the images. These things about Whitman new significant because they show more of his lifestyle with his small interactions of Lincoln, his daily life with drinking, and his thoughts expressing freedom. They show that he has a very positive attitude and was respected especially with his non biased interpretation of freedom and how you do not have to be in the same nation as he is to be free. The very last image has the skeleton shrugging his arms. It has been interpreted to be an allegory of America suspended between day and night because there is a half a sunset in the drawing.
From the pictures of Whitman's notebook, initially it looks like nothing more than a diary. It has a lot of seemingly meaningless words (most of which I cannot read) which I am sure made perfect sense to him but have me pretty lost. On the first page, there is a few addresses it looks like, the one that I can make out is of Charles Hine. Also, for the first two pages, there are stamps printed on them. They remind me of the types of stamps that one can receive when they travel to different states and can collect the stamp of each state that they have been to. The second page has a few words that I can read that say "Brochure, two characters as of a dialogue between it". Later it talks about a "President elect" which maybe are where the stamps are from. Another interesting piece in his writing is how he talks about Libertad a lot. This is the Spanish word for liberty or freedom. Seeing this as a reoccurring thought of Whitman's, it must carry significance to him. I think it is significant because he values it, and wants equality in the world. A ship called Libertad is tossed in a storm later in his notebook, showing how freedom and equality may not be very consistent and always has a chance at sinking or failing in society. This shows some of his inner thoughts and how just because freedom can be there one moment, it may not be there the next.
In the last half of the pages of Whitman's notebook, there are a lot of pictures. Among these pictures, there are men with beards, hats, and a harp. It is noticed how every single person that was drawn was pictured facing to our left. They look like the same person just drawn slightly differently. This person, if it is not Whitman himself, was someone very important to him or someone that Whitman found fascinating. The very last picture is very unusual, and it shows a skeleton with a sword stabbed through it. While I am not exactly sure what this means, it could represent his inner thoughts on how at the end of your life, it does not matter how you die.
STEP 2) Now click on the "Notes" tab . Click on each yellow tag (or click “next”) to see what Whitman actually wrote and why he wrote it. Look back at your original observations and add to them. Again, consider what is significant and what is revealed about Whitman.
When Whitman was talking about the president elect, it was referring to how he saw Lincoln when Lincoln visited New York on February 19, 1861. Whitman and Lincoln never spoke to each other when they saw each other except for simple pleasantries as the notes tab says. It never mentions anything as to what the stamp means that are in several pictures. For "Libertad", what Whitman was actually saying was how "the ideal freedom was not limited to the borders of his own nation". This meant that anyone could have freedom and that Whitman may have just been expressing and making a stand to that. In reference to when I said that liberty and freedom can easily change, what Whitman was actually saying was how the idea of liberty outlasts even the longest lived regimes. Liberty and freedom will always have a place in the world no matter how bad the times are. There is always a time where it will come back.
The pictures that were drawn in the notebooks were actually of Whitman himself. They were drawn by other people most likely. They also suggest that Whitman liked to drink from time to time due to his red nose in one of the images. These things about Whitman new significant because they show more of his lifestyle with his small interactions of Lincoln, his daily life with drinking, and his thoughts expressing freedom. They show that he has a very positive attitude and was respected especially with his non biased interpretation of freedom and how you do not have to be in the same nation as he is to be free. The very last image has the skeleton shrugging his arms. It has been interpreted to be an allegory of America suspended between day and night because there is a half a sunset in the drawing.
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