The Disowned Poet

Let me be clear: most of what I learned about Walt Whitman (1819-1892) in school is long since forgotten.  I know even less about naturalist and writer John Burroughs (1837-1921).  Here, now thoroughly advertised, are two of the many regrettable lacunae in my education so far.

However, this week’s blog topic provided a unique entry point for learning a bit about both writers, as well as (teachers take note) a rewarding archival experience, since even this brief blog post required a look across multiple collections, files, books, and online information.  The item in question is a hitherto uncatalogued manuscript in our collection by John Burroughs, with emendations by Walt Whitman.  The manuscript, “Flight of the Eagle,” is the last essay in Burroughs’ book Birds and Poets (1877), which also concerns worthies such as Tennyson, Emerson, Thoreau, Wordsworth, et al.

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Poultry and Garden Show

We are pleased to invite you to the Archives and Special Collections to see our new summer exhibition, the Poultry and Garden Show. The exhibition is a fun glimpse into old poultry, gardening and agricultural manuals from 1588 to 1911 along with a selection of agricultural posters from the John P. Cushing World War I Posters Collection, which is currently being organized. The exhibition is in the Archive and Special Collections main gallery on A level of Frost Library, Amherst College. Open Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm; the show will be up through late August. Come on down and get your county fair on!

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The Narrative and the Narrative: cultural detective work with special collections materials

A text is a text is a text. Sometimes, it’s more than one.

title page detail, Narrative of a five years’ expedition… (1796). Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

In 1772, the English officer John Gabriel Stedman was sent to the Dutch-controlled colony of Suriname in South America to help end an armed revolt by plantation slaves. Stedman’s diary of his experiences in Suriname became the two-volume Narrative, of a five years’ expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana... The Narrative was initially published by Joseph Johnson to great popular success in 1796.

John Gabriel Stedman’s map of Suriname

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