The Address Project
Between 1823, when Whitman was four years old, and 1859, when he was forty years old, the poet and his family lived at a series of residences in Brooklyn in locations that have been compiled from Whitman’s correspondence. Biographers of Whitman have been able to provide only scant detail of these locations, in part because very little documentation of them exists, with a few notable exceptions. Students from City Tech who explored Whitman’s work in Brooklyn during the Fall 2009 semester each chose an address and then researched archival materials, such as historical atlases and fire-insurance maps, land conveyances, and directories of Brooklyn residences in an effort to find out more about the these addresses. In cases where students were unable to piece together material related to the timeframe when Whitman actually lived at the addresses in question, they compiled a place history of the address in an effort to track its development in subsequent years.
Sample Projects:
North of Adams Street on Johnson Street around the time of 1824
Orange Street Near the Plymouth Church