A Whitman Chronology

Epilogue: 27-29 MARCH 1892

EPILOGUE: 27-29 MARCH 1892 27 MARCH. Thomas Eakins, Samuel Murray, and William O'Donovan take Whitman's death mask and a cast of one hand; close friends begin to gather. THAT EVENING. An autopsy is performed in the Mickle Street house by Drs. Cattell, Dercum, Longaker, and McAlister, with Horace Traubel present. Findings include a collapsed left lung and sharply diminished capacity in the right, a stone-filled gallbladder, an invasive abcess on the left side, and tubercles on major organs (Traubel, Bucke, and Harned, 409). The brain is removed and sent to the American Anthropometric Society in Philadelphia, which will later turn it over to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology for examination of signs of genius; at the institute the brain will be accidentally destroyed (Leon, 105). George Whitman opposes the autopsy but is overruled by Whitman's prior instructions to Dr. Longaker (wwc, 9: 604). 28 MARCH. Louisa Whitman asks a Philadelphia minister to officiate at the burial; he is disinvited by Traubel who, with Dr. Bucke and others, has other plans, including a eulogy to be given by Robert Ingersoll (wwc, 9:609). John Burroughs raises an objection to speeches and especially to Ingersoll (wwc, 9: 618). 29 MARCH. In the morning on the day of the funeral Warry Fritzinger and Traubel gather Whitman's papers, manuscripts , and letters into barrels for removal to Traubel's home and later division among literary executors (wwc, 9: 613). Friends and supporters arrive, and about 11 A.M. general viewing begins; the line of visitors extends three blocks. At the noon lunch hour workers at all manner of trades, shopkeepers, and schoolchildren crowd in; at about 2 P.M., when the funeral procession is to begin, the line has to be cut off (wwc, 9:616; for a list of friends present at the house or cemetery, see WWC, 9: 623). Peter Doyle attends the funeral, arriving and leaving alone. Traubel sees him on the road leaving Harleigh Cemetery and later describes him as expressing by his demeanor "the powers by which he must have attracted Walt" (wwc, 9:620). EPILOGUE [179] ...