Camden’s Finest, The Walt Whitman House & Cemetery

Walt Whitman House

328 Mickle Boulevard Camden, New Jersey
Free Admission
Donations welcome 🙂

A bridge has been named after him… He’s written some famous pieces of work… and he’s considered one of Camden’s most notable residents of all time…

To be honest, I never knew much about this man. I am not one or was into poetry, but I have heard about his great legacy and his life intrigued me.

A lot of folks think Walt was born and raised in the Camden area. However, he wasn’t.

A young and handsome Walt Whitman, if I don’t say so myself…wink wink 🙂

Walt Whitman was born in Huntington, Long Island, in 1819, and attended public school there until he was thirteen. Whitman had no access to books until later in life.

In 1833, at 22 years of age, he entered his career in the printing business. In 1839, Walt started his own company called, “Long Islander.”

His duties for his own company were as follows; proprietor, editor, compositor, pressman and carrier, oh and he also delivered his paper by horseback. It was a small operation as one would say ahem…very small.

Whitman’s backyard garden in Camden, New Jersey.

In 1855, his writings began to be noticed by the poetic and newspaper world. In 1861, he ran into Abraham Lincoln in New York and this encounter was a huge inspiration for him.

In 1865, Whitman wrote President Lincoln’s famous burial hymn and Oh! Captain, My Captain.

The poem goes as this…

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

He ended is career in 1865 and wrote notable works as “Drum Taps” and “Sequel to Drum Taps”. Walt became a nurse and attended to the many wounded soldiers. He also worked for the Government as a clerk.

Whitman’s home in Camden, New Jersey.

Back of the home.

After the disabled Whitman suffered from a stroke, he credits the Stafford family with saving his life. He visited them at their New Jersey home at Timber Creek and it is where he found the natural beauty healing of his ailments.

In 1874, he moved to Camden, New Jersey. He pursued his poetic work and has become famous worldwide.

Whitman was pretty much confined to his bedroom, but he continued to write and revise his work in his final years. People loved him. Walt was known for a marked trait and his personality was vibrant.

Harry Stafford a short and skinny man of about eighteen years old was his caretaker and was known to carry Walt Whitman around on his back. There are reports of Whitman dining and entertaining guests with my secret lover… Billy “the Duke” Thompson of Gloucester City fame. Whitman was often invited to Gloucester City for The Duke’s famous Shad dinners.

Walt Whitman pictured with Stafford.

As quoted by Whitman, “Camden was originally an accident, but I shall never be sorry I was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns.”

He died in Camden in 1892. He was placed in a beautiful tomb at Harleigh Cemetery.

Walt Whitman’s grave at Harleigh Cemetery,

A tree etched to the right of his grave of those who have visited in the past.

The peaceful and serene grounds that his burial place looks onto.

The Whitman association is dedicated to preserving his legacy and it clearly shows.
Touring the house on Mickle Street in these modern times, the past intertwines with the present. The house comes alive with the feeling of Walt Whitman all around you. His shoes and books still scattered throughout his bedroom, as if he merely just went for a walk for an hour or two and will be arriving back shortly. It’s a beautiful home dedicated to the life of an ingenious man. It should be on everyone’s South Jersey bucket list and am honored to have toured the home with the curator himself, Leo Blake.

The funniest outhouse I have ever seen. This thing (although doesn’t look like it in the picture). Had me in tears on its enormity. An Eagle Scout put it together for one of his projects.

This is a motto I have lived by for the last decade, however, I never knew it was Whitman who said it…

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”

Until our Next Adventure, My Friends! -The Yummygal