News

On August 1st, Jason Stacy, PhD, Chair of the Department of History, hosted a team of Walt Whitman scholars from around the country to visit the “The Douglas and Betty Noverr Collection of Walt Whitman’s Journalism” at Bowen Archive in Lovejoy Library. This collection was donated by Jason Stacy, who received the collection in 2022 from Betty Noverr after Douglas Noverr’s death in 2021. It represents 100 years of primary and secondary sources on Walt Whitman’s career as a journalist from the 1840s through the 1870s.

Douglas Noverr was one of three editors of The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: The Journalism (1998, 2003) and the Noverr Collection contains material for future volumes of Whitman’s journalism.

The scholars who visited the collection on August 1st were: 

Jason Stacy, PhD, SIUE, Stephanie Blalock, PhD University of Iowa, Kevin McMullen, PhD, University of Nebraska, PhD, Zachary Turpin, PhD, University of Idaho Stefan Schöberlein, PhD, Texas A&M, Central Texas

All five are current editors of vols. III and IV of The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: The Journalism, slated for publication in 2028 and 2029, and editors of Whitman’s journalism on the Walt Whitman Archive. 

“It was fantastic to have these Whitman scholars from around the country visit the Noverr collection at Bowen Archive! It represents the significance of the collection and it’s an honor to hold it here at SIUE.” Jason Stacy, PhD, Chair of Department of History.

Several members of the team shared unique insights regarding their experience while visiting the Bowen Archive.

"Immense thanks to Zack Palitzsch and everybody at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for their hospitality in hosting our Walt Whitman Archive journalism research team this past weekend. They have been wonderful stewards of this hugely important collection of knowledge related to Whitman's journalism. Down in the Bowen Archives, we had the rare opportunity of communing with Whitman journalism scholars, past and present, as we searched for—and found—information and leads on Whitman's activities as a journalist in the 1840s and 50s. I'm already looking forward to my next research visit. Thanks again!” Kevin McMullen

"Thank you to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for hosting our team this past weekend. It was wonderful being back in town and having a chance to conduct more research on The Douglas and Betty Noverr Collection of Walt Whitman's Journalism at the Louisa H. Bowen University Archives & Special Collections. This is truly a one-of-a-kind collection that spans more than a century of primary and secondary materials relating to Walt Whitman’s newspaper work. Our research has yielded both expected finds as well as surprise discoveries, which will greatly benefit our ongoing efforts to identify, digitize, and make sense of the voluminous journalistic writings of America's greatest poet. Specific thanks are due to Zack Palitzsch, who has so graciously hosted us and showed us some of the other exciting materials in the archives.”

The team also visited the grave of Walt Whitman’s brother, Thomas Jefferson (“Jeff”) Whitman in St. Louis’ Bellefontaine Cemetery. Whitman’s brother was the chief engineer for the building of the St. Louis Waterworks in the late 19th century. The team also stopped at the rare book room in the St. Louis Public Library to view the papers of a journalist who they believe interviewed Walt Whitman when the poet visited the city in 1879.