[Photograph] When Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass in 1855, its unorthodox verse form and imagery were not widely admired. General recognition of his poetic achievements remained slow in coming. But by the time he sat for this photograph in the early 1890s, Whitman had come to be regarded as the most original of this country's poets. More important, he had become the spokesman for the democratic promise of America.

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
Photograph of Walt Whitman (1819-1892), 1891, by an unidentified photographer, 1979 platinum print

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