Category: The Poe Museum Blog

“Quoth the Raven, ‘Wahoowa!’” 

Today, February 14^th, marks the 200^th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s enrollment at the University of Virginia. Poe entered the University in 1826 as a part of its second class, appearing 136^th  out of 177 students on UVA’s matriculation list.ⁱ 

Construction on Virginia’s first public University began in 1817 and was completed in 1825.ⁱⁱ Thomas Jefferson envisioned his new university as an academic community, as he famously declared “[The] University should not be an [sic] house but a village.”ⁱⁱⁱ Poe may have encountered Jefferson on the campus grounds, as Jefferson regularly visited the school from nearby Monticello. On July 4th, 1826, Poe would have learned of the death of the University’s founder in his modern languages class. Upon the news of Jefferson’s passing, the University’s bells tolled for the first time, signaling not only a significant loss for the school but also for the nation. 

At the time of his enrollment, Poe’s relationship with his foster father, John Allan, was strained. Although Allan had recently inherited a substantial fortune from his late uncle, William Galt, he refused to fully finance Poe’s education. In a letter to Allan written in 1831, Poe detailed the financial strain of his university expenses: 

 The expences of the institution at the lowest estimate were $350 per annum. You sent me  there with $110. Of this $50 were to be paid immediately for board — $60 for attendance  upon 2 professors — and you even then did not miss the opportunity of abusing me  because I did not attend 3. Then $15 more were to be paid for room-rent — remember that  all this was to be paid in advance, with $110. — $12 more for a bed — and $12 more for  room furniture.^iv 

Despite Allan exhorting Poe to enroll in three classes, Poe enrolled in two: George Long’s class of Ancient Languages (Greek and Latin) and George Blaettermann’s Modern Languages class (French, German, Italian, and Spanish). He attended his ancient languages class on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays and modern languages on Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays.^v Professor Long, who also instructed Robert Browning, later recalled: 

If Poe was at the University of Virginia in 1826, he was probably in my class which was the  largest. … The beginning of the University of Virginia was very bad. There were some  excellent young men, and some of the worst that ever I knew. … I remember the name of  Poe, but the remembrance is very feeble; and if he was in my class, he could not be among  the worst, and perhaps not among the best or I should certainly remember him.^vi 

Poe proved himself an exceptional student, excelling particularly well in his French and Latin exams. He frequented the library often, checking out titles such as Charles Rollin’s Histoire Ancienne and Histoire Romaine; William Robertson, The History of America; Nicholas Gouin Dufief, Nature Displayed in Her Mode of Teaching Language to Man, selected works by Voltaire, and John Marshall’s, The Life of George Washington.^vii Poe’s classmates recalled his early literary foundations stating that he “was fond of quoting poetic authors and reading poetic productions of his own”^viii Poe also made sure to join extracurriculars, becoming the secretary of the Jefferson Literary Society.^ix 

Yet the University of Virginia was far from the studious “village” idealized by its founder. In letters to his foster father, the young scholar described the nascent beginnings of the institution. Disturbances and rowdiness were commonplace from gunfights, stone-throwing skirmishes, students fleeing into the woods to evade authorities, and frequent suspensions and expulsions. One of the first students expelled, James Albert Clarke, had been Poe’s classmate at boarding school.^x  

Later in the term, a brawl erupted outside Poe’s dorm. During the fight, Charles Wickcliff bit a chunk of flesh from another student and was promptly expelled.^xi Poe himself was involved in a skirmish with classmate Miles George. It is unknown what caused the two to fight in a nearby field, but George later described the altercation as “a mere boyish affair, forgotten as soon as over, leaving no unfriendly or unkind feelings behind.”^xii Shortly after the brawl, Poe changed dorms from the western range facing the inner courtyard to the slightly more secluded No. 13 West Range, supposed by another classmate Thomas Goode Tucker to find some solitude.^xiii 

 

In his dorm, Poe would often entertain guests; reciting poetry from famous authors and works of his own.^xiv One of the earliest stories we know of that Poe wrote, an unpublished and now lost story called “Gaffy,” was read to his college friends. They joked that Poe said the protagonist’s name too often and gave Poe the nickname “Gaffy” Poe.^xv 

Allan visited Poe at least once during his time at UVA, and despite their increasingly strained relationship, Poe wrote home frequently with updates on his studies and campus life. Like many of us during our college years, Poe wrote home asking for the essentials “Will you be so good as to send me a copy of the Historiæ of Tacitus — it is a small volume — also some more soap.”^xvi He also reported on the campus’ construction ”They have nearly finished the Rotunda — The pillars of the Portico are completed and it greatly improves the appearance of the whole — The books are removed into the library — and we have a very fine collection.”^xvii 

Through these updates, however, financial tension simmered between the two. Poe’s debts for what he termed “necessary expenses” accumulated throughout the school year. Allan exacerbated these debts by purchasing mathematics books for Poe, even though he was not enrolled in any math classes, and threatened to remove Poe from institution if he did not accept them. Poe lamented to Allan on being lumped in with other “beggars” at the university. Poe, unlike other students who were “drunk or extravagant”, was alone in the cause financial ruin “because it was my crime to have no one on Earth who cared for me, or loved me”^xviii After unsuccessful appeals to Allan and James Galt for money, in a fit of desperation, Poe resorted to gambling, falling deeper into debt.   

Poe took his final examination on December 4^th and 5^th of that year. His Ancient Languages exam was proctored by future presidents James Madison and James Monroe as well as Joseph Cabell and John Hartwell Cocke. He returned to Richmond shortly before Christmas, expecting a reunion with his fiancée, Elmira Royster, after nine months of silence. Instead, he discovered that she was engaged to another man. Poe had written to Elmira throughout his time in Charlottesville, but her father, disapproving of the engagement, had intercepted the letters, leading Elmira to believe Poe had forgotten her. She soon married Alexander Shelton and would not reconnect with her college love until the end of his life.  

Although Poe’s collegiate experience was far from idyllic, the eleven months he spent in Charlottesville proved formative for his literary development. During this period, he began drafting his earliest short stories, and the Blue Ridge landscape would later inspire the setting of “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains.” Two centuries later, his brief and turbulent year at the University of Virginia stands as a crucial chapter in the formation of one of America’s most enduring literary voices. 

For more sources on Poe’s time spent at UVA, check out recollections from his classmates: 

William Wertenbaker 

• “Edgar A. Poe” – 1869 

• “Mr. William Wertenbaker — His Golden Wedding” – 1879 

Thomas Goode Tucker 

• “Old Oddity Papers – IV” – 1880 

Miles George 

• Letter to the Richmond State editor – 1880 

William Burwell 

• “Edgar A. Poe and His College Contemporaries” – 1884 

Peter Pindar Pease 

• “A Prohibitionist Shakes Dice with Poe” – 1920 

---

i Matriculation Books (University of Virginia) V.1 (1825-1855).

ii https://www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/timeline-founding-university-virginia
iii Thomas Jefferson to Littleton W. Tazewell, 5 January 1805.
ivEdgar Allan Poe to John Allan — January 3, 1831, https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3101030.htm.
v Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 68.
vi Thomas and Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 68.
vii Thomas and Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 67-109. It was possible Poe had encountered Marshall in Richmond. Poe lived within walking distance of Marshall’s home and both men attended services at Monumental Church.
viii Thomas and Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 69.
ix Thomas and Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 74.
x Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — May 25, 1826, https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2605250.htm.
xiEdgar Allan Poe to John Allan — September 21, 1826, https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2609210.htm.
xii Miles George, Richmond State, May 22, 1880. https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1851/18800522.htm
xiii Douglass Sherley “Old Oddity Papers — IV,” Virginia University Magazine, April 1880.
https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1851/oop18802.htm
xiv Miles George, Richmond State, May 22, 1880. https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1851/18800522.htm
xv Douglass Sherley “Old Oddity Papers — IV,” Virginia University Magazine, April 1880. https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1851/oop18802.htm
xviEdgar Allan Poe to John Allan — May 25, 1826
xvii https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2609210.htm
xviii Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — January 3, 1831, https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3101030.htm

1845 was an influential year in the American literary sphere. In that year, two radically opposing works gained international recognition: The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass and “The Raven.” While this year introduced the greater public to the names of Frederick Douglass and Edgar Allan Poe, neither man would likely consider it the most formative year of their career. In fact, the foundations of both writers’ literary trajectories were laid much earlier, in 1831 in Baltimore, Maryland.ⁱ  

The two men overlapped their time in Baltimore from 1831 to 1833, occupying the same urban landscape, yet inhabiting profoundly different social realities. During this period, Poe lived with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Virginia, on Wilks Street. At the beginning of that year, Poe had been court-martialed from West Point and struggled financially. Though the twenty-two-year-old had already published three collections of poetry, it was in Baltimore that he began his literary career, writing and publishing his first short stories, including “A Decided Loss,” “Bon-Bon,” “Metzengerstien,” “The Duc De L’Omelette,” and “A Tale of Jerusalem.” 

At the same time, Fred Bailey, as Douglass was known at this time, was enslaved and living with the Auld family on Philpot Street, only a few blocks away. Douglass described this period “as one of the most interesting events of my life…Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.”ⁱⁱ While laboring in the Auld household, Mrs. Auld began to teach Douglass to read, a catalyst to Douglass’ freedom. Her husband quickly forbade the instruction, fearing that education would encourage ideas of freedom for Douglass who Auld considered his rightful property. Auld‘s prohibition confirmed for Douglass that “education and slavery were incompatible with each other,“ⁱⁱⁱ introducing a path of resistance for that he “at whatever cost of trouble, learn how to read.”^iv Douglass set off to achieve his path to freedom by befriending poor white children within the city who taught him to read in exchange for food. At twelve years old, Douglass acquired a copy of “The Columbian Orator,” a collection of speeches and essays from notable figures in history. Douglass was introduced to abolitionist and Enlightenment arguments of human rights. As Douglass recalled, “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.“^v Yet, literacy also sharpened his awareness of his bondage, ”It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy…It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out.”^vi 

Douglass later learned to write and eventually seized his freedom, publishing his narrative worldwide. He became one of the earliest formerly enslaved authors to “compose his own story and to demonstrate thereby the power of literacy.”vi Through publishing his autobiography, Douglass challenged who could be an author and what could be recorded–especially who could claim authority over the narrative of the country’s injustices. His publication would go on to be a seminal abolitionist text that helped dismantle the institution of slavery.^viii    

As Douglass began his literary journey, Poe secured his first editorial job at the Southern Literary Messenger. The Messenger published several pro-slavery reviews throughout Poe’s employment, including the infamous Paulding-Drayton review.^ix Poe authored several reviews which reflected his strong Southern identity–an identity formed within a slaveholding household in a slave trading city.^x 

For Douglass, Baltimore was the gateway to literature and, ultimately, freedom; for Poe, it was the city in which his literary ambitions took shape. Both Poe and Douglass later traveled widely, delivering powerful orations of their work. After hearing Douglass speak in Nantucket in 1841, William Lloyd Garrison, founder of The Liberator, recalled “ I shall never forget his first speech at the convention — the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind — the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory,” This month, The Poe Museum asks you to consider: What power resides in narrative and in the figure who tells it? 

For more information on Poe and Douglass, please refer to “Trust No Man: Poe, Douglass, and the Culture of Slavery” in Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race edited by J. Gerald Kennedy and Liliane Weissberg. 

---

i J. Gerald Kennedy, “Trust No Man: Poe, Douglass, and the Culture of Slavery” in Romancing the Shadow:
Poe and Race, ed. J. Gerald Kennedy and Liliane Weissberg (New York, NY, 2001), 225.
ii Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), 45.
iii Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 56.
iv Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 52.
v Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 58.
vi Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 58.
vii Kennedy, “Trust No Man,” 228.
viii Kennedy, “Trust No Man,” 253.
x For more information on Poe’s reviews see Burton R. Pollin, “January 1836 (Texts),” The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. V: SLM (1997), 82-99 and Pollin, “July 1836 (Texts),” The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, 226-241. The PauldingDrayton review, a controversial pro-slavery review published in the Southern Literary Messenger was also published at this time. Scholars now widely believe the review was
not authored by Poe yet may have been partly edited by him. For more information, see Bernard Rosenthal, “Poe, Slavery, and the ‘Southern Literary Messenger’: A Reexamination,” Poe Studies 7, no. 2 (1974): 29–38; Paul Christian Jones, “Slavery and Abolitionism.” in Edgar Allan Poe in Context, ed. Kevin J. Hayes, (Cambridge University Press, 2012) 138–47; and Terence Whalen, “Average Racism: Poe, Slavery, and the Wages of Literary Nationalism,” in Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race, ed. J.
Gerald Kennedy and Liliane Weissberg (New York, NY, 2001), 3-35.
xi For more see https://poemuseum.org/understanding-john-allans-slaveholdings/
xii Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 10.

Congratulations to the winner of the Poe Museum’s and Hotel Greene’s writing contest: Lee Blanton. Check our Lee’s submission below as well as the submissions from our runner ups!

Winner: The Musings of a Coal Miner

by Lee Blanton

The Witness, The Victim

by Gonjoe Winn

A Friend, A Foe

by Celestine Dawn

The Last Mile Messenger

by Lucas Falzetti

The Mysterious Death of Alice Antonia

by Alice Antonia

Come and watch Little Women (2019) presented by the Poe Museum and Good For Her Films on November 22^nd at 5:45pm. Purchase tickets here.

Edgar Allan Poe and Louisa May Alcott have left an equally enduring impact on the American literary canon, however, on the surface their anthologies could not be more different. Poe, the “Master of the Macabre,” focused on the horrid nature of 19^th century life while Alcott took inspiration from the warmth of her own life paralleled against the Civil War. However, when we dig deeper, perhaps the lives of these two writers intersected in more ways than one.  

Both Poe and Alcott spent their early childhoods in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe was born in a boarding house on 62 Charles Street. Shortly after Alcott was born, her family moved to Boston, just blocks from where Poe spent the first years of his life. While both had roots in Massachusetts, their upbringings could not be more different. Poe was orphaned at the age of three after his father abandoned him, and his mother passed away from tuberculosis. Poe was taken in by a foster family, the Allans, and raised amongst the Southern aristocracy in Richmond. Alcott, however, grew up in Massachusetts with her father Amos, mother Abigail, and three sisters. The Alcotts struggled with poverty throughout Louisa’s childhood, prompting her to seek several jobs to support her family. One of these jobs was acting. Although Poe himself never acted, he always found pride in himself as the son of actors, or “players of the stage.” While their upbringings differed, both used their early childhoods as a source of inspiration for their literature.  

The Alcotts embedded themselves in the transcendentalist movement. In Concord, Massachusetts, the family neighbored notable transcendentalist writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. Alcott was close to both Emerson and Thoreau. Her first collection of poems, Flower Fables, were poems she first told Emerson’s daughter, Ellen. Alcott’s transcendentalist upbringing influenced many of her views as an adult. She was a staunch abolitionist and was close to other abolitionists including Fredrick Douglass, William Llyod Garrison, and John Brown.  

Poe, on the other hand, famously despised the Transcendentalist movement. He critiqued the works of Emerson and even Louisa’s father, Amos Alcott:  

Let him mend his pen, get a bottle of visible ink, come out from the Old Manse, cut Mr. Alcott, hang (if possible) the editor of “The Dial”, and throw out of the window to the pigs all his odd numbers of “The North American Review.”¹ 

AMONG all the pioneers of American literature, whether prose or poetical, there is not one whose productions have not been much overrated by his countrymen. But this fact is more especially obvious in respect to such of these pioneers as are no longer living, — nor is it a fact of so deeply transcendental a nature as only to be accounted for by the Emersons and Alcotts.² 

Poe, unlike Alcott, was a pro-Southern anti-abolitionist. Alcott served as a nurse during the Civil War and expressed disdain at the possibility of caring for a Confederate soldier. During Poe’s time at the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe reviewed several pro-slavery publications and criticized abolitionists such as James Russell Lowell.³  

Alcott and Poe, while not too similar in their personal lives, found similarities amongst their literature. Both Poe and Alcott read gothic literature at a young age which influenced their literature. Poe studied Milton, Walpole, and Radcliffe; Alcott the Bronte sisters — and perhaps even Poe himself. Alcott’s first novel, The Inheritance, was heavily influenced by Jane Eyre. Both of their literary careers began with published poetry written during their childhood. For Poe, it was Tamerlane published when he was 18; for Alcott, it was Flower Fables at age 22. Even as their careers developed, both wrote in the mystery or thriller genre. Poe invented the detective story in 1841 with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Alcott, under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard wrote another one of the earliest known thriller stories, Behind a Mask. While Poe and Alcott never met, they were certainly involved in the same 19^th century literary sphere. Both attended Anne Lynch’s literary salon (Alcott attended after Poe’s death) where authors such as Osgood, Emerson, Melville, and Hawthorne appeared. Though their lives and ideologies often stood in stark contrast, Poe and Alcott shared a devotion to exploring the depths of human experience, each leaving a lasting mark on American literary canon. 

---

1 Edgar Allan Poe, “Tale-Writing — Nathaniel Hawthorne” [Text-01], Godey’s Lady’s Book, November 1847,
pp. 252-256 https://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/glb47hn0.htm

2 Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “A Few Words About Brainard,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
— Vol. XI: Literary Criticism – part 04 (1902), 11:15-24
https://www.eapoe.org/works/harrison/jah11c04.htm#pg0015. Poe also mentions Alcott in Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “Our Amateur Poets, No. III. — William Ellery Channing,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. XI: Literary Criticism – part 04 (1902) and Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “About Critics and Criticism,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. XIII: Literary Criticism – part 06 (1902), 13:193-202.

3 Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “Review of A Fable for the Critics,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan
Poe — Vol. XIII: Literary Criticism – part 06 (1902), 13:171-172.

This Veteran’s Day we celebrate Poe’s service in the United States Army. Learn about Poe’s brief military career and how it reflected his tumultuous relationship with his foster father.

Edgar Allan Poe’s connection with the military began with his grandfather David Poe, Sr. (1742-1816). Poe was the Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General for Baltimore during the American Revolution. In 1780, he used $40,000 of his own funds to purchase supplies for the Continental Army. At age 71, he fought in the War of 1812.[1] Although he had achieved the rank of major, he referred to as “General Poe” by those who knew him. Poe wrote in his autobiography in regard to his grandfather “Family one of the oldest and most respectable in Baltimore. Gen. David Poe, my paternal grandfather, was a quarter-master general, in the Maryland line, during the revolution, and the intimate friend of Lafayette, who, during his visit to the U.S., called personally upon the Gen’s widow, and tendered her in warmest acknowledgements for the services rendered him by her husband. His father, John Poe married, in England, Jane, a daughter of Admiral James McBride, noted in British naval history”[2]

Poe’s connection to his grandfather’s military legacy remained with him throughout his life. In October 1824, his grandfather’s service may have influenced young Poe to join his local colour guard. At the age of 15, young Edgar Allan Poe participated in the junior militiaman’s honor of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. One of the stops on their tour of Richmond was outside the Ege family home, now known as the Old Stone House. Meeting the Lafayette would have been an impactful and personal moment for Poe, recognizing the importance of Lafeyette’s return to the new nation as well as the personal connection the General had to his grandfather. As William F. Hecker in “Private Perry and Mister Poe” described “the young poet was swept up in a nationwide celebration of the virtues of American revolutionary idealism.”[3]

A year later, Poe attended the University of Virginia from February to December of 1826. He registered 136^th of the 177 students of UVA’s second class. Within the first month of his studies, Poe requested additional aid from Allan for tuition and books, which Allan refuses to pay. This left Poe financially strained, turning to gambling to pay of his debts. The relationship between foster son and foster father, too, strained at this time. Poe desperately sought paternal love and acceptance by Allan yet actively rebelled against him and the society in which Allan raised him in. By December 1826, Allan begrudgingly paid off Poe debts before Poe left the university.

Poe returned home to Richmond before Christmastide of that year. A few months later, after of a quarrel between himself and Allan, Poe left the family home. Setting off to Boston, Poe was determined to distance himself and the life he knew

“My determination is … to leave your house and indeavor to find some place in this wide world, where I will be treated — not as you have treated me. … A collegiate Education … was what I most ardently desired … I have heard you say (when you little thought I was listening and therefore must have said it in earnest) that you had no affection for me”[5]

Boston, Massachusetts

Poe’s disdain for Allan quickly faded when he realized he needed money and supplies for his voyage. A day after he wrote his scathing letter, Poe wrote to Allan again.

“I beseech you as you wish not your prediction concerning me to be fulfilled — to send me without delay my trunk containing my clothes, and to lend if you will not give me as much money as will defray the expence of my passage to Boston (.$12,) and a little to support me there untill I shall be enabled to engage in some business…I have not one cent in the world to provide any food”[6]

Poe arrived in Boston in May of 1827. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the U.S. Army under the alias of Edgar A. Perry. He gave his age as 22, his birthplace of Boston, his occupation of clerk, and personal description: grey eyes, brown hair, fair complexion, and 5 ft. 8 in. in height[7].

While Poe’s exact reasoning for enlistment is unknown, it was likely spurred on by an attempt to burn bridges to his merchant-class upbringing. Post-revolutionary soldiers were viewed unfavorably by the American public. This was perhaps Poe’s attempt to experience life as a “common man.”

Fort Moultrie, South Carolina

A few months later in November 1827, Poe transferred to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. Poe’s time spent in South Carolina was a later influence for his literature, particularly the setting for his 1843 short story, “The Gold Bug.”

Poe stood out from most of his fellow servicemen. Most joined the army as a last resort and over half of the servicemen were European immigrants. However, Poe equally shared in their suffering. Hecker writes “In addition to earning the general disgust of respectable society, enlisted soldiers were subject to discipline, danger, hardship, likely illness, poor food and clothing, limited shelter, and inadequate pay. These conditions generally drew only the most desperate elements of society, and recruiters struggled to keep the army supplied with suitable soldiers.”[8] Poe now entered himself in a completely different sphere than the one under Allan’s control in Richmond. Heckler continued “As an artilleryman, Poe would have spent much of his early career learning cannon drill and maintaining the coastal forts at which he was stationed…logged for firewood year-round, maintained and built roads around the fortifications, gardened to supplement their poor rations, and maintained the earth- and stoneworks themselves to ensure a proper defense of the coastal fortifications.(21) In addition to these mundane duties, the artillerymen were required to understand how to employ their cannon Foot drill, guard mounts, and small-arms marksmanship rounded out the list of activities that enlisted soldiers of Poe’s time faced daily”[9] When Poe was promoted to battery clerk in June 1827, he transitioned to more clerical office work than the grueling manual labor of his comrades.[10]

Fort Monroe, Virginia

In December 1828, Poe was transferred again, this time to Fort Monroe, Virginia. In that same month he wrote to Allan, asking to obtain his permission to leave the army. Whatever aim had persuaded Poe to enlist in the army was quickly fading.

Dear Sir,​

​In that note what chiefly gave me concern was hearing of your indisposition — I can readily see & forgive the suggestion which prompted you to write “he had better remain as he is until the termination of his enlistment.” It was perhaps under the impression that a military life was one after my own heart, and that it might be possible (although contrary to the Regulations of our Army) to obtain a commission for one who had not received his education at West Point, & who, from his age, was excluded that Academy; but I could not help thinking that you beleived medegraded & disgraced, and that any thing were preferable to my returning home & entailing on yourself a portion ofmy infamy:…at the present I have no such intention, and nothing, short of your absolute commands, should deter mefrom my purpose.​

I have been in the American army as long as suits my ends or my inclination, and it is now time that I should leave it— To this effect I made known my circumstances to Lieut Howard who promised me my discharge solely upon a re-conciliation with yourself — In vain I told him that your wishes for me (as your letters assured me) were, and hadalways been those of a father & that you were ready to forgive even the worst offences — He insisted upon my writingyou & that if a re-conciliation could be effected he would grant me my wish. This was advised in the goodness of hisheart & with a view of serving me in a double sense — He has always been kind to me, and, in many respects, remindsme forcibly of yourself.​ The period of an Enlistment is five years — the prime of my life would be wasted — I shall be driven to more decidedmeasures if you refuse to assist me.You need not fear for my future prosperity — I am altered from what you knew me, &am no longer a boy tossing about on the world without aim or consistency — I feel that within me which will make me fulfilyour highest wishes & only beg you to suspend your judgement until you hear of me again.​

You will perceive that I speak confidently — but when did ever Ambition exist or Talent prosper without priorconviction of success? I have thrown myself on the world, like the Norman conqueror on the shores of Britain &, by myavowed assurance of victory, have destroyed the fleet which could alone cover my retreat — I must either conquer or die —succeed or be disgraced.​

A letter addressed to Lieut: J. Howard assuring him of your reconciliation with myself (which you have never yet refused) &desiring my discharge would be all that is necessary — He is already acquainted with you from report & the high charactergiven of you by Mr Lay. Write me once more if you do really forgive me [and] let me know how my Ma preserves her health,and the concerns of the family since my departure. Pecuniary assistance I do not desire — unless of your own free &unbiassed choice — I can struggle with any difficulty. My dearest love to Ma — it is only when absent that we can tell thevalue of such a friend — I hope she will not let my wayward disposition wear away the love she used to have for me.​

Yours respectfully & affectionately​

Edgar A. Poe​

P.S. We are now under orders to sail for Old Point Comfort, and will arrive there before your answer can be received —Your address then will be to Lieut: J. Howard, Fortress Monroe — the same for myself. [11] 

Without receiving a reply from Allan, Poe wrote home again, urging Allan to consider his request. He also mentioned the reputation of his grandfather’s legacy amongst his superior officers.

Dear Sir;​

​I wrote you shortly before leaving Fort Moultrie & am much hurt at receiving no answer. Perhaps my letter has not reached you & under that supposition I will recapitulate its contents… this being all that I asked at your hands, I wa shurt at your declining to answer my letter. Since arriving at Fort Moultrie Lieut Howard has given me an introduction to Col: James House of the 1rst Arty to whom I was before personally known only as a soldier of his regiment. He spoke kindly to me. told me that he was personally acquainted with my Grandfather Genl Poe, with yourself & family, & reassured me of my immediate discharge upon your consent. It must have been a matter of regret to me, that when those who were strangers took such deep interest in my welfare, <that> you who called me your son should refuse me even the common civility of answering a letter. If it is your wish to forget that I have been your son I am too proud to remind you of it again — I only beg you to remember that you yourself cherished the cause of my leaving your family — Ambition. If it has not taken the channel you wished it, it is not the less certain of its object. Richmond & the U. States were too narrow a sphere & the world shall be my theatre —​

​….There never was any period of my life when my bosom swelled with a deeper satisfaction, of myself & (except in the injury which I may have done to your feelings) — of my conduct — My father do not throw me aside as degraded[.] I will be an honor to your name.​

I am   Your affectionate son​

Edgar A Poe [12]

By January 1829, Poe had been promoted to Regiment Sargent Major, an impressive feat in just two years. In February, he wrote to Allan once more, this time seeking to utilize Allan’s social status, a status that Poe had once disassociated himself from, to obtain letters of recommendation to West Point Military Academy.

“I made the request to obtain a cadets’ appointment partly because I know that — if my age should prove no obstacle as I have since ascertained it will not) the appointment could easily be obtained either by your personal acquaintance with Mr Wirt — or by the recommendation of General Scott, or even of the officers residing at Fortress Monroe & partly because in making the request you would at once see to what direction my “future views & expectations” were inclined. You can have no idea of the immense advantages which my present station in the army would give me in the appointment of a cadet — it would be an unprecedented case in the American army, & having already passed thro the practical part even of the higher partion [[sic]] of the Artillery arm, my cadetship would only be considered as a necessary form which I am positive I could run thro’ in 6 months.”[13]

Only a few days after Poe sent this letter he received a letter from Allan informing him that, Frances, Poe’s foster mother, has passed away. Poe returned to Richmond but was a day late for Frances’ funeral. Frances’ death acted as a temporary reconciliation between the two men. Allan granted Poe’s request for discharge. On April 15^th, 1829 having paid a substitute $75 to take his place, Poe had discharged from the Army.[14] The following month Poe’s poem “Alone” is published, likely inspired by Frances’ passing.

West Point, New York

Because of Allan’s wealth and social status, Poe was able to secure letters of recommendation for his admittance to West Point by several notable political figures. Most famous of these figures was General Winfield Scott. Scott (1786 – 1866) also known as “Old Fuss and Feathers” was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, and the early stages of the American Civil War. Scott was a friend of John Allan and a relative of Allan’s second wife Louisa G. Allan. Scott took an interest in the young Poe, helping him secure an appointment to West Point and loaned him money. Poe later satirized Scott in his 1843 story “The Man That Was Used Up.”

Other letters from Allan’s associates included Major John Campell, Andrew Stevenson (Speaker of the House of Representatives), Colonel James P. Preston, as well as many of Poe’s officers in the army, wrote letters to Secretary of War, Major John Henry Eaton, on Poe’s behalf.

“The history of the youth Edgar Allan Poe is a very interesting one as detailed to me [John Campbell] by gentlemen in whose veracity I have entire confidence and I unite with great pleasure with Mr. Stevenson & Col Worth in recommending him for a place in the Military Academy at West Point. My friend Mr. Allan of this city [Richmond] by whom this orphan & friendless youth was raised and educated is a gentleman in whose word you may place every confidence and can state to you more in detail the character of the youth & the circumstances which claim for him the patronage of the government.” John Campell (May 1829)

I [Andrew Stevenson] beg leave to introduce to you Mr. Edgar Poe who wishes to be admitted into the Military Academy, & to stand the examination in June! He has been two years in the service of the U. States & carries with him the strongest testimonials, from the highest authority. He will be an acquisition to the service & I most earnestly recommend him to yr especial notice & approbation. Andrew Stevenson (May 1829) (National Archives; Cameron [1973], p. 160)

“Edgar Poe, late Serg’t Major in the 1st. Arty served under my command in H. Company 1st Regt of Artillery from June 1827 to Jan’y – 1829, during which time his conduct was unexceptionable — he at once performed the duties of company clerk and assistant in the Subsistent Department, both of which duties were promptly and faithfully done. his habits are good, and intirely free from drinking. J. Howard, Lieut. 1st Artillery (April, 1829) (National Archives; Cameron [1973], p. 158).”

“Some of the friends of young Mr Edgar Poe have solicited me to address a letter to you in his favor believing that it may be useful to him in his application to the Government for military service. I know Mr Poe and am acquainted with the fact of his having been born under circumstances of great adversity. I also know from his own productions and others undoubted proofs that he is a young gentleman of genius and talents. I believe he is destined to be distinguished, since he has already gained reputation for talents & attainments at the University of Virginia. I think him possessed of feelings & character peculiarly entitling him to public patronage. I am entirely satisfied that the salutary system of military discipline will soon develope his honorable feelings, and elevated spirit, and prove him worthy of confidence. I would not write in his recommendation if I did not believe that he would remunerate the Government at some future day, by his services and talents, for whatever may be done for him. James P. Preston (May, 1829) (National Archives; Cameron [1973], pp. 166-67).

Even John Allan, Poe’s foster father, wrote a letter to Secretary of War supporting Poe’s military career. While Poe sought to obtain these recommendations, Allan urged his foster son to remind officers of his connection to the legacy of his grandfather.[15]

“The youth who presents this, is the same alluded to by Lt. Howard Capt. Griswold Colo. Worth our representative & the speaker the Hon’ble Andrew Stevenson and my Friend Majr. Jno. Campbell. He left me in consequence of some Gambling at the university at Charlottesville, because (I presume) I refused to sanction a rule that the shopkeepers & others had adopted there, making Debts of [page 92:] Honour, of all indiscretions — I have much pleasure in asserting that He stood his examination at the close of the year with great credit to himself. His History is short He is the Grandson of Quarter Master Genl Poe of Maryland; whose widow as I understand still receives a pension for the Services or disabilities of Her Husband — Frankly Sir, do I declare that He is no relation to me whatever; that I have many [in] whom I have taken an active Interest to promote thiers [theirs]; with no other feeling than that; every Man is my care, if he be in distress; for myself I ask nothing but I do request your kindness to aid this youth in the promotion of his future prospects — and it will offer me great pleasure to reciprocate any kindness you can skew him — pardon my Frankness; — but I address a Soldier (National Archives; Cameron [1973], pp. 164-65).

In late May of 1829, Poe departed Richmond heading north towards New York. Allan and Poe’s relationship while seeming to be on the rise quicky crumbled. In October 1829 Poe wrote to his “Pa” “if I knew how to regain your affection God knows I would do any thing I could —”[16] He arrived at West Point Military Academy on June 20, 1830.  

On June 28^th, Poe wrote to Allan “Of 130 Cadets appointed every year only 30 or 35 ever graduate — the rest being dismissed for bad conduct or deficiency the Regulations are rigid in the extreme …. I am in camp at present — my tent mates are Read [Reid?] & [John Eaton] Henderson (nephew of Major Eaton) & [William Telfair] Stockton of Phil“[17]

In July and August, Poe encamped at Camp Eaton. In August the cadets move from camp to barracks. Poe rooms with Thomas W. Gibson (Indiana), Timothy Pickering Jones (Tennessee), and perhaps John Eaton Henderson (Tennessee), in Room 28 in the South Barracks. In September, classes began. Poe enrolled in French and Math, ranking 17^th out of 87 in Math and 3^rd in French. [18]

On November 6^th, 1830 Poe wrote to Allan “I was greatly in hopes you would have come on to W. Point while you were in N. York, and was very much disappointed when I heard you had gone on home without letting me hear from you. I have a very excellent standing in my class …. the study requisite is incessant, and the discipline exceedingly rigid. I have seen Genl [Winfield] Scott … he was very polite and attentive”[19]

Most of the information we have about Poe’s experience at West Point is through those who knew him. Allan B. Magruder, a classmate from Virginia who left the Academy in 1831, recollected his time spent with Poe:

“He [Poe] was very shy and reserved in his intercourse with his fellow-cadets — his associates being confined almost exclusively to Virginians …. He was an accomplished French scholar, and had a wonderful aptitude for mathematics, so that he had no difficulty in preparing his recitations in his class and in obtaining the highest marks in these departments. He was a devourer of books, but his great fault was his neglect of and apparent contempt for military duties. His wayward and capricious temper made him at times utterly oblivious or indifferent to the ordinary routine of roll-call, drills, and guard duties. These habits subjected him often to arrest and punishment, and effectually prevented his learning or discharging the duties of a soldier.[20]

Timothy P. Jones recalled:

“Poe and I were classmates, roommates, and tentmates. From the first time we met he took a fancy to me, and owing to his older years and extraordinary literary merits, I thought he was the greatest fellow on earth… At first he studied hard and his ambition seemed to be to lead the class in all studies …. it was only a few weeks after the beginning of his career at West Point that he seemed to lose interest in his studies and to be disheartened and discouraged ….He would often write some of the most forcible and vicious doggerel, have me copy it with my left hand in order that it might be disguised, and post it around the building. Locke was ordinarily one of the victims of his stinging pen. He would often play the roughest jokes on those he disliked. I have never seen a man whose hatred was so intense as that of Poe (New York Sun, 10 May 1903; 29 May 1904; Woodberry, 1:369-72).

Below is one of the poems of mockery that Poe produced at this time.

John Locke was a notable name;

Joe Locke is a greater; in short,

The former was well known to fame,

But the latter’s well known “to report.”

Thomas W. Gibson, Poe’s roommate also recorded:

“Poe at that time, though only about twenty years of age, had the appearance of being much older. He had a worn, weary, discontented look, not easily forgotten by those who were intimate with him. Poe was easily fretted by any jest at  his expense, and was not a little annoyed by a story that some of the class got up, to the effect that he had procured a cadet’s appointment for his son, and the boy having died, the father had substituted himself in his place. Another report current in the corps was that he was a grandson of Benedict Arnold. Some good-natured friend told him of it; and Poe did not contradict it, but seemed rather pleased than otherwise at the mistake…I don’t think he was ever intoxicated while at the Academy, but he had already acquired the more dangerous habit of constant drinking”[21]

By January of 1831, Allan and Poe’s relationship had worsened. Poe wrote to Allan at this time expressing an apparent change of mind toward his military ambitions.

“I came home, you will remember, the night after the burial [of Frances Allan on 2 March 1829] — If she had not have died while I was away there would have been nothing for me to regret — Your love I never valued — but she I believed loved me as her own child. You sent me to W. Point like a beggar. The same difficulties are threatening me as before at Charlottesville — and I must resign …. When I parted from you — at the steamboat, I knew that I should never see you again. From the time of writing this I shall neglect my studies and duties at the institution — if I do not receive your answer in 10 days — I will leave the point without — for otherwise I should subject myself to dismission.”[22]

A month later Poe writes again “Please send me a little money — quickly — and forget what I said about you —”[23]

Much like Poe’s attempt to leave the army, he needed Allan’s consent to leave West Point. When Poe did not receive it, he sought to get himself court martialed and dismissed. He accrued 44 different counts of gross neglect of duty and absence from his academical duties.” By March of 1831 Poe was dismissed from the academy.

 

Several of Poe’s classmates recounted Poe dismissal, including Timothy P. Jones who was also dismissed from the academy.

“On the morning of the 6th [19th] of March [February], when Poe was ready to leave West Point, we were in our room together, and he told me I was one of the few true friends he had ever known, and as we talked the tears rolled down his cheeks …. He told me much of his past life, one part of which he said he had confided to no other living soul. This was that while it was generally believed that he had gone to Greece in 1827 to offer his services to assist in putting down the Turkish oppressors, he had done no such thing, that about as near Europe as he ever got was Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, where he enlisted, and was assigned to Battery H, First Artillery, which was afterward transferred to Fortress Monroe, Va. Poe told me that for nearly two years he let his kindred and friends believe that he was fighting with the Greeks, but all the while he was wearing the uniform of Uncle Sam’s soldiers, and leading a sober and moral life.”(New York Sun, 29 May 1904, copied from the Richmond Dispatch; Woodberry, 1:372).”

Cadet George Washington Cullum (Pennsylvania) recalled:

“As Poe was of the succeeding class to mine at West Point, I remember him very well as a cadet. He was a slovenly, heedless boy, very eccentric, inclined to dissipation, and, of course, preferred making verses to solving equations. While at the Academy he published a small volume of poems, dedicated to Bulwer in a long, rambling letter. These verses were the source of great merriment with us boys, who considered the author cracked, and the verses ridiculous doggerel.” (Stoddard [1872], p. 561 n.).[24]

The “doggerel” Cullum referred to was “Poems”, Poe’s third collection of poetry published in April, 1831. 131 out of 232 cadets helped aid in the financial burden of publishing these poems, expecting more of the ridiculous school boy mockery they had experienced. Instead they found melancholy poetry which Poe would soon be known for. The Poe Museum owns a first edition of “Poems” owned by Poe’s West Point classmate John Pendleton Hardin. Inside the cover Hardin inscribed “This book is a damn cheat. / All that fills 124 pages could have been compiled in 35.”

 

Thomas W. Gibson later remarked on the publication’s success among the cadets

“The book was received with a general expression of disgust. It was a puny volume, of about fifty pages, bound in boards and badly printed on coarse paper, and worse than all, it contained not one of the squibs and satires upon which his reputation at the Academy had been built up. For months afterward quotations from Poe formed the standing material for jests in the corps, and his reputation for genius went down at once to zero. I doubt if even the “Raven” of his after-years ever entirely effaced from the minds of his class the impression received from that volume.”[25]

After leaving West Point, Poe moved to Baltimore where he published his first short stories, launching his literary career as the “Master of the Macabre.” Poe and Allan’s relationship remained strained until Allan’s death in 1834. Poe summarized his experience in the military in an autobiographical letter in 1841 “The army does not suit a poor man.”[26]

---

[1] Document Signed by Edgar Allan Poe’s Grandfather, David Poe, Sr., Poe Museum Collection, 2021.1.12, https://poemuseum.catalogaccess.com/objects/3488

[2]  Manuscript for Edgar Allan Poe’s Autobiographical Memo, Poe Museum Collection 1031, 1841

[3] William F. Hecker III, “Private Perry and Mister Poe,” The West Point Poems, Facsimile Edition, Louisiana State University Press, 2005, pp. xxiii

[4] Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, p. 17-18.

[5] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — March 19, 1827 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2703190.htm

[6] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — March 20, 1827 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2703200.htm

[7] National Archives — Register of Enlistments, 37:153

[8] William F. Hecker III, “Private Perry and Mister Poe,” The West Point Poems, Facsimile Edition, Louisiana State University Press, 2005, p. xxix

[9] William F. Hecker III, “Private Perry and Mister Poe,” The West Point Poems, Facsimile Edition, Louisiana State University Press, 2005, p. xxx

[10] William F. Hecker III, “Private Perry and Mister Poe,” The West Point Poems, Facsimile Edition, Louisiana State University Press, 2005, p. xxxii

[11]   Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — December 1, 1828 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2812010.htm

[12] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — December 22, 1828, https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2812220.htm

[13] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — February 4, 1829 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2902040.htm

[14] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — July 26, 1829

[15] John Allan to E. A. Poe — May 18, 1829 https://www.eapoe.org/misc/letters/t2905180.htm

[16] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — October 30, 1829

[17] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — June 28, 1830 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3006280.htm

[18] Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987) https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1921/tplgc02a.htm

[19] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — November 6, 1830 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3011060.htm

[20] George E. Woodberry, “Chapter 03,” The Life of Edgar Allan Poe: Personal and Literary (1909), vol. I, pp. 70 https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1900/w1909103.htm#pg0070

[21] Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, “Chapter 02,” The Poe Log (1987), 107-109

[22] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — January 3, 1831 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3101030.htm

[23] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — February 21, 1831 https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p3102210.htm

[24] Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, “Chapter 03,” The Poe Log (1987), pp. 114-115 https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1921/tplgc03a.htm

[25] Dwight R. Thomas and David K. Jackson, “Chapter 03,” The Poe Log (1987), pp. 117-118 https://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1921/tplgc03a.htm

[26] Manuscript for Edgar Allan Poe’s Autobiographical Memo, Poe Museum Collection 1031, 1841

For Immediate Release

Poe Museum Concludes Transformative Redesign of Exhibits with Dedication of the Susan Jaffe Tane Room 

Richmond, Virginia October 22, 2025 – An intimate ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Poe Museum on October 11^th marked the conclusion of a multi-year redesign of the museum’s exhibits and gift shop in collaboration with Gropen Inc., a build and design shop based in Charlottesville. 

Increased visitation to the museum, along with a growing collection of Edgar Allan Poe works, belongings, and memorabilia, were the catalysts for the redesign of the 103-year-old institution. Many of the recent additions to the museum’s collection (including Edgar Allan Poe’s pocket watch) were donated by eminent Poe collector and former museum board member, Susan Jaffe Tane. On October 11^th, Ms. Tane attended the dedication of the Susan Jaffe Tane Room, named in recognition of her impact. 

Along with the newly-named exhibit room, the redesign includes new displays and interpretations of artifacts, unique design elements and signage, interactive elements for younger visitors, and a brand new exhibit in a previously unopened room of the historic Old Stone House, interpreting Poe’s childhood in Richmond.

“This project has already proved to be transformative for the museum,” says Maeve Jones, Executive Director. “We are thrilled to be able to display more of our collection than ever before, and to interpret the life and legacy of the “master of the macabre” for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.”

“The Poe Museum continues its stewardship of Poe’s legacy and related artifacts with record-breaking attendance and now this incredible redesign. The Museum is alive with new experiences, artifacts, programs, and more – it’s a truly wonderful time to be a fan and to be a part of this institution’s evolution.” said Dean Browell, President of the Board of Directors.

The Poe Museum is a privately funded 501c3 nonprofit museum in Richmond, Virginia. The museum houses and interprets the world’s largest public collection of Edgar Allan Poe belongings, works, and memorabilia in support of its mission: illuminating Poe for everyone, evermore. Find more at poemuseum.org. 

The Poe Museum is open Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10am-5pm, and Sundays from 11am-5pm. Admission is $12 per adult. For more information, visit poemuseum.org

This Black History Month, the Poe Museum seeks to provide resources on the life and literature of Black Americans in the 19^th century. The lives of Black Americans directly shaped Poe’s upbringing in Richmond and influenced his writing. Their stories are an essential aspect of a holistic understanding of Poe’s life. Click on the links below to find out more information.

Slavery in the Allan Home

Growing up in Richmond in the early 19th century, Poe was acutely aware of the presence of slavery within his home and city. While Poe never enslaved anyone himself, he was raised in a household which profited off the institution of slavery. Poe grew up in a household where Judith, Scipio, and others enslaved by John Allan lived and labored. He visited the plantation, inherited by his foster father, where over a hundred men, women, and children were inherited, bought, and sold. In an 1827 letter, Poe described the power dynamics within the Allan household stating “You suffer me to be subjected to the whims & caprice, not only of your white family, but the complete authority of the blacks”[1]

A complete examination of Poe’s life in Richmond requires an understanding of the lives of those individuals enslaved by his foster father. These individuals likely shaped Poe’s views on slavery and his portrayals of Black characters in his literature. For more information on the lives of those enslaved by the Allan’s, check out The Man of the Crowd and the Poe Museum’s blog post Understanding the Lives of Enslaved and Freed African Americans in Early Republic Virginia Through John Allan’s Slaveholdings

For more information on the slavery in Richmond, Virginia we recommend reading American City, Southern Place; Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond Virginia, 1782–1865; The Richmond Slave Trade: The Economic Backbone of the Old Dominion.

For more information on the recorded lives of enslaved individuals we recommend checking out North American Slave Narratives.

19^th century Black Richmonders

Poe was likely aware of several notable Black Richmonders throughout his 17 years living in Richmond, Virginia, including Gilbert Hunt. Hunt and Poe were connected to America’s deadliest tragedy in the early 19^th century: The Richmond Theater Fire. Poe’s mother, Eliza Poe, a renowned singer and actress would have performed at the Richmond theater the night of the fire had tuberculosis not taken her life three weeks earlier. On December 26^th, 1811, after the first act of the second play of that evening, a lit chandelier caught a stage curtain on fire, resulting in a mass fire that took the lives of over 70 individuals, a majority of whom were women. Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith, heard the fire bells ring and rushed to the scene to aid the victims. Alongside Dr. James McCaw and a borrowed ladder, Hunt saved over a dozen women from the fire. His recollection of the fire was recorded in Gilbert Hunt, the City Blacksmith by Philip Barrett in 1859. After the fire, Hunt continued to labor as a blacksmith and, in 1823, saved even more Richmonders from a fire at the state penitentiary. By 1829, he had purchased his freedom and briefly immigrated to Liberia, a colony formed by the American Colonization Society. He also served as a deacon of the First African Baptist Church and helped form the Union Burial Ground Society.

During the last year of Poe’s life in 1849, he may have read the story of Henry Box Brown. Brown, born into slavery in Louisa County, labored in a tobacco factory in Richmond managed by his enslaver’s son. Throughout his time in Richmond, Brown married and had three children. He attended the First African Baptist Church around the same time Gilbert Hunt was a deacon there. In 1848, Brown’s wife Nancy was sold and separated from Brown, which led him to seek freedom by any means necessary. After he plotted with a few other Richmond men and the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Brown made the daring decision to ship himself north in a confined wooden box measuring 3ft by 2ft by 2.5 ft. On March 23^rd, 1849, Brown was sealed shut and endured a harrowing 26-hour journey—part of which was spent upside down. Brown continued to champion for abolition for the remainder of his life, writing songs and lecturing around the North including many of the cities Poe was familiar with—Philadelphia and Providence. There is no doubt that Poe would have read of his endeavors in the local and national papers. After moving to England, Brown’s focus turned from abolition to mesmerism—a form a spiritualism Poe notoriously detested.

After Poe’s death, several other notable men and women continued to influence Richmond’s landscape, especially its literary sphere. Daniel Webster Davis was a poet and teacher in Richmond, Virginia. He founded the Virginia Teachers’ Reading Circle, the first organization in Virginia dedicated to African American educators. He also worked as an editor of The Young Men’s Friend and Social Drifts. Davis is arguably best known for his collections of poems, Idle Moments, Containing Emancipation and Other Poems (1895) and ‘Weh Down Souf and Other Poems (1897). To learn more about Davis’s advocacy for voting rights, notable positions, and other written publications click here. John Mitchell Jr. was born in Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War. He attended school alongside Davis at the Richmond Colored Normal School. After a brief career in teaching, Mitchell went on to become an editor of the Richmond Planet. Throughout his time at the Richmond Planet (eventually located at the Swan Tavern where Edgar Allan Poe spent his final days in Richmond), Mitchell significantly increased readership. Through Mitchell’s leadership, the Richmond Planet became a source of print advocacy of anti-lynching and anti-Jim Crow laws. “Mr. Jno. Mitchell, Jr., has done more in the way of newspaper work in exposition and denunciation of lynching through the Planet than any other newspaper editor.” To learn more about Mitchell’s involvement in Richmond’s politics, banking career, and more click the link here.

Race in Poe’s Literature

While Poe lived all throughout the East Coast, his southern upbringing played a crucial role in his literature, particularly influencing his portrayal of race. Scholars of the past century have debated the extent to which Poe’s personal view of race and slavery are embedded in his literature, from his caricatures of black characters to covert portrayals of racism in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “Hop Frog.”

Poe included several Black characters in his literature including Toby in “The Journal of Julius Rodman,” Pompey in “A Predicament” and “How to Write a Blackwood Article” as well as Pompey in “The Man That Was Used Up.” Most famous of Poe’s Black characters is Jupiter in “The Gold-Bug.” Jupiter was formerly enslaved but later manumitted by his enslaver, William Legrand. Jupiter decides to stay with Legrand, due to Legrand’s “instill[ing] his obstinacy into Jupiter,” however it could be argued that Jupiter, in an act of agency over himself, made the decision to stay. Jupiter is depicted as unintelligent, often using racist caricatures of speech. The character of Jupiter may have been inspired by enslaved laborers and free Black individuals Poe interacted with in Richmond. Poe would likely have interacted with Richmond’s free Black population (constituting 10% of the city’s population in 1820). Many of the descriptions of Poe’s Black characters are akin to that of runway advertisements which were advertised in local newspapers.

“And Pompey, my negro! — sweet Pompey! how shall I ever forget thee? I had taken Pompey’s arm. He was three feet in height (I like to be particular) and about seventy, or perhaps eighty, years of age. He had bow-legs and was corpulent. His mouth should not be called small, nor his ears short. His teeth, however, were like pearl, and his large full eyes were deliciously white. Nature had endowed him with no neck, and had placed his ankles (as usual with that race) in the middle of the upper portion of the feet. He was clad with a striking simplicity. His sole garments were a stock of nine inches in height, and a nearly-new drab overcoat which had formerly been in the service of the tall, stately, and illustrious Dr. Moneypenny. It was a good overcoat. It was well cut. It was well made. The coat was nearly new. Pompey held it up out of the dirt with both hands.”                               

–“A Predicament,” Edgar Allan Poe (1838)

For analyses of Jupiter, Tobey, Pompey, and other examples of Poe’s portrayal of race in his literature, check out Language, Race, and Authority in the Stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The most famous analysis of Poe and race is Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. In Playing in the Dark, Morrison analyzes Poe’s only novel “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” for its portrayal of whiteness and darkness stating “No early American writer is more important to the concept of American Africanism than Poe.” For more analyses of race in Poe’s literature, check out Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race and Edgar Allan Poe in Context.

Poe also reviewed several pro-slavery pieces for the Southern Literary Messenger throughout his time working there. Poe praised northern depictions of slavery by Northerners including Joseph Holt Ingram’s The South-west. By a Yankee and Mrs. Anne MacVicar Grant’s Memoirs of an American Lady. In his review of Memoirs of an American Lady, Poe states “Some remarks on slavery, at page 41, will apply with singular accuracy to the present state of things in Virginia.”[2] And goes on to quote a passage within the book “I have no where met with instances of friendship more tender and generous than that which here subsisted between the slaves and their masters and mistresses.” He also praised the works pro-slavery authors such as John L. Carey and Thomas R. Dew. While these reviews were published to reflect the values the Southern Literary Messenger, to some extent they too showcase Poe’s views on race. Throughout his short stories and criticism, Poe showcases a clear interest in power dynamics. From reflecting slave revolts in “Hop Frog” to racial authority over characters like Jupiter —it is clear the hierarchical race structure of the 19^th century played a pivotal role in the influence of Poe’s literature.

---

[1] Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — March 19, 1827, Poe, Allan, Ellis Papers, 1803-1881. MSC0033/0001-0001.0001. The Valentine, Richmond, Virginia.

[2] Edgar Allan Poe, Critical Notices, Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II, no. 7, July 1836.

---

The Poe Museum is excited to announce additions to its Board of Directors during a pivotal time for the 100+ year old institution. As the Museum embarks on a complete redesign of exhibits within its historic buildings, the following leaders will lend their perspective and skills: Garrett Dalton (Dominion Energy), George Herring (International Baccalaureate educator), Ginna Lambert (Lighthouse XR), Jeff Minnich (Jeff Minnich Garden Designs), Stephan Loewentheil (The 19^th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop), Andrew Selman (Sands Anderson), and Tracy Templeton (Capital One). 

Maeve Jones, Executive Director of the Poe Museum, writes: “These additions to our board bring with them a breadth and depth of expertise in collecting, education, technology, garden design, human resources, and law. We are honored to welcome them to our team as the Poe Museum positions itself for continued growth in the coming years.”

The newest leaders join returning Directors: Dean Browell (Feedback), Board President; Brian Dismore (Capital One), Board Vice President;  Andrew Waters (Dominion Energy), Treasurer; Arabeth Balasko (Cincinnati Museum Center), Executive Committee Officer; Margaret Dodson (YWCA Richmond); Peter Fawn (The Bank of N.T. Butterfield and Son Limited); Richard Kopley (Poe Studies Association); Norman Leahy (Washington Post); Craig Martin (The Good Road); Scott Peeples (College of Charleston); Adam Worcester (Triple Crossing Beer), Executive Committee Officer.

“The Poe Museum and its shop are more popular than ever, breaking records in attendance, donations, educational programs, events, retail sales, and more since we celebrated our 100^th anniversary in 2022. At our Centennial Celebration we hinted big changes were coming for the next 100 years and the forthcoming redesign will further propel The Poe Museum into finest, largest public collection of Poe artifacts, belongings, memorabilia, and works in the world. This leadership team can’t wait for you to see what’s next to make this worldwide institution a world-class one, right here Richmond, VA.” said Dean Browell, President of the Board of Directors.

The Poe Museum is a privately funded 501c3 nonprofit museum in Richmond, Virginia. The museum houses and interprets the world’s largest public collection of Edgar Allan Poe belongings, works, and memorabilia in support of its mission: illuminating Poe for everyone, evermore. 

Written by Sabrina Yambao, Education Intern

Maria Poe Clemm, born March 17th, 1790 in Baltimore, Maryland, was the sister of David Poe Jr. and the aunt of Edgar Allan Poe. At the age of 27, she married merchant William Clemm Jr., as his second wife. Maria became a step-mother to Clemm’s five children and the two later had three children of her own. The youngest, Virginia, married Maria’s nephew, and her cousin, Edgar Allan Poe at the age of 13. 

While technically both Poe’s mother-in-law and aunt, Poe viewed Maria as a motherly figure in his life, especially as both his biological and foster mother’s had passed. She considered Poe to be her son, practically adopting him and saying that he was “indeed a son to me & has always been so” (Harrison, XVII, 380).

After moving to Richmond to work at the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe had got word that Neilson Poe, a cousin of the poet, had offered to take in the two women. Poe saw this as a threat to his family and titled Neilson as an enemy. Poe later brought Maria and Virginia to Richmond and took them into his care before and after Poe and Virginia married.  The family still struggled financially, even while Poe worked at the Southern Literary Messenger.

Maria appreciated Poe’s effort in trying to keep the family together, despite the appeal of Neilson Poe’s offer and the lack of funds Poe was bringing in as the main source of income for her and her daughter. She is quoted to have said, “it takes nearly all he can make to answer that demand, but poor fellow he is willing to do all in his power for us”. 

After Virginia’s death of tuberculosis, Edgar and Maria developed an almost symbiotic bond with one another, depending on each other for love and comfort. He dedicated his poem, “To My Mother” to her, stating that after Virginia died, Maria filled the void in his heart left behind by her passing. To Poe, there was no title as devoted and loving as “mother”, and she was the mother to both him and his beloved wife. In the poem, he proclaims that because she was the mother of Virginia, she was more dear to him than his birth mother was. 

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother,”
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.
My mother—my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

“To My Mother” by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)

Poe died mysteriously and without a definitive cause as to why October 7th, 1849. A day after his funeral, she wrote to her relative Neilson Poe to confirm if Edgar was indeed dead.

“I have heard this moment of the death of my dear son Edgar—I cannot believe it, and have written to you, to try and ascertain the fact and particulars—he has been at the South for the last three months, and was on his way home—the paper states he died in Baltimore yesterday—If it is true God have mercy on me, for he was the last I had to cling to and love, will you write the instant you receive this and relieve this dreadful uncertainty—My mind is prepared to hear all—conceal nothing from me.”

Maria Poe Clemm to Neilson Poe, Fordham, New York. October 9, 1849.

Two days later, Maria received his confirmation and left her family’s cottage in Fordham to live with the Lewises’ in Brooklyn. She stayed there for roughly two weeks until moving in with Nancy “Annie” Locke Richmond, a former love interest of Poe. 

Maria lived with the Richmonds for roughly a year and a half. At the beginning of her stay, she was physically sick and mourning the loss of her son. Eventually, with the kindness and the inclusiveness of the Richmonds, she became mentally and physically stable. Annie’s husband, Charles, insisted on taking her horseback riding often, and she even accompanied Annie and her young daughter on a ski trip. She received much condolences and support from Poe’s literary friends, including Charles Dickens and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but also witnessed and exclaimed at Poe’s rival Rufus Griswold’s defamation of Poe, who wrote in his obituary that . She wrote to Griswold and other authors that Poe was a great man, poet, and author, trying her best to keep Poe’s name good and just.

After the cold Massachusetts air set in, the sixty-one year old fled the harsh and cold conditions and lived from house to house, generosity to generosity, for roughly twelve years. In her first years of lonesome, she visited the Richmonds again, along with Poe’s old loves to seek generosity from them, including Marie Louise Shew and Sarah Helen Whitman. Whitman occasionally sent Maria money, but nothing more for fear of overstepping her own personal boundary. 

Ten years after Poe’s death, Maria managed to find work and room in Alexandria, Virginia. She lived with lawyer Reuben Johnson in exchange for teaching his three children. While living here, she got severely sick, and the doctor ordered her not to use her eyes in any way. It was here on 70th birthday that she wrote, “Oh how sad and lonely I am, and with what rapture, I will hail the time when I will go to meet all my loved ones” (Maria Clemm to Sarah Helen Whitman, Alexandria, March 17, 1860).

At this time, Maria received an invitation to stay in Putnam, Ohio from the Robins family in exchange for information about Poe for Sallie E. Robins biography about him. The stay lasted two years, and it did not go as Maria had hoped. The family planned on staying in Europe for a couple years, inviting Maria along. The trip never happened, however, as Sallie was declared insane and was forced into an asylum before the trip, leaving Maria without a stable place to stay. She exclaimed that this stay was as bad as the last one, quoting, “How I wish I could get a home in some pleasant family” (Caroline Ticknor, Poe’s Helen, New York, 1916).

As the Civil War raged on, especially in Virginia, she sought refuge in Baltimore where her relative Neilson Poe lived. Originally wanting to stay at the Widows home to live out the rest of her life, she begrudgingly stayed at the Church Home after she could not afford the $150 entrance fee to the Widows home. She kept in touch with Neilson and his family, handing over control of her funeral to him. In some stroke of coincidence or perhaps planning, the Church House was actually the place where Poe died, as it had once been the Washington Medical College which treated Poe in his final days. Here, she spent her final days telling stories and details about her son-in-law and praising him till her last interview, citing him as “elegantly formed, exceedingly graceful” (Delman-Heyward Files, Maryland Historical Society). 

Her final request was to be buried next to Poe, and so she was. She died February 16th, 1871, at eighty-one years old. Those who attended her funeral were admirers of Poe and her friends. She wrote to Annie prior to her death, exclaiming that she cannot wait to be with her loved ones again, telling her that the dead are with her still, and have been since they departed the living, and she will join them soon.

Written by Chris Semtner, Curator

Celebrate Women’s History Month by learning of the revolutionary women who founded the Poe Museum and illuminated Poe’s history forevermore.

Mary Gavin Traylor (1890 – 1946)

It is safe to say that the Poe Museum would not exist today if Mary Gavin Traylor had not steered it through the Great Depression as the museum’s board secretary, librarian, curator, tour guide, host, fundraiser, and caretaker from 1928 until 1946. As if that were not impressive enough, she did all of this part-time while maintaining her job writing for the Richmond News Leader and managing its photo archives.

The daughter of Poe collector Robert Gavin Traylor, Mary Gavin Traylor started her journalistic career as a French correspondent in Paris before returning to Richmond to care for her mother while taking over the society column at the local newspaper. The newspaper’s editor, Douglas Southall Freeman, happened to be the president of the Poe Museum and allowed her to work half a day at the paper and the rest of the time at the museum.

Traylor joined the museum’s staff in 1928. When the Great Depression hit, the museum cut back its staff and closed all but one of its buildings to save on the expense of heating them all. Despite these tough times, when she was only allotted one log per day to heat the Old Stone House, Traylor continued to solicit contributions and to make major acquisitions including the candelabra under which Poe wrote “The Bells” and James Carling’s illustrations for “The Raven.” When she had the opportunity to purchase an important daguerreotype of Poe, the board told her that raising the funds would be impossible, but Freeman allowed her to give it a try. Against all odds, she was able to accumulate twenty donations in order to acquire the Poe Museum’s copy of the Ultima Thule daguerreotype, which our guests can see today in the Elizabeth Arnold Poe Memorial Building.

Once the museum survived the Depression, World War II arrived, and the museum’s most important treasures had to be shipped to an undisclosed location for safekeeping. But Traylor kept the museum open. At one point, she even curated an exhibit of portraits painted on ice cream spoons. When peace arrived, she helped negotiate the donation of several Poe manuscripts from the grandchildren of Poe’s literary executor Rufus Griswold. Thanks to Traylor’s efforts to build the Poe Museum’s collection, we will never have to resort to displaying ice cream spoon portraits again. 

Annie Boyd Jones (d. 1939)

Visitors in the Poe Museum’s early days often recalled meeting the institution’s co-founder Annie Boyd Jones in the Enchanted Garden, where she inevitably quoted the lines from Poe’s poem that formed the basis of the garden’s design. 

 Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine – 
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine…

To One in Paradise, Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

The flamboyant and outgoing Jones was a poet, artist, and patron of the arts who counted among her many artistic friends Mount Rushmore’s sculptor Gutzon Borglum. After her husband rented Richmond’s Old Stone House with the intention of using it as a colonial history museum, she talked him into remaking it into a shrine to Edgar Allan Poe, instead. When Poe collector and researcher James H. Whitty informed her that he had the building materials left over from the demolished office of the Southern Literary Messenger (the very building in which Poe began his career in journalism), she convinced him to let her construct a garden and pergola out of the bricks and to make eleven bookcases from the lumber. In the early days, these bookcases housed the Poe Museum’s collection of rare Poe volumes. 

When the museum opened, it consisted only of the Old Stone House and garden, but Jones soon purchased the buildings that we now call the North Building and the Visitor’s Center. After failing to save Poe’s childhood home on Fourteenth Street from destruction, she took the building materials down to her Poe Shrine and had the Elizabeth Arnold Poe Memorial Building constructed from them. In doing so, she established the Poe Museum’s footprint for the next century.

Additionally, Jones paid for repairs to the Old Stone House (using materials salvaged from Poe’s homes and place of work) and acquired items for the collection—including Poe’s trunk, which remains a museum highlight. Within a year, the museum was ready for a grand opening on April 26, 1922. In photos taken that day, Jones can be spotted in her huge feather hat, fur coat, and twenty-four karat gold mail handbag. A smile beams across her face. A friend described her as “full of fire and life…” and said she served the best illegal alcohol at her parties. (This was during Prohibition, after all.)

When, over a century later, our guests step into the museum’s Enchanted Garden, they are entering what Jones envisioned as a place enveloped with “an atmosphere that breathes the very spirit of the poet’s life…”

Antoinette Suiter (1924 – 2023)

Not a day goes by when we do not overhear a guest whisper to a friend, “Come here. Take a look at this.” After a few minutes of silence, one of them observes, “He had really small feet.”

That is how countless people respond to their first sight of Edgar Allan Poe’s socks on display in the Poe Museum’s North Building alongside Poe’s waistcoat. These last surviving pieces of Poe’s clothing are a very tangible reminder of the person who once wore them and about the closest one gets to seeing Poe in the flesh. It is not the kind of thing one can experience on a computer or phone. 

That is why, on school group tours, our guides use them as teaching aids, asking the students, “What does this waistcoat tell us about Poe? What kind of person do you think would wear something like this? Why would someone wear this?”

Poe’s socks and waistcoat are just two of the artifacts his cousin Elizabeth Herring’s great-great granddaughter Antoinette Suiter donated to the Poe Museum during her many years as supporter and trustee of this institution. While even the casual visitor will see a few of these artifacts on display, they might not appreciate the Poe family lore and advice Suiter has shared with us. These stories, told as only Poe’s closest living relative could have told them, have provided us a closer view of her “Cousin Eddy,” “Cousin Virginia,” and “Aunt Muddie” than we could have found anywhere else.

When not supporting the Poe Museum, Suiter devoted her skills and infectious enthusiasm to the Boy Scouts, the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Tar River Orchestra and Chorus, the North Carolina Ballet, and Stonewall Manor in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. She had a rare gift for spreading her optimism and love of life wherever she went.

Born in 1924, just two years after the Poe Museum opened, Mrs. Suiter passed away on her ninety-ninth birthday. While we may no longer see her strolling the museum’s halls, sharing stories of her Cousin Eddy, we—and everyone else who visits—will benefit from the portraits, documents, and other artifacts she entrusted to the museum.

Click here to see some of the artifacts Antoinette Suiter has donated to the Poe Museum.