Charles Dickens turned 200 today. Many readers know the novels of Dickens, but few may know that he and Poe were personally acquainted. Edgar Allan Poe was an admirer of Dickens’s works since “strongly recommending” Dickens’s works to American readers in a June 1836 review from the Southern Literary Messenger. In an 1839 issue of Burton’s Magazine, Poe wrote, “Charles Dickens is no ordinary man, and his writings must unquestionably live.”
Three years later, during Dickens’s 1842 tour of the United States, he met Poe in Philadelphia. Though we do not know exactly what was said during their ...
The Poe Museum Blog
Weird Richmond – Deathbed Portraiture
Welcome to the first installment of the Poe Museum blog's new monthly feature entitled Weird Richmond. Every month you will find here a new and bizarre tale to satisfy your craving for all things weird. This is history off of the beaten path, full of strange tales of Poe, the times he lived in, and this city that he called home.
We open Weird Richmond with deathbed portraiture. A deathbed portrait is exactly what it sounds like: a post-mortem image of a deceased person. What we see today as morbid was actually practiced in the 18th and 19th centuries as a means of capturing a final ...
More Photos from Poe’s Birthday Bash
Poe's 203rd Birthday Bash may be over, but we've been getting lots of fun photos from various people on our flickr group.
Here are a few samples (click the photos for a closer look):
Belly dancers Lucretia and Lavinia performing the "Dance of the Conqueror Worm" - Photo by Silly Human Tricks
Belly dancer The Muse - Photo by Silly Human Tricks
If you're wondering what belly dancing has to do with Poe or his birthday ... well, Poe wrote stories like "The Cask of Amontillado" that are set at carnival time and belly dance seemed to fit nicely there. Also, all of our dances had ...
More Selections from James Carling’s “Raven” Drawings
The Poe Museum's new special exhibit "Stormier, Wilder, and More Weird: James Carling and 'The Raven'" opened on January 14, and visitors were in awe of Carling's 43 masterful drawings, which fill both floors of the Exhibit Building.
The artist who produced these drawings, James Carling, was born in 1857 in Liverpool. He was fifth son of Henry Carling, a blacking maker. When James was five years old, he began to earn a living as an errand boy and singer. He would even recite the poetry of Shakespeare on street corners for spare change. Encouraged by his older brothers, James started drawing ...