Join us for an evening with Dr. Gary Richards, Chair of the University of Mary Washington English Department! Dr. Richards will speak on the the life, work, and dialogue between two fixtures of Southern literature: Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams.
This is a ticketed event. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate. Wine will be for sale.
In honor of Black History Month, we are sharing an Activity Guide dedicated to the temporary exhibit that is currently on display outside of the Poe Museum.
This exhibit was created by Mending Walls RVA and is intended to encourage people to start having difficult yet necessary conversations about race and equality. This Activity Guide is a way to facilitate the conversation. Click the link to download the full activity guide or preview the Activity Guide below. Don’t forget to visit the Poe Museum to see the exhibit in person!
Download PDF with live links here.
At an auction held on June 28, 1825, merchant John Allan purchased a Richmond estate. Actually, he purchased parts of three lots from the late Joseph Gallego and the late John Richard.
One of those lots included the mansion nicknamed “Moldavia.” The name was granted by earlier owners, Molly and David Randolph. The brick house included a large porch, a mirrored ballroom, an octagon-shaped dining room, and a wide mahogany stairway. It stood on the southeast corner of Main and Fifth Streets in Richmond (it is no longer standing). Allan’s purchase totaled $14,950 — equal to about $270,000 today. He paid for it using much of the inheritance from his uncle William Galt.
Perhaps not coincidentally, many of Poe’s fictional works reference oversized mansions, including his earliest story “Metzengerstein.” Other works that seem to reference Moldavia in their setting include “Ligeia” and, of course, “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
By Chris Semtner, February 19, 2014
Among the little known treasures in the Poe Museum’s archives are four small pencil sketches of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s boyhood homes. The artist was a fourteen-year-old girl who would grow up to be an important poet. Sally Bruce Kinsolving was born in Richmond in 1876 and would have executed the drawings shortly before the house was demolished in 1890. The house in the drawings is the mansion known as Moldavia, an imposing structure that once stood at the corner of 5th and Main Streets in Richmond. Moldavia was named after its first owners, Molly and David Randolph, who built it in 1800. Poe was sixteen when he moved into the house with his foster parents John and Frances Allan. Poe lived there until he went to the University of Virginia in 1826 and would have stayed there during his visits to Richmond in 1827 (after leaving the University) and 1829 (after his foster mother’s funeral). After Poe’s 1831 expulsion from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Poe was no longer welcome in the home, which by then housed John Allan and his second wife, Louisa G. Allan. She lived there until her death in 1881, and the building was demolished in 1890. Although this Richmond landmark has been lost, the Poe Museum preserves several objects the Allans owned while living in Moldavia, including artwork, salt cellars, and furniture.
Sally Bruce Kinsolving (1876-1962) published her first book of poetry, Depths and Shallows in 1921. This was followed by David and Bathsheba and Other Poems (1922), Grey Heather (1930), and Many Waters (1942). She was a member of the Poetry Society of America and a founder of the Poetry Society of Maryland. Kinsolving was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa Associates, the Academy of American Poets, the Catholic Poetry Society of America, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Gallery of Living Catholic Authors, and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Kinsolving donated her drawings of Moldavia to the Poe Museum in 1922, the year the Museum opened.
These faint pencil sketches reveal close-up views of elements of the mansion that have not necessarily recorded in the few surviving photographs of the structure. This is why they are an important resource for those researching the Richmond that Poe knew during his childhood. For an artist so young, Kinsolving has done a masterful job of capturing the subtle nuances of light and shadow in images that appear to emerge from the tan paper. In order to make the drawings more visible online, we have adjusted the contrast and enlarged the scans before posting them here, but we hope you can still appreciate the beauty of these little known gems of the Poe Museum’s collection. The captions are the artist’s.
MURRAY ELLISON–Urban crime was an area of acute interest in the nineteenth century in America and Europe because the public feared that it was rampant and out of the control of the police. To respond to this concern, Poe demonstrates increasingly complex aspects of ratiocination in each of his three Auguste C. Dupin detective-based tales. He chose Paris, France for these tales because it had one of the first professional police forces. See photo of a French police officer above (myartprints.co.uk).
The term, ratiocination, is not listed in most dictionaries; however, it may be defined by deconstructing its syllables and associating it with other related words. A ratio compares the relationships between two quantities. Poe develops a new system for establishing relationships between unknown events and the motives or solutions to complex problems. Dupin expands the use of accepted nineteenth-century classical investigation techniques and adds hyper-observation and intuitive leaps of imagination to arrive at new solutions. He understands that clues and events are not always understood simply by the way that they appear. He approaches crime solving in the same way as he solves puzzles. With the same understanding of the evidence that the police hold, he provides new metaphoric solutions. His methods of unraveling crimes are unorthodox and appear to the police as irrational. Dupin presents the details of these cases directly or through an unnamed narrator to give readers a glimpse into his ratiocinative thinking. The narrator’s job is to be amazed at and inform the reader about the skills of the detective. Dupin separates the relevant from the irrelevant. He focuses on unexplained deviations from the normal, anticipates the actions and thoughts of his associates and opponents, and embraces information that, at first, appears to be external to the case. Each Dupin story is a self-contained armchair mystery, in that he seldom needs to leave his home to solve the crime.
Matthew Pearl, in his “Introduction” to the Dupin Mysteries, notes that Poe introduced Detective C. Auguste Dupin, of Paris, France to literature more than five years before Boston had established the country’s first professional police department. As a result, Poe chose Paris to be the setting of all three of his Dupin mysteries. Perhaps, he also made this choice because many French scientists and philosophers epitomized Poe’s criticisms of these intellectual ideas of the nineteenth-century Age of Reason. They rejected dogma and sought ways to find objective knowledge. They believed that truth could be best be verified by observation and scientific investigation. Among the ideas that Poe attacked in his detective stories was the irrational belief that man could ultimately attain near stages of perfection, and that he could control his environment by scientific methods. Because of these contradictory views, it is hard to determine if Poe proposed ratiocination to address crime, or if he was mocking the irrational faith that the Age of Reason thinkers had in science. Perhaps he may also have been “duping” his readers by presenting both possibilities simultaneously.
As a non-professional detective, Dupin mocks the inferior crime-solving techniques of the paid Parisian police officials. The prefect appears in each of the Dupin stories and serves as a symbol of the incompetence of police officials. A “prefect” is the French representative of a department or Region. In 1800, Napoleon reorganized the Paris police to fall under the jurisdictions of the Prefecture of Police for security. The Paris police, right after Boston’s department, became one of the earliest professional police departments in the modern western world. The prefect thinks he has the perfect solution to the crime. However, Dupin is always skeptical of his approach and solutions.
In his three tales of ratiocination, Poe demonstrates that Dupin’s methods of scientific reasoning are superior to those of the police. He is critical of the established authorities and power structures. The police are symbols for his criticisms of the professional scientists and the nineteenth century. He believes that scientists are limited in arriving at new solutions in the same ways that the police are limited in solving crimes. Poe’s crime-solving detective is officially titled Chevalier, Auguste Dupin. Chevalier is the rank equivalent to a master detective in France. “Auguste” means the most revered, and Dupin may be associated with the English verb “to dupe.” Thus, his name and title have ambiguous meanings. These stories then can be interpreted that Dupin is the most revered trickster to criminals; he is questioning the public’s irrational beliefs that scientists can solve modern complex crimes. The next Poe and Science column, I will discuss Poe’s first, and perhaps best-known tale of ratiocination, The Murders of the Rue Morgue.
*This article is an extract from Murray Ellison M.A Thesis on Poe and 19th-Century Science from Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015©
Written by Rob Velella, August 17, 2009, as part of “The Edgar A. Poe Calendar: 365 Days of the Master of the Macabre and the Mystery“
Edgar Poe presented an evening lecture on August 17, 1849, in Richmond titled “The Poetic Principle.” The lecture, which adapted a similar one presented in Providence, Rhode Island in December 1848, was held at the Exchange Hotel. It began at 8:00 p.m. and admission was 25 cents. Poe spoke to a room filled to capacity.
Poe’s appearance was a highly-anticipated event in the city which embraced him as one of their own. One newspaper proudly hailed him as “a native of this city [who] was reared in our midst.” Another hyped up the lecture in advance, advising its readers: “Those who desire to enjoy a real treat, should hear this effort of Mr. Poe’s.” The Richmond Whig newspaper teased that Poe would conclude by reciting “The Raven.”
His audience was not disappointed.
The Whig, despite looking forward to hearing “The Raven,” had apparently not expected much from Poe. After the lecture, they reported: “We attended the Lecture of Mr. Poe… with the expectation of hearing nothing more than the common dissertation upon the poetic faculty… We must say we were never more delighted in our lives.” The Daily Republican reported it was “one of the richest intellectual treats… The clearness and melody of his voice and the harmonious accentuation of his words were soul inspiring.” Novelist John Esten Cooke recalled that Poe “stood in a graceful attitude, leaning one hand on a small table beside him, and his wonderfully clear and musical voice speedily brought the audience under its spell. Those who heard this strange voice once never afterward forgot it… The lecture ended in the midst of applause.”
The content of the lecture on “The Poetic Principle” was distinctly Poe. One contemporary review notes that Poe denounced the didacticism in poetry as the “heresy of modern times” rather than allowing a poem to stand for beauty and nothing more. He spoke about specific authors and both praised and criticized as appropriate. Among those he mentioned was Edward Coote Pinkney, likely the American poet which Poe most admired. He also read from the work of Tennyson. Even journalist John M. Daniel, with whom Poe had once almost dueled, reluctantly admitted: “Mr. Poe is a man of very decided genius. Indeed, we know of no other writer in the United States, who has half the chance to be remembered in the history of literature” (though he rightly predicted his reputation would be based on a small number of works).
The irony might be that Poe lost his lecture notes before he made it to Virginia. That means he had to rewrite it just before taking the center stage.
“I never was received with so much enthusiasm,” Poe reported to his mother-in-law Maria Clemm. The lecture later became the essay of the same name, published posthumously. That manuscript is somewhat controversial; allegedly found after Poe’s death, it was first published by Rufus Wilmot Griswold in his collected works of Poe. The original manuscript was immediately lost after publication.
Written by Rob Velella, August 15, 2009, as part of “The Edgar A. Poe Calendar: 365 Days of the Master of the Macabre and the Mystery“
Happy birthday to Virginia Eliza Clemm, who was born August 15, 1822.* She would have been 195 today.
What more can be said about Virginia that hasn’t been said here already? I’ve written about the only surviving letter from Poe to his wife, their unusual marriage (and uncertain anniversary date), and Valentine’s poem she wrote to her husband — just to name a few. Today, I’d like to introduce the Poe work which is most inspired by Virginia. It is not “The Raven,” nor is it “Annabel Lee.” It is, in fact, the short story “Eleonora.”
First published in the 1841 issue of The Gift, the story features an unnamed narrator who lives a life of isolation with his cousin and aunt. The setting is paradisaical, known as the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass. Untrodden by strangers, the land is full of beautiful flowers and trees as well as a River of Silence. In this paradise, the narrator falls in love with his cousin — but she was sick, “made perfect in loveliness only to die.” She worries that when she dies, her cousin will move on and fall in love with another. He promises that would never happen.
Her death, the narrator says, kicks off “the second era of my existence.” This new life, however, is not as idyllic as it had been. The Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass does not survive after Eleonora’s death:
The star-shaped flowers shrank into the stems of the trees, and appeared no more. The tints of the green carpet faded, and one by one the ruby-red asphodels withered away… And life departed from our paths; for the tall flamingo flaunted no longer his scarlet plumage before us, but flew sadly from the vale into the hills, with all the gay, glowing birds that had arrived in his company. And the golden and silver fish swam down through the gorge at the lower end of our domain, and bedecked the sweet river never again… And then, lastly, the voluminous cloud uprose, and abandoning the tops of the mountains to the dimness of old, fell back into the regions of Hesper, and took away all its manifold golden and gorgeous glories from the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass.
The narrator leaves and moves to an unnamed city. There, he marries Ermengarde, not fearing the vow he had made. Eleonora appears to him and blesses his new union, saying “Thou art absolved… for reasons which shall be made known to thee in Heaven.”
The story clearly references the idealism Poe had with his marriage (the biggest clue that this story is autobiographical is the inclusion of the aunt/mother-in-law character; she plays no clear role in the story but is a definite reference to Maria Clemm). Virginia was just beginning to show signs of tuberculosis — the illness which would kill her in five years. Poe was already feeling guilty that he might have to consider other women as potential second wives. Jumping the gun a bit? Maybe, but the more important aspect of the story is the idealism of the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass, and how this paradise dies with the wife.
A couple lines from this story are often quoted, though it doesn’t seem most know the origin of these quotes. This might sound familiar:
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled,whether madness be or be not the loftier intelligence — whether much that is glorious — whether all that is profound — does not spring from disease of thought, from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape the dreamers by night.
Happy birthday, Virginia.
* I have found one source that lists her birthday as August 22. The majority of sources, however, use the August 15 date.
Written by Rob Velella, August 14, 2009, as part of “The Edgar A. Poe Calendar: 365 Days of the Master of the Macabre and the Mystery“
Poe’s place in literary history is occasionally questioned. Should he be considered a master of American literature? Does he deserve a place in the canon? Is he really important? I might be biased so take my opinion with a grain of salt (this post will shift away from my more academic tone and may, in fact, turn into starry-eyed gushing over my favorite author). Here’s my argument: even if you remove the quality of Poe’s work from the equation, Poe is one of the most important writers in American history.
The real evidence for this comes on August 14, 1835. It was on that date that the Trustees of the Richmond Academy began selecting their new English teacher. The fact that it was not Poe should solidify Poe’s role in American literary history. Excluding his military stints, Poe only applied for two jobs outside of literature. The first was the job with the Richmond Academy teaching English. The second was a job with the Customs House in Philadelphia in 1841, hoping that a connection to Robert Tyler (brother of President John Tyler) would secure his employment. Neither role worked out. That means that Poe never had a job outside of literature; for his 40 short years, he would have no source of income besides his pen.
This is significant because no other major American writers in the first half of the United States were able to sustain themselves in such a manner. Washington Irving had a couple government jobs and was, for a time, part owner in a mercantile business. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others held full-time teaching positions (at Harvard, in the case of all three). Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to make a living as a farmer for a time before taking government jobs at two different Customs Houses (one in Boston, another in Salem, Massachusetts). Ralph Waldo Emerson had his ministry for a time and, later, a public lecturing career (he was also supported by an inheritance from the family of his first wife). Margaret Fuller struggled as a teacher in Providence before becoming a full-time journalist (and, then, nearly all of her writing was not literature but nonfiction).
Poe’s financial failure is obvious. Nevertheless, his attempt is nothing less than historical, if not extraordinary. The fact that he stood the test of time is minor (so did the other writers I mentioned above) but, coupled with his lack of any other job outside of literature, Poe should be considered a trailblazer.
Odds were stacked against him, of course. The country was young, its literature younger, and the economy was not established for professional authors. Poe’s critical work emphasized that the quality of American literature needed to improve and, as such, he fought against the puffing system which inhibited proper growth. He also railed against the lack of copyright (suggesting authors may as well slit their throats), the culture of republishing without authors’ permission, and the tastes of American audiences which, he believed, did not recognize quality over popularity. All of these factors needed to change before an American could make money solely as an author. Poe missed out on those ideal conditions and did not survive into the American Renaissance of the 1850s. Even with all that, when he died at age 40, he showed no signs of turning away from his desired path.
For the sake of full disclosure, Poe was also hampered by bad decisions. He married before he had an established income and, in doing so, inherited not only a young wife but also a mother-in-law who needed his financial support (though, to Maria Clemm‘s credit, she occasionally provided minor assistance through odd jobs and, of course, begging). He also didn’t stay in one place for too long, constantly moving when he needed to escape overdue rent payments or in an optimistic pursuit of greater opportunities — all the money he spent on rent and moving expenses could have been saved to buy a house. Other than that, he was thrifty, particularly in his clothing choices, but his challenges are already numerous.
Yes, Poe was a financial failure in his pursuit of the life of a professional author. But that failure was unprecedented — and it deserves our praise. Thanks to the Trustees of the Richmond Academy for (inadvertently) making it possible.
* Longfellow should be considered America’s first successful professional poet as of 1854, when he retired from his professorship. However, Longfellow was gifted a mansion at age 35 thanks to his father-in-law and had saved up enough money from teaching for about 17 years before he had the solid footing to become a professional poet. Credit is deserved there as well, certainly, but he did not have the same challenges as Poe.
*This essay is part of Murray Ellison’s Master’s Thesis from Virginia Commonwealth University on Edgar Allan Poe and Science©
In 1840, Poe became a writer for Alexander’s Weekly Messenger and published three essays on the newly emerging image copying process, then known as the Daguerreotype. This technology was the earliest prototype for modern photography. Alan Trachtenberg in, Classic Essays on Photography, reprints Poe’s essays on the daguerreotype and calls them among the earliest commentaries on the processing of film. Trachtenberg writes that as early as 1828, M. Nicephore Niepce succeeded in producing a photographic image using an invention he called the Camera Obscura (4). Louis Daguerre claimed that his process was quicker than Niepce’s and that his image was seventy times sharper than anything that had been developed. “Without any knowledge of chemistry and physics, it will be possible to take in a few minutes the most detailed views, the most picturesque scenery… and replicate images of nature (12-13). Poe exclaims that the Daguerreotype “is, perhaps, the most extraordinary triumph of modern science.”(37). He reports on this subject first as a technical writer:
“A plate of silver upon copper is prepared, presenting a surface for the action of light, of the most delicate texture conceivable. A high polish is given this plate by means of a steatitic cancerous stone (called a Daguerreolite) and contains equal parts of steatite and carbonate of lime…The plate is then deposited in a Camera Obscura, and the lens of this instrument directed to the object which it is required to paint.” (37)
After describing the details needed to manipulate light and exposure time, Poe changes from the style of a technical writer to a writer of narrative prose or poetry. He expresses awe about the new technology: “For, in truth, the Daguerreotype is infinitely…more accurate in its representation than any painting by human hands.” Upon closer scrutiny, “the photogenic drawing discloses only a more absolute truth, a more perfect identity…with the thing represented.” He declares further: “The variations of shade and the gradations of both linear and aerial perspectives, are those of truth itself, in the supremeness of perfection.” He is amazed that a mechanical technology was invented by that captures the romantic beauty of nature. He challenges readers to look at this innovation and try to imagine how it could change the world of the future. The consequences of such an invention, he exclaims, “will exceed, by very much, the wildest expectations of the most imaginative.”
Perhaps, Poe foresaw that future scientists might be able to view previously “inaccessible locations,” like a “lunar chart,” by using this process (38). Poe’s commentaries appear to be favorable. It can also be conjectured that he was concerned that powerful new technologies might introduce future intrusions on privacy. His essays on the daguerreotype employ both technical and artistic styles to describe one of the most important innovations of his lifetime. Not only was he among the first journalists to write about this emerging technology, but he was also one of the earliest historical figures to have had visual images captured on camera of his likeness. Michael Deas has published a book with “over 70 of Poe’s images and portraits from various periods of his life,” entitled Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe.
Deas, Michael J. Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1988.
Trachtenberg, Alan. Classic Essays on Photography, Ed. New Haven: Leetes Island Books, 1980.
In 1836, Poe asks readers of the Richmond-based Southern Literary Messenger to ponder the implications for the future if a machine could calculate without human input. He writes, “There is no analogy, whatever, between the operations of the chess-player and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage,” Poe argues. If we chose to call the former a pure machine, we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond comparison, the most wonderful invention of mankind,” referring to the prototypes of the “Difference Engine,” which was introduced in London between 1789 and 1791 by mechanical engineer Charles Babbage. He has been credited with having been the first inventor of the mechanical computer. His machine could solve complex polynomial equations (Isaacson). Poe acknowledges that Babbage’s machine can compute when a programmer controls and anticipates the possible outcomes and solves for the expected results. He argues that the automated chess “Player” would have to be “the most wonderful invention of mankind” to counter the moves of a human opponent, and remains skeptical that the machine can do what Maelzel claimed.
Poe’s report begins with the historical background of the machine. The “chess-player” was invented in 1769 by Wolfgang von Kempelen, who took it to European cities beginning in 1804. It was later purchased by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who was also an early inventor of the automatic music player. Maelzel exhibited the chess-player in European cities and first demonstrated it in the “principal towns” of the United States in 1821. Poe writes: “Baron Kempelen had no scruple in declaring it to be a very ordinary piece of mechanism.” It was “a bagatelle whose effects appeared so marvelous only from the boldness of conception, and the fortunate choices of the methods adopted for promoting the illusion.”
Poe was most concerned that in the publicity about the machine, Maelzel made implicit claims that the “automaton” had the intelligence to regulate its moves. Instead, he proposes an alternative hypothesis: “It is quite certain that the operations of the Automaton are regulated by mind, and by nothing else.” He offers the central research issue for his investigation: “The only question then is of the manner in which human agency is brought to bear. He reasons that any machine created by man could act only in a mathematical or systematic way. The machine, he states, would need to respond to the data it had received within a given set of expected outcomes. Poe’s main argument is that he believes that it would be inconceivable for a machine to anticipate the almost infinite number of possible complex chess moves needed to counter a human opponent.
After reviewing the previous theories about the “automaton,” he concludes that none of them has revealed how the machine makes chess moves. Poe either has not see or has chosen to omit news reports in other cities where the automaton was exposed as a fraud. Nevertheless, to confirm his own conclusion, he makes several visits to the exhibit in Richmond and writes, “Maelzel displays the inside of the machine to prove his point. Its whole interior is crowded with wheels, pinions, levers, and other machinery so that the eyes cannot penetrate but a little distance into the mass.” He observes that Maelzel adds to the intrigue by opening only one of the three doors at a time, opening the front doors of the machine at one time and the back doors at another (see illustration from Poe’s published article on the automaton). Poe describes how the audience reacts to Maelzel’s deceptions:
“In general, every spectator is now thoroughly satisfied of having beheld and completely scrutinized, at one and the same time, every portion of the Automaton, and the idea of any person being concealed in the interior if ever entertained is immediately dismissed as preposterous in the extreme.”
Poe writes that Maelzel’s efforts to demonstrate that no one is inside of the console are designed to support the validity of his claim that the machine reasons according to its artificial intelligence or programming. He emphasizes that that he is not deceived by Maelzel’s illusions. He makes several additional visits to the exhibition to investigate how the machine operates. Poe derives the conclusion that Maelzel was not regulating the board because his back was always turned away from the machine when the machine was making its moves. Maelzel turned around and opened doors in the front and back of the machine in an attempt to give the illusion that no one could be inside of the machine. However, Poe observes that the interio is not fully visible when Maelzel opened any one of the doors. He also reveals that the machine employs concealed mirrors to aid in the deception. He describes Maelzel’s distractive tactics: A chess move is made by the mechanical manipulation of a small concealed man inside of the machine, who controls a “Turk” constructed as a robot. Poe adds: When asked, Maelzel declined to comment on how his automaton worked. Poe concludes that, “We do not believe that any reasonable objection can be urged against this solution of the Automaton Chess-Player.”
Poe’s investigative report demonstrated that he was, from the beginning of his career, interested in exploring technical challenges that required creativity and scientific inquiry. His exposé showed that he was also interested in exploring the boundaries between scientific news and fiction. In addition, he wanted to challenge unrealistic claims of those he was investigating and debunking their myths. The ways that he defined the issues and proposed solutions in “Maelzel’s Chess-Player,” according to Pollin, foreshadowed the scientific methods he established in his later tales of ratiocination. Neil Harris argues that Poe “uncovered the secret of Maelzel’s automatic chess player, and so broke down an illusion with as much skill as he used to create one.” Poe also concluded that the public could be deceived by almost any spectacular false notion supported by circumstantial facts. What appeared to be certainly true, could also be untrue. This story also revealed that Poe had the insight to ask the important question concerning the future, such as: What would the future be like if machines could think? Would automation be an advantage or disadvantage in the future?
In the next Poe and Science, I plan to write about Poe’s published articles on Phrenology.
**This article is extracted from discussion of Poe’s 1836 journalistic investigation, “Maelzel’s Chess Player,” and is part of Murray Ellison’s VCU Master’s Thesis on Poe and the Nineteenth-Century © 2015.
Harris, Neil. Humbug: The Art of P.T. Barnum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Isaacson, Walter. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014.
Kennedy, Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Margenau, Henry. The Scientist. New York: Life Science Library, 1964.
Poe, Edgar A. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume VIII: Early Criticism I. Ed. Harrison, James A. New York: T. Crowell, 1902.
—. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume XIV: Essays and Miscellaneous. Ed. Harrison, James A. New York: T. Crowell, 1902.
—. The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Eds. Burton R. Pollin, and Joseph V. Ridgeley. New York: Gordian Press, 1997.
Pollin, Burton R. “Creator of Words.” Baltimore: Lecture delivered at the Fifty-first Annual Commemoration of the Edgar A. Poe Society, July 7, 1973. Web. 1 March 2015.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998.
www.eapoe.org
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
From train accidents, bridge collapses, and steamboat wrecks, to diseases such as the “White Plague,” or tuberculosis, it is undeniable that the nineteenth century was a witness of tragedy and deep mourning. Although the idea of mourning and mourning culture is not exclusive to the 1800s, it is safe to say the 1800s may have especially romanticized death and dying. Consider Poe, who wrote in The Philosophy of Composition, “the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world…” From post-mortem photography and paintings to mourning brooches and tear vials; from black-bordered stationery to requirements of attire and length of mourning time–all these things make mourning culture of the 1800s worth exploring.
In our collection, there are several objects and manuscripts relating to or similar to mourning objects, which will be examined in this article. Our first object is the death portrait of Virginia Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe. In 1842, Virginia Clemm Poe contracted tuberculosis, said to have been discovered while singing at the piano before her husband and mother Maria. The next five years were years of torment for Edgar, who strived to care for his wife. His faculties were in vain as, without proper medication, the disease claimed Virginia and she died on January 30, 1847. The painted portrait in our collection showcases Virginia just days after her death—her pale pallor and listless eyes display a stirring image. Not only were these haunting death portraits common during this era, but photographs of the deceased were also common during this time. With the introduction of the daguerreotype in the 1840’s, discovered by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in the 1830’s, meant customers could preserve themselves in a silver-tinted memento, which could then be used for display or to wear (which we will look at later on in this article). Because many potential customers could afford neither paintings nor photographs during their lifetime, the post-mortem photograph became a last resort for families in order to preserve the memories of their loved ones. Although we do not carry a post-mortem photograph in our collection—no, that “post-mortem” photograph of Edgar floating about the internet is not, in fact, of Poe—our Virginia death portrait still stands as a lovely example of capturing beauty in death. (Note: We would like to warn our readers that post-mortem photography is not for the faint of heart. Should you look examples of these up, Google may supply disturbing images.)
Just as preserving one’s image was important to the nineteenth-century, preserving other, physical mementos was important. Of course, material items such as clothing or books were held onto; but, in this case, we’re talking about hair. It may seem peculiar that hair was so precious during this era; however, it may not seem odd when compared to our modern culture’s custom of keeping baby teeth after they fall out.
Just as we sometimes tuck away teeth after they’ve done their Tooth Faerie duty, Victorians would snip a lock of hair, either from the living or, in our case, from the deceased, and also tuck it in a safe place. If cut from the deceased, it was most likely used for mourning and memorial purposes. Our museum has a few examples displaying the crafty ways hair was used, including our hair wreath and a lock of Poe’s hair. The former object, the hair wreath, serves as an example of how the living would save their hair, often in a hair receiver, and re-purpose it to create intricate hairy flowers and leaves. Often times as well, tiny, delicate decorations, such as colored pins and pearls were incorporated to enhance the artistic design of the memorial piece. The latter object mentioned, being a lock of Poe’s hair, serves as our example of a post-mortem memento. Not only does our museum own a lock of Poe’s hair, but other locks of hair remain floating about. In 1875, during the disinterment of Poe’s body, the coffin he was in gave way, exposing his corpse before the public. Those standing by proceeded to cut off pieces of Poe’s hair, perhaps to use for their own mournful ceremonies, or, perhaps, to say they owned a piece of Poe. Regardless of their intentions, these post-mortem mementos remain in circulation to this day, and we are especially proud to own a lock. On a side note, I wonder if Edgar woke up one day in his grave, only to discover he had received a bad haircut? A bad hair day makes for a bad day, period. (Read more about the disinterment of Poe here.)
But what would have been the significance of keeping Poe’s lock of hair, for example, except to prove that the man did, in fact, exist at some point, or if not to use in a decorative and complicated hair wreath? Mourning brooches were a fad that seemed to rise during the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, alongside other pieces of mourning jewelry. For example, according to Meredith Woerner in her article, “Love after Death: The Beautiful, Macabre World of Mourning Jewelry,” pocket watches, lockets, fobs (braided hair ropes with a locket, especially used for pocket watches), cufflinks, and rings were used for these purposes (source). Our museum just had a previous showcasing of both Edgar and Virginia’s hair, carefully preserved in lockets, which you can read more about here.
But why wear these lock-laden brooches during a period of mourning? It was socially acceptable, by all means. These brooches, or other various pieces of mourning jewelry, would perfectly accessorize black clothing worn by family members. Pauline Weston Thomas in her article, “Mourning Fashion, Fashion History” for Fashion-Era Online, provides an excellent explanation of the etiquette of mourning-wear by explaining:
“A widow would mourn for two and a half years, with the first year and a day in full mourning. During that time, pieces of the crape covered just about all of a garment at deepest mourning, but the crape was partially removed to reach the period of secondary mourning which lasted nine months. After that the crape was defunct and a widow could wear fancier lusher fabrics or fabric trims made from black velvet and silk and have them adorned with jet trimming, lace, fringe, and ribbons.
In the final six months, a period called half mourning began. Ordinary clothes could be worn in acceptable subdued shades of grey, white or purple, violet, pansy, heliotrope, soft mauve and of course black. Every change was subtle and gradual, beginning firstly with trims of these colors being added to the black dresses. These were the transitional mourning dresses from secondary mourning to the final stage of lesser ordinary half mourning where colors like purple and cream rosettes, bows, belts and streamers along with jet stones or buttons were introduced.
Similar rules applied for the wearing of hats or bonnets. As the mourning progressed, so the hats and bonnets became more trimmed and fancy, whilst veils became shorter until they were eventually removed altogether.” (Source)
It sounds complicated and like tremendous work to remember, amidst the sorrow and grieving, which clothes to and to not wear. However, fashion was an integral facet of the entire process of mourning during this time, and the previously mentioned mementos only catered to the road to healing.
Alongside photos, pendants, and black attire, certain other accessories were sufficient for the healing process. Tear vials also played their part in this somber culture. Lachrymatory predates Christ, as it is referenced in Psalm 56:8, “Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy Book?” (Lachrymatory Online). However, this tradition reappeared in the 1800’s, carried on through the Civil War, and there are even contemporary bottles still being made. But what was the purpose of this device in the Victorian era? These bottles simply collected tears during the stages of grief. Once the tears evaporated, this indicated an end to the mourning period. Perhaps Maria Clemm Poe would have used one of these vials at the graveside of her dear son-in-law Eddy, or Edgar, himself, use one to collect his woeful tears after the death of his Virginia. Although we do not have one in our collection, there is a high probability that these were relevant to Poe throughout his life. Or, perhaps parchments, such as his letters and manuscripts, collected his tears? We wouldn’t be surprised. Although we do not own one in our collection, there is a connection between Poe, these tear vials, and Richmond’s own Monumental Church, which is worth exploring. Monumental Church is known within the Poe community as having been the church that Edgar and his “foster” parents, John and Frances Allan, attended. To be exact, they maintained pew number 80. But how do these tear vials connect with this church, and thus with Poe? According to Mary Ann Sullivan, who has also provided a photo example of the side on which these can be seen, “The portico [of the church] serves as the memorial with unusual symbols–the lacrimals (tear vials) in the frieze” (Source). The significance of these tear vials carries greater weight, which we will reveal with more context. Not only was this church formerly a Richmond Theater where Edgar’s mother, Eliza, had performed; but, it serves as a memorial and as testimony for a tragic occurrence. On December 26, 1811, the Richmond Theater caught ablaze, engulfing the theater in flames and claiming several lives. Monumental Church was rebuilt in its place to honor these lost lives, and thus Edgar and the Allans would have been exposed to these lacrimal symbols—these symbols perpetually representing eternal mourning for the lives tragically lost.
This ties us into our last object of mourning, which we have a number of examples of at our museum. Mourning stationery, such as the letter seen below, was a custom practiced to indicate to those you were writing to whether or not you were still mourning. Considering the tubercular rage that swept the nation, it wouldn’t be shocking if these were being sold in surplus. What is markedly distinctive about this stationery, as compared to regular stationery, is the black bordering. In this example, Rufus Griswold is writing a letter dated May 1843, five months after the death of his wife, Caroline. This is an appropriate amount of time to still be using this stationery, for, according to Victorian Web online, Victorian mourning stationery was used up to a year after the loss of a loved one.
Despite these material objects and mementos, nothing could truly heal a broken heart or replace the corporeal spirit of lost loved ones. However, the condolence these objects and customs brought must not have completely been in vain, for just as some of these customs were being used before Christ, so are other customs still being used today. Perhaps it is time we reincorporate these Victorian mourning customs? Dear reader, would you implement these customs into your personal life?
Charles Babbage’s First Automated Chess Machine on Display in the London Science Museum
Literary Historian, Gerald Kennedy writes, “In Poe’s writing career he worked… as a proofreader, editor, reviewer” of newspapers in Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York—the publishing centers of the United States” (64). These venues exposed his imaginative ideas to the largest possible audience available in the country in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Burton R. Pollin commented in 1973 at the Annual Convention of the Poe Society in Baltimore:
As a journalist, Poe’s attitude about science began to shift from an ambivalent position, as he expressed in his poetry, to a more supportive position. With a reporter’s access to the news, he often wrote enthusiastically about many of the exciting new developments or “treasures” of science. However, it is often hard to determine whether he wrote favorably about science because he was impressed, or if his editors expected him to write positive reports. However, by writing about science as a journalist, he could have it both ways: he could report positively about science, but still keep his personal convictions concealed.
Poe’s first job a journalist began in 1835, when Thomas H. White hired him as a writer for the Southern Literary Messenger (SLM) in Richmond, Virginia. Poe biographer, Arthur Quinn writes that beginning with the December 1835 issue, “Poe did all of the editorial work without credit or title” (251). Burton Polin notes that it was due to Poe’s ability to write attention-grabbing horror and science-fiction stories like, “The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall” (an imaginary balloon voyage to the moon) “that helped to increase the SLM readership from five hundred, when he started, to thirty-five hundred in 1837—the year he resigned” (Collected Writings 62).
Poe’s first science-based journalism article, published in 1836, is about an “automated” chess machine, “Maelzel’s Chess-Player.” Poe demonstrates that he could not support Maelzel’s claims that the “automaton” could reason. He exposed the hoax of the “automated” chess player with creativity, using the tools he would employ in his later detective stories, and classical scientific research to conduct his inquiry. According to Henry Margenau, Francis Bacon first defined the standards of experimental studies in the seventeenth century and they were closely followed by most professional scientists for several centuries. “Bacon offered scientist a fourfold rule of work: observe, measure, explain, and verify” (52). Although Poe often criticized Bacon and his followers, he was committed to the scientific inquiry methods proposed by Bacon in his journalistic reporting…
Poe observes and measures the machine’s capabilities. He rejects Maelzel’s implied claims that the “Player” was an “automaton.” He offers an alternative hypothesis. As Poe writes, “Perhaps no exhibition of the kind has ever elicited so general attention as the Chess-Player of Maelzel. Wherever seen it has been the object of intense curiosity, to all persons who think. The question of its modus operandi is still undetermined.” He is interested in launching an investigation because “we find everywhere men of mechanical genius…who make no scruple in pronouncing the Automaton a pure machine, unconnected with human agency in its movements” (Complete Works XIV 6). He asks readers to ponder the implications for the future if a machine could calculate without human input. He writes, “There is no analogy, whatever, between the operations of the chess-Player and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage. If we chose to call the former a pure machine, we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond comparison, the most wonderful invention of mankind”(9).
Poe is referring to the prototypes of the “Difference Engine.” The machine was introduced in London between 1791 and 1789 by mechanical engineer Charles Babbage, who has been credited with having been the first inventor of the mechanical computer. His machine could solve complex polynomial equations (Isaacson 18). The Difference Engine No. 2 is a working model that has been restored and re-energized by modern engineers. (The photograph of the machine seen in this article courtesy of www.wikimedia.org). It is currently displayed in The London Science Museum (sciencemuseum.org.uk). Poe acknowledges that Babbage’s machine can compute when a human programmer controls and anticipates the possible outcomes and solves for the expected results. Poe argues that the “Player” would have to be “the most wonderful invention of mankind” to counter the moves of a human opponent. However, he is skeptical that the machine can do what Maelzel claimed.
In the December Poe Blog, read how Poe investigates and exposes the Richmond, Virginia exhibition of “Maelzel Automated Chess Player.”
Selected References
Isaacson, Walter. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014.
Kennedy, Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Margenau, Henry. The Scientist. New York: Life Science Library, 1964.
Poe, Edgar A. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume VIII: Early Criticism I. Ed. Harrison, James A. New York: T. Crowell, 1902.
—. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume XIV: Essays and Miscellaneous. Ed. Harrison, James A. New York: T. Crowell, 1902.
—. The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Eds. Burton R. Pollin, and Joseph V. Ridgeley. New York: Gordian Press, 1997.
Pollin, Burton R. “Creator of Words.” Baltimore: Lecture delivered at the Fifty-first Annual Commemoration of the Edgar A. Poe Society, July 7, 1973. Web. 1 March 2015.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998.
Websites:
www.eapoe.org Published by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
Click here for more information on Babbage’s ‘Difference Engine’
*This article is extracted from a discussion of Poe’s 1835 journalistic investigation, “Maelzel’s Chess Player, and is part of Murray Ellison’s VCU Master’s Thesis on Poe and Nineteenth-Century © 2015.
Poe’s early schooling and military training inspire and shape his interest in science. According to Kenneth Silverman, Poe’s secondary education started after his foster parents moved from England to Richmond. In 1821, “Edgar attended the private academy of Joseph H. Clarke,” which served to prepare young gentlemen to obtain “an honorable entrance in any University in the United States.” One of Poe’s classmates wrote a testimonial that he was one of the top students in the class (23). In The Poe Log, Thomas and Jackson list the classes that students typically enrolled in while at the school, including English, Languages (French, Latin, and Greek), Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, Navigation (using celestial observations), Gunnery and Projectiles, Optics, Geography, Maps and Charts, and Astronomy (41, 48). Continuing a description of Poe’s education and experiences, Silverman writes, In February 1826, Edgar Allan Poe was among the first group of students enrolled at the University of Virginia. School records indicate that he was a bright and dedicated student. However, hefty financial and gambling debts to the University and his classmates left him hopelessly in debt. When his foster father refused to continue paying for Poe’s college expenses, he was forced him to drop out of college in March 1827 (Silverman 29-34).
Major William F. Hecker, the author of Private Perry and Mister Poe, writes that Poe enlisted in the United States Army on May 26, 1827, under the alias of Private Poe. He spent three years as an artilleryman stationed for the longest period at Fort Moultrie, in a coastal area of Sullivan’s Island outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Poe spent much of his Army service learning cannon drill and maintenance. This task needed to be performed by a soldier who had extraordinary expertise and skill in the areas of measurement, logistical planning, and design. Army records indicate that Poe was “the most technically competent artillerist in his battery.” He was assigned to “oversee the ammunition supply of the battery.” He was quickly advanced to an artificer, a technical job concerning the “weights and measures of iron and chemicals” (xxxiv). According to Army records, “Poe was the army’s expert bomb artisan, carefully designing, preparing and constructing inter-connected systems of iron and chemicals with the ultimate goal of explosively destroying his creation (xxxv- xxix). It was extraordinary for that time that Poe was promoted to a Sergeant Major in less than two years after he enlisted (xxix). Hecker concludes that Poe’s four years in the Army exposed him to many disparate subjects such as Cryptography, Geography, Oceanography, and Astronomy (xii). Also, he was able to employ many of his training and experiences in his journalistic and fictional works.
Nineteenth-century science and journalism were undergoing dramatic new advances during and after Poe’s military service during the same the time that he was also embarking on a writing career. These next essays will focus on the ways in which his subsequent journalistic news articles, columns, and essays reflected his and the public’s interest in the emerging scientific trends of the nineteenth century. Much scholarship has been dedicated to Poe’s poetry and fiction, but little to his science narratives written in the style of journalism.
George Daniels, in American Science in the Age of Jackson asserts that many of the most important theories and discoveries of the nineteenth century had already “been well-formulated and new subjects of controversy began to appear.” He argues, “Americans had contributed only minimally to the developing body of world science before the twentieth century” (3-4). This period was more important because it led to new ways for the “popularizers,” to explain science to the public (40). During the 1830’s, American journalism was beginning to reflect many of the significant social and technological changes of the nineteenth century. Improvements in printing technologies helped to produce and distribute newspapers and magazines more efficiently and less expensively to the public than had previously been possible. In Discovering the News, Michael Schudson reports, “The development of railroad transportation and telegraphic communications were the necessary preconditions for a cheap, mass-circulation, news-hungry, and independent press” (32). With these changes, newspapers and magazines suddenly were becoming more prevalent to the American public. Also, their ability to influence public attitudes about important issues, such as science, increased as their circulation rose. In 1830, the country had 650 weeklies and 64 dailies, with an average circulation of 78,000. By 1840, there were 1,141 weeklies and 138 dailies, with an average circulation of 300,000 (14). Schudson argues that early nineteenth-century penny newspapers and journals “invented the modern concept of the news.” In the “1830’s newspapers also began to reflect the activities of an increasingly varied, urban, and middle-class society” (22-23). The public’s interest in science also created the need for a new class of writers who could present scientific information in ways that the public could understand. At the same time, new print media sources, such as newspapers, journals, and encyclopedias offered these writers new powerful methods of communicating about science to the public.
It is, therefore, likely that the increased position of newspapers and magazines in the 1830’s influenced Poe’s decision to publish his works in these new powerful communication mediums. Gerald Kennedy writes, “In Poe’s writing career he worked… as a “proofreader, editor, reviewer” of newspapers in Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York—the publishing centers of the United States” (64). These venues also provided him with the “shelter in some happier star” to bring his imaginative ideas to the largest possible audience. Burton R. Pollin comments, in 1973, at the Annual Convention of the Poe Society in Baltimore, “Poe’s whole life was devoted to language-making. Early in his career as a poet, the niceties and refinements of words engaged his passionate devotion. He became a magazinist, as he honorifically called himself, in an age when the trend was “Magazine-ward.” To “use a Poe coinage; then he produced a stream of tales, reviews, essays, and lectures (www.eapoe.org). As a journalist, Poe’s attitude about science began to shift from an ambivalent to a more supportive position. With a reporter’s access to the news, he often wrote enthusiastically about many of the exciting new developments or “treasures” of science. It is hard to determine whether he wrote favorably about science because he was impressed about his topics, or if his editors expected him to write positive reports. By writing about science as a journalist, he could have it both ways: he could report about science, but still keep his personal convictions concealed. Works from this chapter, unless otherwise indicated, will cite from several volumes of the Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, by James Harrison. In the next column, I will discuss one of Poe’s first investigative reports for the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, “Maazel’s Chess-Player.”
**Excerpt from Murray Ellison’s VCU MA Thesis on Poe and 19th-Century Science (© 2015).
Daniels, George. American Science in the Age of Jackson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.
Hecker, William F. Private Perry and Mister Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Kennedy, Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Poe. Edgar A. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume XIV: Essays and Miscellaneous. Ed. Harrison, James A. New York: T. Crowell, 1902.
Pollin, Burton R. “Creator of Words.” Baltimore: Lecture delivered at the Fifty-first Annual Commemoration of the Edgar A. Poe Society, July 7, 1973. Web. 1 March 2015.
Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books, 1978.
Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar Allan Poe: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Dr. Murray Ellison received a Master’s in Education from Temple University (1973), a Master’s Degree of Arts in English Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University (2015), and a Doctorate in Education at Virginia Tech (1988). He is married and has three adult daughters. He retired as the Virginia Director of Community Corrections for the Department of Correctional Education in 2009. He is the founder and chief editor of this literary blog and is an editor for the International Correctional Education Journal. He is Co-Editor of the 2017 Poetry Book, Mystic Verses by Shambhushivananda. He also serves as a board member, volunteer tour guide, and the Facilities Planning Committee Coordinator at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, and writes a monthly column for the Museum website, thepoeblog.org. He has taught literature classes on Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and F.Scott Fitzgerald (thus far) at the OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond. He is the organizer and Coördinator of The First Fridays Classic Book Club, and is the co-organizer, along with Rebecca Elizabeth Jones, of the VCU Working Titles Book Club. Contact Murray at ellisonms2@vcu.edu, or leave a Comment at the bottom of any post.
