Camden, New Jersey
Culture, General, History, Historic House
In 1884, Walt Whitman purchased a modest, two-story frame house on Mickle Street for $1,750. It is the only house he ever owned. He lived there until his death in 1892, at the age of seventy-two. During his years in Camden, Whitman became a friend of the Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins. These two giants of nineteenth-century American culture found much to admire in each other's work. Each in his own medium broke with conventions, creating something new and distinctively American. Eakins photographed Whitman and painted his portrait.