Another Mystery in the Museum

Among the large and miscellaneous material in the James Howard Whitty Collection at Duke University one may find a set of photostats from various rare newspapers with Poe-related material. Several of these clippings are from the very scarce Philadelphia Saturday Museum, including some from issues that are otherwise unlocated. The most important Poe-related item to appear in the Museum is a biographical article about Poe, with a significant sampling of his poetry. That article was initially printed in the Museum for February 25, 1843, and reprinted, with some revisions, in the issue for March 4, 1843.Whitty appears to have had access to a set of clippings from the Museum, including the biographical article, for which the source is not specified and may now be considered lost, at least for the moment. As noted in my article "Mystery in the Museum" (Poe Studies 46 2013: 98–101), it is likely that the clippings belonged to Whitty's fellow Richmonder James Henry Rindfleisch (1894–1940). Carefully checking the text of the article and poems in those clippings against that in the surviving copies of the March 4, 1843, reprint, which is slightly revised and expands the selections with one additional poem, strongly suggests that the biographical and poetical clippings are from the February 25, 1843, printing and are likely the only surviving copies of that earlier form. In going through the collection, I came across another clipping that is clearly related, describing the beginning of the anticipated series on "Our Poets and Poetry." Although it is separated from the rest of the issue, it further suggests that, along with the clippings of the fuller article, all are from the February issue, as the March 4 issue, which does survive in complete form, does not include an item like that contained in this clipping.A transcript of this clipping, not previously reprinted since 1843, follows:The photostat of the clipping shows that it was not only cut out of the original issue but also torn down the middle, although still complete. It should be noted that both versions of the article end with a comment that echoes the statement in the clipping above: "Our portrait conveys a tolerably correct idea of the man." Some of the contents are worthy of fuller explanation.William (1807–1874) and Frederick (1809–1879) Langenheim were German-born brothers who immigrated to the United States in 1834 and 1840, respectively. William lived in Texas and Florida before his brother joined him here, and they settled in Philadelphia by 1842, where they established a prominent photography studio (see fig. 2). By 1846, they had perfected a technique of hand-coloring daguerreotypes, for which William was granted a patent. They introduced stereoscopic photography to America in 1850. Among other firsts, they took a five-part panoramic view of Niagara Falls, which gained international attention, and the first known American photograph of an eclipse, in eight stages. Among scholars of the history of photography, they are considered seminal figures.Edward J. Pinkerton was a lithographer in Philadelphia. He had worked for Peter Stephen Duval (1804/5–86), who was one of the most prominent lithographers in Philadelphia and produced the illustration plates for The Conchologist's First Book, with which Poe was closely associated in 1839. Little is known about his biography. He was apparently born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and was later one of the partners in the firm of Pinkerton, Wagner & McGuigan. McElroy's Philadelphia City Directory for 1843 lists E. J. Pinkerton as a lithographer at 101 Chestnut. Charles N. Parmelee was a woodcut engraver, who had previously provided a number of illustrations, along with several other artists, for Lardner's Outlines of Universal History, published in Philadelphia by Hogan & Thompson in 1835. In 1847, Pinkerton and Parmelee provided illustrations for Kriss Kringle's Raree Show: For Good Boys and Girls (New York: Wm. H. Murphy).There is no complete collection with a full run of surviving issues of the Museum for this period. Consequently, it is not possible to evaluate the promise of other articles in the series nor to compare the poses and composition. In the March 4, 1843, issue, there is a short note on page 2, in a section titled "TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS,"An image and article of Dewitt Clinton appears on the front page of the issue for September 23, 1843, but no longer touted as "Poets and Poetry of Philadelphia."In his book on The Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1989), Michael Deas attributes the source for the Museum engraving as the McKee daguerreotype (p. 12). Deas provides further details about the engraving on pages 15–18 and the photographic image that seems to be associated with it on pages 12–15. Assuming that this assumption is correct, and that the McKee image or another taken at the same sitting served as the basis for the engraving in the Museum, then the photographers for the McKee daguerreotype have now been identified. It is an open question if the published portrait is a free interpretation of the McKee image, or another plate was taken with Poe sitting at a table in a way that more closely resembled the engraving. No trace has been found of the McKee daguerreotype since 1905, but it is surely quite reasonable that it still exists somewhere, neglected, forgotten, erroneously cataloged, or even in a private collection. Perhaps the additional information about the original photographers will serve as an impetus and assist the search for the McKee or other images taken at the same sitting that have not yet been recognized as Poe.