The lettering, rules, ornaments, stamps, cloths, papers, and portraits of Leaves of Grass, from the first edition of 1855 and the edition of 1860. Each is shown as printed or as photographed: the ink and the gold lifted from photographs of the books; the stamps, cloths, papers, and portraits as photographed.
Lettering
Two titles drawn for Leaves of Grass and used for no other words.
Leaves of Grass, its letters sprouting roots and leaves.From the front cover of the first edition, 1855, stamped in gold. The Boston Public Library’s copy; its gold lettering brightened to match the gilt rules on the same cover.
Leaves of GRASS, flourished.From the title page of the 1860 edition.
Rules and borders
From the 1860 edition, and the frame round the 1855 cover.
The starred rule.From the title page of the 1860 edition.
A short rule.From page 5, under the title of the first poem, “Proto-Leaf.”
A short rule, its middle a diamond.From page iii, under the heading Contents.
The triple gilt rule.From the covers of the first edition, 1855, round the front and the back. Drawn here in lines, as stanza draws a border.
Head-pieces and tail-pieces
From the 1860 edition. Writers on stanza can add any of them to a poem.
Acanthus between scrolls.From page 5, at the head of the first poem, “Proto-Leaf.”
Scrolls about two rings.From page iii, at the head of the table of contents.
A flower between poems.From page 403, between the two poems called “To You.”
The tail-piece.From page 403, where it ends the book.
Emblems
From the 1860 edition: the butterfly on its pages, and the brass stamps for its covers and spine.
Whitman’s butterfly.From page iv, where it ends the table of contents. Stanza’s drawing of it.
The sun rising over the sea.From the brass stamp that pressed it into the back cover. A photograph of the stamp itself, which prints in mirror image.
The globe on a cloud.From the brass stamp that pressed it into the front cover. A photograph of the stamp itself, which prints in mirror image.
Walt Whitman, in an oval.From a brass stamp for the spine. A photograph of the stamp itself, which prints in mirror image.
Cloths and papers
From the bindings, as photographed.
Ribbed cloth, dark green.From the cover of the first edition, 1855, the Boston Public Library’s copy.
Marbled paper.From the front endpaper of the first edition, 1855, the Boston Public Library’s copy.
Portraits
The frontispieces of 1855 and 1860, and the photograph of 1887 on his home.
At thirty-five, in shirtsleeves.The frontispiece of the first edition, 1855: an engraving after Gabriel Harrison’s daguerreotype of July 1854.
At forty.The frontispiece of the 1860 edition: Stephen Alonzo Schoff’s engraving after Charles Hine’s portrait.
At sixty-seven.George C. Cox’s photograph of April 15, 1887.
The pictures: the Boston Public Library (the 1855 cover and endpaper); the Library of Congress (the 1855 frontispiece, the 1860 brass stamps, and Cox’s photograph, restored by Adam Cuerden); the Internet Archive (the 1860 edition: the University of California’s and the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection’s copies, each most likely a later printing from his plates, made without his leave; the designs and the plates are his). Each is in the public domain in the United States.
