| TITLE
| Sarah Helen Whitman |
| CREATOR | Thompson, Cephas Giovanni, 1809-1888 |
| DATE | 1838 |
| DIMENSIONS | 24 x 19.5 in. |
| ORIGINAL FORMAT | Painting |
| MEDIUM | Oil on canvas |
| PHYSICAL NOTE | Portrait of Providence poet, Sarah Helen Whitman, in the widow’s bonnet and aged 35 years old |
| DONOR | Donated by William F. Channing |
| DATE OF ACCESSION | 1884 |
| LOCATION | Providence Athenæum: Art Room |
Although Sarah Helen Whitman is most commonly known for her courtship with Edgar Allan Poe, conducted among the stacks of the Providence Athenæum in 1848, she was also an important literary figure in her own right. A poet herself, she was closely affiliated with prominent authors in Boston and New York, and a hostess of literary salons in Providence.
This work was painted by artist Cephas Giovanni Thompson, and shows Whitman in the mourning cap she wore after the 1833 death of her husband, John Winslow Whitman. A 1923 essay on Poe and Whitman offers a persuasive interpretation of the painting as portraying Whitman’s charm, forceful intellect, and nonconformist tendencies, referring to her pink ribbons as "the dainty rebel's badge."
Lancaster, Jane.
Inquire Within: A Social History of the Providence Athenæum Since 1753. Providence Athenæum, 2003, pp. 73-80, 94.
"Poe & Whitman."
The Providence Athenæum, 2019,
www.providenceathenaeum.org/about/history/poe-whitman/. Accessed 26 June 2019.
"Exhibits/Past Exhibits 2019."
The Providence Athenæum, 2019,
www.providenceathenaeum.org/visit/exhibits/past-exhibits-2019/. Accessed 26 June 2019.
"Sarah Helen Whitman."
The Providence Athenæum, 2019,
www.providenceathenaeum.org/collections/art-collection/painting/. Accessed 28 June 2019.
Robe, Margaret. “Sarah Helen Whitman.” 2016. ARTH 401: Cataloguing Curiosity, Wheaton College, student paper.
Leonard, Grace Fisher.
The Providence Athenæum: A Brief History. Providence, Privately Printed, 1939.
Bailey, Margaret Emerson. "
Dove and Raven".
The Atlantic Monthly. Nov. 1923, pp. 647-656.