INTRODUCTION
Like many other readers of their era, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were fascinated by maps, travel stories, and the lure of far-off places. The nineteenth century marked the culmination of the age of exploration, from Lewis and Clark's 1804-6 trip to the Pacific to Stanley's penetration into parts of Africa previously unknown to the West. The world seemed to widen as readers of newly popular illustrated magazines could follow these travelers and picture their exploits. At the same time, advances in transportation technology- the steamboat, the railroad- made the world smaller, more intimate, more accessible. The nature of space, and the human relationship to it, was changing dramatically.

WHY GEOGRAPHY?
An atlas not only describes the known world, it systematizes that world. By organizing individual localities into regions, continents, and hemispheres, a geographical system implicitly tells readers how to generalize about places and people. It also orients us with directional markers: "the East" always means "east of us," reflecting the assumptions and biases of the map-makers. But such directional markers are a necessary way to begin the process of defining oneself: "where am I?" also means "where am I in relation to others?" As poets who were deeply involved in the search for the meaning of the self, Whitman and Dickinson thought seriously about space and location.

HOW TO USE THIS SITE
The list below suggests several themes for your own exploration. Each page contains an overview, some related excerpts from poems, images, and related links. If you click on a thumbnail image, a larger, more detailed image will appear.

This icon will always bring you back to this page.