Hello History Hatters!
Walt Whitman is a famous poet who once lived and worked in Washington, DC,
but have you ever wondered why his words are etched into the Dupont Circle North Metro entrance?
We ascend from the tunnel surrounded by
Whitman's words from his poem "The Wound Dresser":
"Thus in silence and dreams projections, returning, resuming, I thread my way
through the hospitals, the hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young, some suffer so much,
I recall the experience sweet and sad."
Whitman served as a hospital volunteer during the Civil War.
While today, visitors can enjoy the District's beautiful wharf area,
during the Civil War, this area would have been filled with ships
unloading wounded soldiers from a war that ultimately resulted in 600,000 casualties.
Historian Charles B. Flood wrote: "
Steamboats with their whistles blaring and harsh ghostly tones landed at the 6th Street wharfs in
downtown Washington, where long lines of horse-drawn ambulances waited to take the wounded
to Washington's 21 overcrowded hospitals."
Today, the old Patent Office Building serves as the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
During the Civil War, it was one of the main hospitals where Whitman visited
wounded soldiers. Soldiers were housed in the galleries,
which then held models of inventions awaiting patents.
Even if soldiers were fortunate enough to receive life-saving medical care,
they were often alone and away from their families, many for the first times in their lives.
Most of the young wounded soldiers were in their teens or early twenties.
Whitman made his rounds in the hospitals, getting to know each of the wounded men.
He delivered special items to those who'd made requests during one of his
prior visits. Whitman read to soldiers and wrote letters to their families
when the soldiers, themselves, could not.
Dupont Circle has long been recognized as the historic LGBTQ neighborhood in our nation's capital.
For more than 40 years, pride activities have taken place here.
The Dupont Circle fountain served as a rallying point for protesters seeking federal action to
address the HIV/AIDS crisis during the Reagan Administration.
So how did Whitman become the symbol memorializing those who struggled against the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
Well, in addition to caring for Union soldiers, Washington is also the
place where Whitman met the love of his life, Peter Doyle.
Doyle was an Irish immigrant and a former Confederate soldier.
After being briefly imprisoned in Washington by Union forces,
he became a blacksmith and a conductor of a horse-drawn streetcar.
It was on a cold night in 1865, when Whitman entered Doyle'sstreetcar, as its lone passenger,
the two began their 27-year relationship. Whitman was nearly twice Doyle's age
and some claim Doyle served as Whitman's muse.
Others speculate Doyle's first-hand account of President Lincoln's
assassination inspired Whitman's "Oh Captain! My Captain!" poem and his "Death of Abraham Lincoln" speech.
Although a scholarly debate remains about Whitman's sexual orientation,
to many, Whitman is a gay icon.
This fact, coupled with his history of serving the wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War,
is not only enshrined in the Dupont Circle Metro entrance, but also in one of the
Washington area's most prominent organizations, "Whitman Walker Health,"
an organization dedicated to offering affirming community-based health and
wellness services to all with a special expertise in LGBTQ and HIV care.
This organization is named after Walt Whitman and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker,
a Civil War-era DC physician and women's rights activist.
It is comforting to know that the beautiful legacy of Whitman's care of those in need lives on through
the staff and volunteers at Whitman Walker Health.
Hopefully, the next time you ride the Metro at Dupont Circle
you'll no longer look upon Whitman's words with mystery,
now that you know their history.