Edgar Allan Poe Museum (Richmond)

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The Edgar Allan Poe Museum is a museum located in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Though Poe never lived in the building, it serves to commemorate his time living in Richmond. The museum holds one of the world's largest collections of original manuscripts, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. The museum also provides an overview early 19th century Richmond, where Poe lived and worked. The museum features the life and career of Edgar Allan Poe by documenting his accomplishments with pictures, relics, and verse, and focusing on his many years in Richmond.

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[edit] History

In 1911, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities saved the house and opened it in 1922 as the Old Stone House. Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) suggests that the house was built in 1754. The earliest records of the house date to 1783 in a city land tax book. [1]

The museum is only blocks away from the sites of Poe's Richmond homes and place of employment, the Southern Literary Messenger. Poe never lived in this home. Its completion, originally as the "Edgar Allan Poe Shrine", was announced on October 7, 1921:

This day... at a first expense of about $20,000, completes the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine, and marks the seventy-second anniversary of the death of the poet. If he is aware of mundane affairs he must be pleased to find that, at length, there has been reared to his memory a lasting and appropriate memorial.[2]

[edit] Exhibits

Of particular note, the museum has a room dedicated to the many theories of Poe's death as well as a scaled replica model of Richmond as it looked during Poe's lifetime. Another room includes many first and early editions of Poe's works including an 1845 publication of "The Raven" and one of only 12 known existing copies of Poe's first collection Tamerlane and Other Poems.[3] The "Raven Room" features illustrations of the poem by artist James William Carling.

A courtyard area behind the museum includes a garden inspired by Poe's poem "To One in Paradise." This space is also available for weddings.[4]

[edit] See also

Edgar Allan Poe Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.apva.org/oldstonehouse/ APVA: Old Stone House
  2. ^ Phillips, Mary E. Edgar Allan Poe: The Man. Chicago: The John C. Winston Company, 1926. p. 1524-1525
  3. ^ Rose, Lloyd. "Yo, Poe: In Richmond, a museum rises from the dead." The Washington Post, May 10, 1998.
  4. ^ Neimeyer, Mark. "Poe and popular culture" as collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, Kevin J. Hayes, editor. Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521797276 p. 212

[edit] External links


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