Edgar Allan Poe’s envelope to Sarah Helen Whitman — June 15, 1848
View the locally preserved envelope addressed by Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, postmarked June 15, with a note identifying the enclosed manuscript of To Helen. Includes the original scan, a PDF and searchable reading.
Preserved image of the addressed face of an envelope in the American Antiquarian Society collection. It is addressed in Poe’s hand to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence, Rhode Island, and bears a New-York June 15 postmark, a five-cent marking, and the handwritten word Paid. The year 1848 comes from the scholarly correspondence checklist; it is not printed in the visible postmark. The lower-left annotation says the envelope contained the manuscript of the lines to Helen. This is an envelope record, not an acquired letter, poem manuscript or portrait. Only the displayed addressed face was acquired; the reverse is not included. The supplied 3065 × 1887 pixel image is preserved unchanged and embedded unchanged in the reading PDF. The short reading was transcribed independently from the image. This object is in the general Poe archive and research list, outside the verified letter map.
Original publication
Edgar Allan Poe’s envelope to Sarah Helen Whitman — June 15, 1848
Date
1848-06-15
Credits
Edgar Allan Poe (address); Sarah Helen Whitman (attributed annotation); American Antiquarian Society (source image)
Published in
New York; addressed to Providence, Rhode Island
Where to find it
1 addressed envelope face
Reference collection
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts
Collection reference
RCL-713a; Tatman gift (individual shelfmark not supplied by public image page)
Recipient, postmark, Paid notation and manuscript annotation visually checked. Date year supplied by checklist and not claimed visible. Key, date/correspondent and file hashes checked against holdings. Envelope contents distinguished from portrait described in blog prose.
HOW FAR THIS HAS BEEN CHECKED
File / copy authenticity
Preserved files carry a SHA-256 fingerprint fixed at ingest; whether those bytes match the original capture is not independently verified.
Transcription / extraction
Each reading-text file shows its recorded review status below.
Independent reading — address, postmark and annotation
Preserved image of the addressed face of an envelope in the American Antiquarian Society collection. It is addressed in Poe’s hand to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence, Rhode Island, and bears a New-York June 15 postmark, a five-cent marking, and the handwritten word Paid. The year 1848 comes from the scholarly correspondence checklist; it is not printed in the visible postmark. The lower-left annotation says the envelope contained the manuscript of the lines to Helen. This is an envelope record, not an acquired letter, poem manuscript or portrait. Only the displayed addressed face was acquired; the reverse is not included. The supplied 3065 × 1887 pixel image is preserved unchanged and embedded unchanged in the reading PDF. The short reading was transcribed independently from the image. This object is in the general Poe archive and research list, outside the verified letter map.
Preserved image of the addressed face of an envelope in the American Antiquarian Society collection. It is addressed in Poe’s hand to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence, Rhode Island, and bears a New-York June 15 postmark, a five-cent marking, and the handwritten word Paid. The year 1848 comes from the scholarly correspondence checklist; it is not printed in the visible postmark. The lower-left annotation says the envelope contained the manuscript of the lines to Helen. This is an envelope record, not an acquired letter, poem manuscript or portrait. Only the displayed addressed face was acquired; the reverse is not included. The supplied 3065 × 1887 pixel image is preserved unchanged and embedded unchanged in the reading PDF. The short reading was transcribed independently from the image. This object is in the general Poe archive and research list, outside the verified letter map.
Preserved image of the addressed face of an envelope in the American Antiquarian Society collection. It is addressed in Poe’s hand to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence, Rhode Island, and bears a New-York June 15 postmark, a five-cent marking, and the handwritten word Paid. The year 1848 comes from the scholarly correspondence checklist; it is not printed in the visible postmark. The lower-left annotation says the envelope contained the manuscript of the lines to Helen. This is an envelope record, not an acquired letter, poem manuscript or portrait. Only the displayed addressed face was acquired; the reverse is not included. The supplied 3065 × 1887 pixel image is preserved unchanged and embedded unchanged in the reading PDF. The short reading was transcribed independently from the image. This object is in the general Poe archive and research list, outside the verified letter map.
Compare reading text with the preserved source. Line breaks and spacing are retained; long lines wrap to fit the screen. A file's role does not establish that its text has been checked.
Independent reading — address, postmark and annotation
Reading transcription · Review label: Known limitations
Edgar Allan Poe’s envelope to Sarah Helen Whitman — June 15, 1848
Preserved image of the addressed face of an envelope in the American Antiquarian Society collection. It is addressed in Poe’s hand to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence, Rhode Island, and bears a New-York June 15 postmark, a five-cent marking, and the handwritten word Paid. The year 1848 comes from the scholarly correspondence checklist; it is not printed in the visible postmark. The lower-left annotation says the envelope contained the manuscript of the lines to Helen. This is an envelope record, not an acquired letter, poem manuscript or portrait. Only the displayed addressed face was acquired; the reverse is not included. The supplied 3065 × 1887 pixel image is preserved unchanged and embedded unchanged in the reading PDF. The short reading was transcribed independently from the image. This object is in the general Poe archive and research list, outside the verified letter map.
Address, in Poe’s hand:
Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman,
Providence,
R. I.
Postal notation:
Paid
Postmark:
NEW-YORK
15
JUN
5 cts.
Historical annotation at lower left, attributed to Whitman by the scholarly account:
This contained the MS
of the lines to “Helen”.
Source: American Antiquarian Society; image displayed in Lauren Hewes, How to Impress the Modern Teen, or the Power of Poe (June 2013). Identification checked against correspondence checklist RCL-713a and the Society’s 1946 obituary of Charles T. Tatman. The later annotation identifies a poem manuscript; this record does not repeat the blog’s conflicting suggestion that the envelope carried a portrait.
“Edgar Allan Poe’s envelope to Sarah Helen Whitman — June 15, 1848.” 1848-06-15. Edgar Allan Poe’s envelope to Sarah Helen Whitman — June 15, 1848. Crypt of Echoes evidence ID LED-2026-78fc4a5bd4874577929d52feba13f553. https://cryptofechoes.com/evidence/LED-2026-78fc4a5bd4874577929d52feba13f553. Accessed [date].
Catalogue citation: Envelope addressed by Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, postmarked June 15 [1848]. American Antiquarian Society; gift of Anna Tatman in memory of Charles T. Tatman. Correspondence checklist RCL-713a. Public source image: Past is Present, How to Impress the Modern Teen, or the Power of Poe (June 2013), Poe-Envelope.jpg. Provenance also described in American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, April 1946, pp. 14–15.
Underlying nineteenth-century address, postal markings and historical annotation; faithful image of the envelope face. Source credit: American Antiquarian Society, collection presented by Anna Tatman in memory of Charles T. Tatman. No modern blog prose or portrait is reproduced. The archive does not claim an express image license granted by the repository.
