The Museum Collection

Etching of Poe by Lewis Lefort

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Creator:	Lewis Lefort
Date:	1892
Format:	Etching on Paper
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Collection:	Poe Foundation, Inc.
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Description:

This etching (a kind of print made by etching lines into a prepared metal printing plate using acid) was made in 1892, well after the subject's death in 1849. The image is based on the 1848 "Whitman" daguerreotype of Poe taken in Providence, Rhode Island, but the artist, Lewis Lefort, has added ravens in reference to Poe's poem "The Raven" and a strange skull-shaped beetle similar to the one described in Poe's story "The Gold-Bug."