Bolton Archives holds an extensive collection of letters, photographs and publications related to the Bolton Whitman Fellowship. Letters include direct correspondence between Whitman and members of the Fellowship and close friends of Whitman such as Horace Traubel and Dr R. M. Bucke.

Whitman's link with Bolton

The central figure in the group was J. W. Wallace who was a draughtsman with the Bolton architectural firm, Bradshaw Gass (later Bradshaw, Gass and Hope).

The first meetings were held in his house in Eagle Street, Bolton, about 1885. Another prominent member of the Fellowship was Doctor John Johnston, a medical practitioner in Bolton who came originally from Annan in Dumfriesshire.

Although Wallace moved to Adlington in the early 1890s, the group continued to meet in members’ houses. Both Wallace and Johnston visited Walt Whitman in America and the Bolton Fellowship received visits from some of the poet’s prominent American friends and supporters.

Members of the Bolton group also had close contacts with a number of leading political and literary figures including Edward Carpenter, Katherine and John Bruce Glasier, and Keir Hardie. The collection includes publications of these individuals as well as correspondence with them.

Continuing local celebration of Whitman's life and work

The most important day in the calendar of the Bolton Fellowship was Walt Whitman’s birthday, the 31st May, which was usually celebrated with an open air tea party and toasts from Whitman’s Loving Cup (presented to the group in 1894).

Although its activities reached their heyday in late Victorian and Edwardian times, the Fellowship continued into the 1950s, largely through the influence of Wallace’s adopted daughter, friend and housekeeper Minnie Whiteside and John Ormrod of Walker Fold.

In recent years the Fellowship has been revived and the celebration of 31st May continues.

The Collection

Bolton Archive and Local Studies Service continues to collect significant current publications about Walt Whitman. Correspondents include Whitman’s close friends Horace Traubel and Dr R. M. Bucke. The collection includes a large number of publications by and about the poet.

Other records relating to the group are the papers of Dr John Johnston. 

The following list illustrates some of the collection holdings.

• Works by Walt Whitman (B811)
• Works about Walt Whitman (B819)
• Bolton Whitman Fellowship Archive (ZWN)
• Bolton Whitman Fellowship Papers, American Whitman Fellowship Papers, Wallace, Ormrod, Traubel, Nightingale and other Correspondence, Fellowship Revival Papers, Photographs, Cuttings, Ephemera (including Whitman’s Canary and Loving Cup) 1870-1992