The Poe Museum or the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

located in the

Shockoe Bottom Shockoe Bottom (also known historically as Shockoe Valley) is an area in Richmond, Virginia, just east of downtown, along the James River. Located between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom contains much of the land included in Colone ...

neighborhood of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, dedicated to American writer

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

. 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

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

s, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. The museum also provides an overview of early 19th century Richmond, where Poe lived and worked. The museum features the life and career of Poe by documenting his accomplishments with pictures, relics, and verse, and focusing on his many years in Richmond.

Old Stone House

The Poe Museum is located at the "Old Stone House", built circa 1740Scott, Mary Wingfield, ''Houses of Old Richmond'', The Valentine Museum, Richmond, 1941, pp 7-10 and cited as the oldest original residential building in Richmond.APVA: Old Stone House
It was built by Jacob Ege,Scott, Mary Wingfield, ''op. cit'' pp 7-10 who immigrated from Germany to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in 1738 and came to the James River Settlements and Col. Wm. Byrd's land grant (now known as Richmond) in the company of the family of his fiancée, Maria Dorothea Scheerer, whom he later married; the house was a "Home for the Bride." (One of Jacob's nephews,

George Ege George Ege (March 9, 1748December 14, 1829) was a United States Congressman, elected to the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Biography He was born in Germantown in the Province of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, to Anna Catherine ( ...

, was a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Berks County, Pennsylvania Berks County ( Pennsylvania German: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading. The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware Ri ...

.) Dendrochronology suggests that additional construction on the house occurred in 1754. Jacob Ege died in 1762. Samuel Ege, the son of Jacob and a Richmond flour inspector, owned the house in 1782 when it first appeared on a tax register.Scott Bergman, Sandi Bergman, ''Haunted Richmond: The Shadows of Shockoe'', Charleston 2007, p. 102
Google Books In 1824, when the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...

revisited Richmond, a volunteer company of young Richmonders, the Junior Morgan Riflemen, rode in procession along Lafayette's carriage. One of the riflemen, the then 15-year-old Edgar Allan Poe, stood as honorguard outside the Ege house as Lafayette visited its inhabitants. The house remained in possession of the Ege family until 1911.

Museum history

Amidst Poe's centennial in 1909, a group of Richmond residents campaigned for the city to better recognize the writer. Citizens asked the city council to erect a statue of Poe on

Monument Avenue Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. ...

, but were turned down because he was deemed a disreputable character. The same group went on to found the Poe Museum. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called 1909 a banner year for acknowledgement of the importance of Poe, mentioning the Richmond museum. In 1911,

Preservation Virginia Founded in 1889, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group. In 2003 the organization adopted the new name APVA Preservation Virginia to reflect a broader focus o ...

(formerly known as the

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Founded in 1889, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group. In 2003 the organization adopted the new name APVA Preservation Virginia to reflect a broader focus ...

) saved the house and opened it in 1922 as the Old Stone House. The museum is only blocks away from the sites of Poe's Richmond homes and place of employment, the ''

Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some var ...

''. It is also a few blocks from the grave of his mother

Eliza Poe Eliza Poe ( Elizabeth Arnold; formerly Hopkins; 1787 – December 8, 1811) was an English actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe. Life and career Elizabeth Arnold was born to Henry and Elizabeth Arnold in London in th ...

who was buried in Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood, in the graveyard of St John's Church. 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.

Actor

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...

, who had played in numerous film roles based on Poe stories, was a noted fan of the author. He visited the museum in 1975 and had his photo taken with the museum's renowned stuffed raven. In 2014, his daughter

Victoria Price Mary Victoria Price (born April 27, 1962) is an American public speaker and the author of the inspirational memoir, ''The Way of Being Lost: A Road Trip to My Truest Self'' and ''Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography''. She currently spends much ...

visited the museum, saying that Poe had been such a part of her life that she thought of him as her uncle. In 2016 Victoria Price returned to Richmond as part of a film festival featuring Poe films. The festival, in addition to a ''Poe Goes to the Movies'' ''Unhappy Hour'' with Victoria Price at the Poe Museum, presented films at Richmond's historic

Byrd Theatre The Byrd Theatre is a cinema in the Carytown neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. It was named after William Byrd II, the founder of the city. The theater opened on December 24, 1928 to much excitement and is affectionately referred to as "Richmon ...

and ''An Evening with Victoria Price'' at the Cultural Arts Center in

Glen Allen, Virginia Glen Allen is a census-designated place (CDP) in Henrico County, Virginia, United States. The population was 16,187 as of the 2020 Census, up from 14,774 at the 2010 census. Areas outside the CDP which use a "Glen Allen" mailing address include r ...

Exhibits

The Poe Museum's three buildings contain exhibits focusing on different aspects of the author's life and legacy. The parlor of the Old Stone House is used for the display of furniture from the homes in which Edgar Poe and his sister

Rosalie Mackenzie Poe Rosalie Mackenzie Poe (December 1810 – July 21, 1874) was an American poet and the sister of Edgar Allan Poe.Weiss, Susan Archer, “The Sister of Edgar A. Poe,” ''Continent'', vol. III, no. 6, June 27, 1883, pp. 816-819 Early life and fam ...

lived. Of special interest in this room is a piano that once belonged to Poe's sister and Edgar's childhood bed. The Elizabeth Arnold Poe Memorial Building includes many first and early editions of Poe's works including an 1845 publication of "

The Raven "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myst ...

" and one of only 12 known existing copies of Poe's first collection ''

Tamerlane and Other Poems ''Tamerlane and Other Poems'' is the first published work by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The short collection of poems was first published in 1827. Today, it is believed only 12 copies of the collection still exist. Poe abandoned his foster ...

.'' Manuscripts and rare early daguerreotypes and portraits are also exhibited there. The North Building is dedicated to exploring Poe's mysterious death. Among the highlights of the collection displayed are Poe's vest, trunk, walking stick and a lock of his hair. There are over 26 published theories on Poe's death, but the museum postulates that the 19th century practice of

Cooping Cooping was a form of electoral fraud in the United States, often cited in relation to the death of Edgar Allan Poe in October 1849, by which citizens were kidnapped off the street and forced to vote, often several times over, for an election c ...

could have been a contributor to his death. A courtyard area behind the museum includes a garden inspired by Poe's poem " To One in Paradise." The Enchanted Garden has a fountain, a shrine, and several gardens inspired by Poe's writing, such as a rock inscribed with a character's name from "A Tale of The Ragged Mountains" and a brick wall similar to the one described in "William Wilson." The garden is also home to the two resident cats, Edgar and Pluto. The two black cats were found as stay kittens behind the Shrine and have lived at the museum ever since. This space is also available for weddings.Poe Museum homepage - weddings

References

External links

Edgar Allan Poe Museum
official site
Old Stone House, 1916 East Main Street, Richmond, Independent City, VA
5 photos, 8 measured drawings, and 5 data pages at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

{{Edgar Allan Poe Museums established in 1922 Edgar Allan Poe Museum Museums in Richmond, Virginia Houses in Richmond, Virginia Biographical museums in Virginia Literary museums in the United States Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Colonial architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1750 1922 establishments in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia

Old Stone House

Museum history

Exhibits

See also

References

External links