In 1986-87, the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review published a collection all the known photographs of Whitman. Among the earliest in the collection is a daguerreotype from the 1850s that pictures a man in a straw hat set at a rakish angle. The face in the photograph has long sideburns that almost meet at the chin. The notes on the photograph describe it as “at best a very questionable attribution. WW in 1889, trying to identify a certain photograph, noted that ‘I never wore a stiff hat,’ a remark that might rule this photo out as an image of WW; note also the uncharacteristic broad nose, non-drooping eyelids, and unarched brows.”

          Ed Folsom, “Notes on Photographs,” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 4:2-3 (Fall/Winter, 1986-1987): 43.