"Even by 19th-century standards, James Harlan was a prude. As Secretary of the Interior, he searched the desks of his clerks at night, looking for signs of inappropriate behavior. One night he found a book of poetry. Harlan flipped through it, shocked by the poems and by what the clerk had written in the margins. Harlan fired the clerk the next day, declaring such “filth” had no place in government.
The clerk was Walt Whitman. The book was Leaves of Grass, which Whitman was revising. Whitman got another job, Harlan became a footnote in literary history."
Til this exists
Til a woman designed it
Not really… https://littlevillagemag.com/your-village-why-theres-a-statue-of-a-nude-woman-facing-the-iowa-state-capitol/
A woman designed the monument and the original design but the was embellished by a different sculptor after she had died
"Even by 19th-century standards, James Harlan was a prude. As Secretary of the Interior, he searched the desks of his clerks at night, looking for signs of inappropriate behavior. One night he found a book of poetry. Harlan flipped through it, shocked by the poems and by what the clerk had written in the margins. Harlan fired the clerk the next day, declaring such “filth” had no place in government.
The clerk was Walt Whitman. The book was Leaves of Grass, which Whitman was revising. Whitman got another job, Harlan became a footnote in literary history."
Fantastic read.
Rofl straight out of Parks and Rec
Hell yeah