HANS PETER BERTELSEN - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 280334

HANS PETER BERTELSEN
Slip of paper signed by the inspiration for John Greenleaf Whittier's 1855 poem The Barefoot Boy, in blue ink. With a b/w magazine photo of Bertelsen as an old man and dressed as Whittier might have seen him, complete with "turned-up pantaloons"
Signature: "H. P. Bertelsen/Blair, Nebraska" in blue ink. Blue ink and lead pencil notations in unknown hand. 4¼x2½ card. According to the notations, Bertelen signed this slip of paper when he was 85 years old. Lightly toned. Adhesive and mounting residue in bottom left corner and on verso; show-through touches signature. Irregular edges. Light tear at top edge. Otherwise in fine condition. Accompanied by: B/w magazine photograph of Bertelsen. Blue and black ink notations at bottom edge in unknown hand. Lightly toned. Irregular edges. Light tear in bottom right corner. Paper loss and adhesive residue on verso (no show-through). Otherwise in fine condition. Bertelsen (1846-1930) was the inspiration for John Greenleaf Whittier's 1855 poem The Barefoot Boy. Reportedly, Whittier saw Bertelsen - "Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!/With thy turned-up pantaloons,/And thy merry whistled tunes" - on a farm in Blair, Nebraska and was so enchanted seeing him whistling as he worked that he asked his parents for a photograph of the boy. The photo served as the inspiration for Bertelsen's poem, which in turn inspired a famous chromolithograph print by Eastman Johnson. Bertelsen later became a minister for the Dutch Lutheran Church.