The Poe Museum
Founded in 1906 by Poe collector James Howard Whitty and a group of literary enthusiasts in Poe's hometown of Richmond, Virginia, the Poe Museum grew out of an early effort to build the state's first monument to a writer. When that plan stalled, the group instead salvaged materials from the Southern Literary Messenger building - where Poe launched his journalism career - using its bricks and granite to build a Poe memorial garden and shrine on the grounds of Richmond's Old Stone House. More than a century later, the Museum carries that founding spirit forward with a simple mission: illuminating Poe for everyone, evermore.
The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, works to illuminate Poe for everyone, evermore. Founded from efforts that began in 1906 as the Poe Memorial Association, it opened to the public in 1922 at the Old Stone House, Richmond's oldest standing residence, with the Enchanted Garden and Poe Shrine built from materials from the Southern Literary Messenger, where Edgar Allan Poe worked. The Museum houses and interprets a comprehensive collection of Poe artifacts, works, belongings, and memorabilia. It maintains the Old Stone House, Poe Shrine, and Enchanted Garden, and its influence reaches scholars, students, teachers, and literary enthusiasts.
