American poet Walt Whitman is portrayed in a close bust CDV by Rockwood, 17 Union Square (West), New York, in a companion portrait type to the Gurney sitting, presenting the poet in his characteristic late-career appearance with the same open informality that defined his public image. Whitman appears in a dark coat with a loosely worn open collar, his abundant white hair swept back and his full white beard spread broadly across the upper chest, his gaze directed toward the camera with calm directness. The bust framing is tight, placing full emphasis on the monumental quality of Whitman's aged face and white hair against a plain neutral ground.

The Rockwood studio at Union Square was one of New York's leading photographic establishments during the 1870s and 1880s, patronized by writers, performers, and public figures, and the Whitman portrait produced there circulated as a collectible CDV during the final decades of the poet's life. The tonal treatment is slightly cooler than the companion Gurney view, giving the Rockwood image a crispness that brings out the individual hairs of Whitman's beard and the fine lines of his face.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892), author of Leaves of Grass and the foundational voice of American free verse, was among the most photographed American writers of the nineteenth century, and he took an active interest in the production and distribution of his own photographic portraits, selecting images for use as frontispieces to successive editions of his work. His poems "Song of Myself," "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and the Lincoln elegies remain cornerstones of the American literary canon. The reverse bears a penciled inscription "Walt Whitman" with the Rockwood studio imprint and dealer code "3/05/12 / LOCABDZ / Eb."