Lawrence High School is raising money to get a piece of history — and scholarly inspiration — for its halls.

A signature of American poet Walt Whitman, penned during a two-day visit to Lawrence in 1879, is for sale through a rare book company. Bold black script on the piece of paper reads:

Walt Whitman

Lawrence Kansas

Sept. 16 ’79

LHS senior class president Joo-Young Lee said the class of 2015 has chosen the signature for its senior class gift and donated its allotted budget of $1,000 to the cause.

An undated photo of American poet Walt Whitman who died on March 26, 1892.

“It’s unique, it’s something that our class will be remembered for,” Lee said. She added, “It shows our academic side.”

But the asking price for the signature, being sold displayed in a frame with a portrait of Whitman, is $3,300 — that’s the institution price being offered to LHS, marked down from the regular price of $4,000, according to Michael Carriger, LHS English department chairman.

In addition to the seniors’ donation, the school has received some money from parents and teachers, but still needs to raise about $2,000 to buy the signature, Carriger said.

Money is being collected through the school office and can be sent to LHS, c/o the Walt Whitman Signature Fund, 1901 Louisiana St., Lawrence, KS 66046.

Carriger said he hopes to promote the effort throughout April, which is National Poetry Month.

Pursuing the signature has been a joint effort of the English department, senior class and National Honor Society.

Carriger, a Whitman fan, said he came across the signature for sale several years back and was reminded that Whitman had visited Lawrence. He thought that signature should be here in town instead of a gallery across the country.

He said the signature fell out of mind until this year, when the LHS National Honor Society was looking for projects to take on and the senior class was looking for class gift ideas. He suggested the Whitman signature.

Lee, who also is National Honor Society Secretary, said the seniors’ previous best gift idea was a microwave for the cafeteria. Classmates liked the signature idea, she said.

According to Bauman Rare Books, the company selling the signature, Whitman autographed the paper during a visit to Lawrence for the Old Settlers of Kansas quarter-centennial celebration of the settlement of the territory.

Invited to the celebration by Col. John W. Forney, Whitman stayed two days at Lawrence Mayor John Usher’s house at 1425 Tennessee St. (currently home to Beta Theta Pi fraternity), according to Robert R. Hubach’s “Walt Whitman in Kansas,” an article from Kansas Historical Quarterlies.

Whitman “was deeply interested in the Antislavery cause; his unbounded faith in democracy and freedom is evident in many pages of ‘Leaves of Grass.’ As early as 1872, Whitman had contributed two poems, ‘The Mystic Trumpeter’ and ‘Virginia — the West,’ the latter of which dealt with the Secession, to the first issue of The Kansas Magazine,” according to the article.

Whitman was billed to read a poem at the celebration but did not, which his hosts attributed to poor health and fatigue from travel, the article said. However, Whitman enjoyed his visit to Lawrence and its Kansas University campus, later writing that Lawrence and Topeka were “bustling, half-rural handsome cities.”

Carriger said Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is part of the junior English curriculum at LHS, so students are familiar with his writing.

He said the goal would be to display the signature where students and community members could enjoy it, make a connection to Lawrence and literary history and also be inspired.

Observers might “understand there are things that are bigger than just us, and that words matter,” Carriger said.