Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke enjoyed reading poetry. He had friends among the literati, especially those who were poets. In 1869, he read, and was deeply impressed by, Leaves of Grass by American poet Walt Whitman. He met Whitman in 1877 in Camden, NJ and the two developed a lasting friendship. Bucke eventually testified that he was "lifted to and set upon a higher plane of existence" thanks to Whitman. He published a biography of the poet in 1883, and was one of three of Whitman's literary executors after Whitman's death in 1892. Walt Whitman visited Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke in London, Ontario in 1880. Whitman stayed with Dr. Bucke at the London Insane Asylum where Dr. Bucke was the Medical Superintendent from 1877-1902. During Dr. Bucke's tenure at this very asylum, he revolutionized mental health care. Prior to the progressive changes he made, patients at the asylum suffered under horrific conditions. Dr. Bucke however discontinued the use of alcohol, supported the abolition of mechanical restraints, and believed in the therapeutic benefits of a sound diet, landscaping and farm work on the grounds of the asylum, organized sports and amusement, all of which he believed were important for patient rehabilitation.

In this gallery, here is what remains today of the London Asylum. There are four remnants that remain of the original asylum (The Chapel of Hope; the Infirmary Building; the Horse Stable and the Tree-lined Avenue).

Also in this gallery, is Dr. Bucke's prosthetic leg, currently on display at Museum London. "Dr. Bucke had to fight his way through adult life after age twenty, without the aid of feet, other than artificial. His feet were amputated after being frozen in a successful attempt to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter of 1856, in company with one of the two original discoverers of silver in Nevada." (William Sloane Kennedy, "Walt Whitman's Diary in Canada").