MEMORIAL TEXTILE GEORGE WASHINGTON SACRED TO PATRIOTISM

marked at bottom Printed & Published at Glasgow [Scotland] by C.G. [C.Gray]1819



monochrome copper plate print of various patriotic texts accompanying a view framed in a panel showing George Washington standing atop a pedestal, with a background view of Bowling Green, New York and the Kennedy house at number 1 Broadway; all surmounted by an arched portico supported by columns and flanked by two obelisks; an eagle at the top of the arch holds a ribbon from which hang tablets naming sixteen states.  Printed on cotton and pinned to a card backing.  In a black-painted early 20^{th century frame.}

The present example is based on an engraving by Cornelius Tiebout (c.1773-1832), after a drawing by Charles Buxton, M.D.  The print was published in 1873 in New York by Charles Smith, who dedicated it to the Congress of the United States.    

The present example depicts George Washington standing on a pedestal from which the statue of George lll had been torn from July 9, 1776.  In the background is the Kennedy house, No.1 Broadway, where Washington lived during the revolution and where Sir William Howe and other British officers lived during the occupation of the city. 

The design is distinguished by a central laurel wreath enclosing a patriotic text lamenting the death of Washington that states:

In Memory of Washington / This Most Illustrious and Much Lamented Patriot, Died on the/ 15:th of Dec, 1799, in the 68 Year of his / Age, after a short Illness of 30/ hours, in the full Possession of/ all his Fame, like a Christian/ and a Hero, Calm and Collect-/ed, without a Groan or/ a Sigh. 

Other texts featured on the memorial textile declare:
This PLATE is with due RESPECT Inscribed to/ the CONGRESS of the UNITED STATES/ Tenasee, Georgia, South Carol, North Carol, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusett and Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, Vermont.

He united and adorned many excellent Characters, at once the Patriot and the/ Politician; the Soldier and the Citizen; the Husbandman and the Hero; the Favourite/ of the Genius of Liberty, the Father of American Independence; the Promoter of her/ extensive and Brotherly Union; the Pillar of her Constitution; the President of/ her Senate and the Generalissimo of her Armies.  He possessed and displayed/ extraordinary Abilities, exalted Virtues, and unexampled Self-Command/ and Self-Denial; moderate in Prosperity, undaunted amid/ Danger, unbroken by Adversity, firm and unmoved/ amidst the Violence and Reproach of Faction, / unperverted by great and general Applause - /He was great in Arts and in Arms- / He was great in the Council/ and in the/ Field.!  

He was First in Peace, First in the Hearts of the AMERICANS, / First in the Eyes of the World; He was unrivalled as a Statesman, /in the Hearts of his Countrymen, Admired by the Enlightened of all/ Lands; Immortalized by his own great Actions and the Regrets of/ Mankind – Why doth America weep?  Why are her Courts and her/ Churches covered with funeral Black?  Why are her Sons Clad/ in Sable and appointed to a long Mourning? / - Senator!  It is because He, who gave Stability/ to our Constitution, and Energy to our/ Councils.  He, who was the Guardian/ of our Rights, and our/ Liberties, is now/ Withdrawn.

But all is not lost for providence survives.

One obelisk “Liberty” recognizes the SOLDIER and one obelisk “Independence” recognizes the SAILOR.

A Scottish “Kerchief” dated 1819 in the collection of the New-York Historical Society closely relates to the present example.[1] 

[1]  Herbert Ridgeway Collins, Threads of History:  Americana Recorded on Cloth – 1775 to the Present, (Washington:  Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), no.54.