Books and Manuscripts

(Germantown, Pennsylvania: Germantown Print Works, ca. 1806). Commemorative cotton handkerchief, printed in red; approximately 12 1/4 x 10 3/4 in. (sight) (311 x 273 mm). Scattered light soiling. In mat and in frame, 18 1/4 x 17 3/16 in. (463 x 436 mm). Collins, Threads of History 39

A rare variant of this handkerchief depicting the popular story of George Washington and the cherry tree. The enduring legend was invented by early Washington biographer Mason Locke Weems, and first appeared in the fifth edition of his Life of Washington, in 1806. This handkerchief is possibly the first appearance of the famed story in verse, as its printing has been attributed to the same year as Weems's fifth edition.

In his Threads of History: Americana Recorded on Cloth, Herbert Ridgeway Collins identifies two variants of this handkerchief, printed in blue and brown, but makes no mention of one printed in red. We have been unable to locate a red one in the auction record, nor in any institutional collections. Rare.