The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

11 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. printed broadside. (Corner losses and wear reinforced with rice paper, minor spotting.)

In full: "We, the subscribers, Selectmen of Reading, hereby give notice that the funeral services of the late President Lincoln, will take place on Wednesday, the 19th inst, at 12 o'clock, noon. We, therefore, invite the Citizens of Reading to meet in the Old South Church, at that hour, for the purpose of solemnizing the occasion with appropriate services. The Choirs of several Churches are invited to attend. We would also recommend that all business be suspended during said services."

Reading, Pennsylvania, held a special place in the history of the Lincoln family. It was in nearby Exeter Township that Mordecai Lincoln, great-great-grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln, built a home for himself and his family in 1733. The city was among the first to answer President Lincoln's call to arms against the Confederacy in 1861. A local by the name of Thomas Jackson, an ardent abolitionist, wrote on the day of the funeral that it was "far more strictly kept than any Sunday I have ever seen in America. Nearly every dwelling house, all the churches and public buildings, are hung with dark emblems of national sorrow. All the churches are open and crowded full of people, all array’d in their nicest and best apparel. Union flags bordered and tied with black flew everywhere.”