(Germantown, Pennsylvania: Germantown Print Works, ca. 1806). Commemorative cotton handkerchief, printed in brown; 11 1/2 x 11 1/8 in. (292 x 283 mm). Light dampstaining in left edge; small hole in bottom right corner, affecting a few letters; top edge slightly trimmed into ornamental border. Collins, Threads of History 39; Shaw & Shoemaker 20596

A well-preserved and scarce handkerchief depicting the famed 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 locates one copy at Cornell University. OCLC further locates copies in the Boston Athenaeum, Michigan State University Library, The American Antiquarian Society (eight examples in blue, black, and brown), Newberry Library, Yale University, Library of Congress, Brown University Library, and the Free Library of Philadelphia.