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 Early
printed patriotic textiles are an area of study in and
of themselves in the pursuit of great patriotic
Americana. Even in the late 18th century, printed
textiles depicting scenes with Washington and Franklin
were produced in Europe for the American market and for
curious Europeans who wanted to know more about these
famous and remote personalities. By the 1840s, the
use of printed textiles for political campaigning
purposes became prevalent, with the likenesses and names
of presidential candidates and war heroes such as
Benjamin Harrison and Zachary Taylor printed on yard
goods. In the same era, the first printed American
flags were also produced, the earliest known having 26
stars for Michigan statehood (1837-1845).
This particular example
is a very rare and fine textile manufactured early in
the public career of General Ulysses S. Grant.
Unlike later textiles and images of Grant, the style and
motif of this textile indicate that it was made to
commemorate Grant as a General, rather than later as
President. His likeness is youthful and resembles
Grant in the late war period, 1864-1865. He is in
his uniform, surrounded by a laurel wreath, eagles and
flags. The fantastic border of the textile
features corner flags in an unusual columnar 5-4-4
pattern, scarcely seen on 13 star flags of any period.
The border is completed with crossed cannon, cannon on
carts, and piles of red cannon balls which match the red
holly berries and holly leaves in the spaces between.
The textile is not recorded in Herbert Ridgway Collins'
book Threads of History, a survey of known
patriotic textiles published by the Smithsonian in 1979.
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