Actually it’s one month, two days, and one hundred and fifty-two years ago as I write this. We apologize for posting our Fourth of July article so late, but a big storm in June zapped our printer (which is also our scanner) and we’ve been on another road trip to New England that we just returned from. Consequently, we are acknowledging the Fourth of July in August.

I picked up this little ribbon at a flea market about a week or two before the Fourth of July this year. I paid about twenty dollars for it, and the picture of it pretty much explains what it is. It is just under seven inches in length.

What gives an antique value is often what it represents. There was a lot going on in and around Philadelphia leading up to the Fourth of July, 1863. Most importantly, Philadelphia and the rest of the United States were right in the middle of the Civil War.

The spring of 1863 had not been a good time for the Union forces. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia had won stunning victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia. In June, his forces had entered Pennsylvania with the hopes of bringing the North to the peace table to end the war with a negotiated peace. This would have brought about an independent Confederate States of America.

There was a very real possibility that Harrisburg and Philadelphia would end up under Southern occupation. Philadelphia was shoring up its defenses and there were calls for more militia units to defend Pennsylvania.
Fortunately, as things were looking their darkest, Union forces finally checked Lee’s forces at the Battle of Gettysburg – about 100 miles west of Philadelphia. The three day battle, which took place on July 1,2,3, was not only the bloodiest battle of the war- it was the turning point. Lee’s forces never came that far north again.

As if that weren’t enough, the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi fell to the Union forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant on the Fourth of July, 1863. This opened up the Mississippi River to Union forces and split the confederacy in two. Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July again until World War II.

I doubt that the citizens of Philadelphia had been able to absorb all that had happened in just those few days, but there must have been a great sense of relief. When the “Friends of the Union” celebrated the Fourth of July, 1863 in Philadelphia, they were also celebrating the turning point of the war and one of the most important events in American history.

That’s a lot of history in one little ribbon found at a flea market.

The post A Patriotic Ribbon From 1863 Tells the Story of an Important Fourth of July appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Franklin Pierce was the Democratic candidate in 1852 running against Winfield Scott, the last Whig candidate.  Successfully elected, he has gone down in the history books as one of our worst presidents, usually joined at the bottom of the list with his successor James Buchanan and Warren G. Harding.  This paper ballot out of Virginia was typical of those used in the mid-nineteenth century.  Notice that the voter is choosing electors, not directly voting for the president. Technically, we still do that; we just don’t see the list of electors anymore. This marks only the second Franklin Pierce item in Jim’s collection, so he was quite pleased to find it.

This window decal from 1932 has great graphics and an ironic message.  Clearly, the elephant is oblivious to the angry donkey coming at him.  By 1932, the country was mired in the Great Depression with no relief in sight, and Herbert Hoover was receiving most of the blame.  Referencing the old adage, “Don’t change horses in the middle of the stream,” this decal did little to stop the juggernaut that was Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Americans wanted change, and they swept FDR into the White House by a landslide.

The post 2014 Road Trip Blog: Franklin Pierce Ballot & Herbert Hoover Decal appeared first on The Collector Gene.

This month is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I remember that day well, as does anyone else who happened to be alive at the time.

Perhaps it’s because I was a kid – in the fourth grade when Kennedy was elected in 1960 – that I remember his presidency better than those of many that have come after him. A lot happened in the less than three years that he was president, including the earliest manned space flights, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, which was probably the scariest two-week period of my then short life.

I also remember the lighter side such as Jackie Kennedy’s tour of the refurbished White House and his famous press conferences which pre-empted the TV shows I was watching after school. At the time they called it “charisma,” and he certainly had it.

I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum outside of Boston a couple of months ago. It’s a good place to go to get a feel for the history and also the style of the Kennedy White House through the numerous objects on display. I particularly enjoyed the “campaign” section.

So much has been written about JFK, from endless conspiracy theories about his assassination to the sometimes questionable conduct of his personal life, that time does not seem to have taken away our fascination of him. It’s hard to believe that he would be 96 years old if he were still alive today! One may also wonder what would have happened had he lived.

It’s no surprise that Kennedy is popular with collectors of political memorabilia. Here are some items that were available during his 1960 campaign and presidency.

Campaign buttons

Convention hat

Broadside advertising rally & coffee cup

Assorted figurines of Jackie, Caroline, and John-John plus  bottle stopper and salf & pepper set

Halloween masks of JFK & Jackie

Personalized autographed photo

Please NOTE: JFK was notorious for using secretaries and an “auto-pen” for autographs.

After studying samples of his handwriting at great length, I believe this to be a genuine autograph.

The post Collecting JFK – Fifty Years Later appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Somehow, though, I think more Americans think of their Uncle Sam in April when the deadline to file taxes comes along. I think nearly every family has a relative like Uncle Sam. He always seems to want your money. He’s not too good at living within his means and before you know it, he’s back wanting more! But he is family and we all want him to succeed. He is the personification of the United States of America itself and we all have a stake in his future.

Uncle Sam doll made in Germany around the turn of the century.

The origin of Uncle Sam can be traced back to 1813 when Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York supplied beef for the army during the War of 1812. The barrels of beef were marked “U.S.” for the United States, but the soldiers began referring to them as “Uncle Sams”, a nickname for Samuel Wilson.

The image of Uncle Sam as we know him is attributed to Thomas Nast, the prolific political cartoonist of the nineteenth century who also gave us the image of Santa Claus. The most famous image of him, however, is attributed to James Montgomery Flagg, who created the Uncle Sam made famous on the World War I recruiting poster pointing sternly with the caption “I Want You”.

This plaster figure of Uncle Sam is dated 1917 and is captioned “Rollin ’em up,” referring to preparations to fight in World War I.

With his tall, lean and lanky physique matched by his colorful attire, Uncle Sam is a natural for collectors if you can find him out there in Collectorland. His popularity was at its peak from about the late nineteenth century (especially around the Spanish-American War of 1898) through World War II. He was usually portrayed in a positive light during that time when America was becoming a stronger and more influential player among the family of nations. During the Vietnam War he wasn’t quite so popular.

Uncle Sam pin tray from the early 20th century.

Poster from World War II

Artist-made figure of Uncle Sam in a Pickle. It’s hard to date exactly because historically Uncle Sam always seems to be in a pickle!

German candy container of Uncle Sam riding a rabbit. This well-detailed piece was probably made around the Spanish American War (1898).

Today the image of Uncle Sam can often be found in craft shops as a patriotic decoration. Unfortunately he is often portrayed with a Santa Claus type beard and moustache instead of the long thin beard grown only on his chin. How did the song go – “Don’t know much about history”!

Many of our Uncle Sam items were purchased back in the seventies and eighties. Today, finding them is difficult and can be expensive. As always with collecting, however, you never know what lies ahead at the next flea market, auction, or yard sale.

This flask is a souvenir from Canada during Prohibition when many Americans headed north to get a drink!

This Uncle Sam on a bicycle toy was made between the wars by the A. C. Gilbert Company. He would ride along a string moving his legs.

This decal is dated 1933 and reflects the optimism that the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt would soon put an end to the Depression.

This piece of “Uncle Sammy” sheet music is dated 1904 and shows Uncle Sam with a map of the U.S. and its territories, some of which were acquired at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The post Uncle Sam – He Collects From Us So Why Not Collect Him? appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Ever since I was a child reading and re-reading a 1930’s biography of Lincoln that was passed down to me by my aunt, I have admired Abe.  And ever since I married a collector of political items, we have searched for affordable antiques that have something to do with Lincoln.  Of course, Jim wants campaign items, which are very rare and very expensive, indeed.  I’m not quite so picky.

Before there was a Presidents’ Day in February, we celebrated – separately – the February births of Washington and Lincoln.  When I was a child, the decorations for these holidays were principally cardboard cut-outs that teachers could staple on the classroom bulletin board.  However, eighty or ninety or more years ago, there were all sorts of neat three-dimensional party favors for every holiday of the year, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays.  Here are two Lincoln pieces from our collection:

The bust of Lincoln on the left is a small candy container about three inches high that was most likely made in Germany.  A circular plug in the bottom can be removed and the hollow interior would have been filled with tiny candy pellets.  In general, candy containers from this era (about 1920 – 1930) are getting harder to come by.  They have been a “hot” collectible for the past forty years.

The unusual full figure of Lincoln on the right has a moveable arm and stands about four and a half inches tall.  At first glance, he does not appear to be a candy container since his base is merely a disc made of wood.  However, on the bottom are traces of glue.  Very likely, this figure was originally glued to a cardboard box that would, indeed, have held candy.

I am very fond of both of these pieces.  The bust, especially, is a very good likeness of Abraham Lincoln.  The other piece, which I must admit could easily turn into an Irishman for St. Patrick’s Day if painted differently, is funny and charming in its own right.  And while you do see a bigger variety of vintage Washington party favors, you just don’t see Abe very often.

Happy Birthday, Abe!  I, for one, am glad that you continue to be recognized as one of the greats.

The post Happy 204th Birthday, Abe! Let’s Celebrate With a Lincoln Candy Container appeared first on The Collector Gene.

It is also an opportunity to tell you about my favorite purchase on our recent cross-country trip.

We were finally heading east, but our trip was far from over.  We were in Arizona, had visited the Grand Canyon, and were spending a couple of nights in Sedona.   While Sedona offered beautiful scenery and a very “New Age” vibe, our first love of antiquing drew us to nearby Prescott, which was about an hour away.  Prescott is a very clean little city with a nice park, an interesting museum about Arizona history – and a lot of antique shops.

The shops we visited had, for the most part, a good variety and good quality of merchandise so finding a few more treasures to stuff into the back of our little car wasn’t going to be a problem.  Money, of course, doesn’t grow on trees and by this point in the trip, we were starting to be a little more selective in our purchases.

Naturally, I found something in the first shop we visited that I couldn’t live without.  I had pretty much gone through the entire shop when I came to one of the last booths I needed to visit. There it was!  Sitting on the floor was an old, framed political cartoon with the obvious likeness of Harry S. Truman.  I picked it up and could see that this was an original artwork and not merely a print.  There was an inscription at the bottom that read “To Nellie ‘Pat’ Eklund with my best wishes – Bruce Russell.”

Fortunately the dealer had done some homework and put a note with it saying that Bruce Russell had been a political cartoonist with the L. A. Times from 1942 through 1963 and that Nellie Eklund had been a resident of the Prescott Valley area since 1991.

In the shop, I noticed the reference to Wake Island on the cartoon and was fairly sure what the subject matter was all about.  A little bit of quick research on the internet confirmed my suspicions.  On October 15, 1950, President Truman flew to Wake Island in the Pacific to meet with General Douglas Macarthur concerning the Korean War.

MacArthur was by that time considered one of the greatest generals of the twentieth century.  He was a hero in World War II, overseeing Japan’s surrender on the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and essentially ruled Japan after the war.  He was now in charge of US forces in Korea but wasn’t always following what the Truman administration ordered him to do.  This meeting was set up to make sure everyone was on the same page.

After the meeting, Truman then flew to San Francisco and on October 17, 1950, announced the results of his meeting with General MacArthur at the War Memorial Opera House in that city.  The cartoon from October 17 deals with that upcoming speech.

The cartoon was marked $45.00, but everything in the booth was 25 percent off – so I got my new treasure and piece of history for $33.75.

I went on to find that Bruce Russell (1903 – 1963) was actually lead editorial cartoonist at the Los Angeles Times from 1934 through 1963 when he died of a sudden heart attack.  He also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1946.

Having visited the Truman home and library in Independence Missouri earlier in the trip only made this find more special.  I’m sure Harry Truman would not have been thrilled with how he was depicted in this cartoon, but it underscores the many challenges he faced as president.  Truman was far from the most popular president at the time.  History, however, has been kind to him, and he now ranks among our better leaders.  He is a personal favorite of mine.

To sum it all up – finding an original political cartoon drawn by a Pulitzer Prize winning artist for a major newspaper about one of the most important events of the Truman Presidency for a mere $33.75 was for me what collecting is all about – the thrill of making a great find!

I didn’t even have to wait for Black Friday.

The post Truman Political Cartoon – It’s Toon Time at the L.A. Times appeared first on The Collector Gene.

In 1952, like today, America went to the polls.  By the time the votes counted, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the clear winner.  The popular World War II hero and five star general was approached by both parties as a possible candidate but ultimately chose to lead the Republican ticket that year.  The campaign slogan “I Like Ike” became one of the most famous in history and would be used by Ike again in his successful bid for re-election in 1956.  This “I Like Ike” button is a whopping nine inches in diameter!    Somebody obviously really liked Ike back then.

The post Smile! Sixty Years Ago, We Liked Ike appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Before writing about the Now and Then Second Hand Store in Orange, CA, I left off with a blog about Abilene, KS.  We visited a few other antique malls in Kansas and made some purchases, but I’m going to jump to the state of Colorado.

Florence, CO: We had never heard of Florence, Colorado, but we picked up a little booklet that listed Colorado antique shops, and we noticed that it billed itself as the antique center of the state.  When we looked at the map, we realized that it would be within a few miles of our planned route.  Naturally, we made that slight detour, and we’re glad we did.  Not only were there multiple shops to check out, but we happened to visit on a Friday, the first day of an antique street fair.  Below are photos of a few of the things we found.

The larger doll pictured is a 1940’s composition Madame Alexander doll in what appears to be her original clothes.  She cost $5 at the street fair, a real bargain.  The smaller doll is an inexpensive hard plastic doll from the 1950’s.  Normally, I wouldn’t buy a doll like her, but she’s dressed in a really nicely detailed felt cowgirl outfit, so I look upon her as an appropriate souvenir of our trip.  Discounted 40%, she ended up costing about $9.

Jim has been doing very well finding political items on this trip.  Florence came through for him.  He bought a very nice Benjamin Harrison pin in porcelain with a metal border, dated 1888, for $75.

Leadville, CO: This old mining town is at the highest elevation of any town in the U.S., and we were flying high with some of our purchases.  The very first shop we went into was the winner.  It was an old hardware store that retained all of its original fixtures, so the atmosphere alone was worth soaking up.  We walked out with two pieces that we liked a lot and felt were reasonably priced.

This cardboard sign advertising KC Baking Powder has some condition problems and likely had something else hanging from it, but we love the image of the baker and we will find a place for it in our kitchen.  Best of all, it only cost $25.

As those who know us know, we love to decorate for Christmas, and we love our Christmas tree with genuine Victorian/turn-of-the-century ornaments.  I was hoping to find something to add to our collection, and Leadville came through.  Pictured is a beautiful blown glass, hand-painted little girl’s head ornament.  According to the shop owners, it came out of a local estate.

Virginia City, NV: Once again, an old Western mining town came through for us.  Tourism is what’s keeping Virginia City alive.  Mixed in with the bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops are several antique shops.  We checked them all.  At the last one, Jim was very happy to find three nice political/advertising pinback buttons priced at $35 for all three.  Best of all, he doesn’t already have any of them!

The largest button is the most unique.  It pictures Spanish-American War hero Admiral Dewey advertising soap.  There’s also a nice Bryan-Sewall jugate from 1896 and a McKinley Club of NY button.  It isn’t often that you find one of these nice vintage buttons at the average antique mall, let alone three.

We did do a little antiquing in California, principally in Orange, and we did purchase a few things.  However, I have no photos, so we’re going to move on to Arizona.

Prescott, AZ: While staying in Sedona, we took the recommendation of an antique dealer we know and went antiquing in Prescott.  Prescott is a neat town.  It was the original capital of the Arizona Territory, and there’s an interesting museum complex, the Sharlot Hall Museum, to tour.  The downtown business district, which surrounds the courthouse square, is vibrant and alive.  About two blocks of it are devoted to antique shops.  We can’t share Jim’s favorite find yet because it’s still wrapped up in paper in the back of the car, but he was very happy to find an original political cartoon that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in October 1950.  It shows President Truman wearing the “cloak of secrecy” in regard to a meeting with Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island.

The other find we made there was an oyster tin right from our own neck of the woods.

These photos show the front and back of the Captain Jack’s Cape May Oysters tin.  The back mentions the Maurice River, too.  Actually, we like the back better than the front of this tin.  Not only is it in better condition, but the graphics are more interesting.  And we found it in Arizona – how weird!

We didn’t do any antiquing in New Mexico – none!  We did stop briefly in Amarillo, TX, and we did buy a few small items there.  Oklahoma was yielding a handful of small items, too, until we hit a shop in Shawnee, OK at the very end of the day.  We were very pleased with the cardboard standee advertising sign for Remington rifles that we found for $40.

The sign is in overall very good condition for its age.  On the lower left corner, it looks like there might be a tiny “31” and that might indicate that it dates to 1931.  It sure looks like it’s from that time.  What better gift for little boys than a rifle?

North Little Rock, AR: One frustration we’ve been having in particular on the return portion of our trip is encountering “antique” malls that have very few genuine antiques in them.  They have faux antiques and decorator items, but that’s not what we’re looking for.  When we saw an ad for the Twin City Antique Mall that asked the question, “Are you tired of antique malls that don’t have antiques in them?”, we knew that was the place for us – and it was.  We came out with several items that we were very happy about.

Jim has a couple of these Roosevelt Bear plates already, but this was a different one, and it was priced at only $25.  The inscription underneath says, “Teddy and Rosa on their way to the White House.”  Above the bears it says, “We want to see our President Who’s always on the square and whose good rule of living is bear always and forbear.”  It goes without saying that this plate dates to Teddy Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House.

This interesting bisque ashtray and match holder caught our eye.  A cheap souvenir from Galveston, TX, most likely in the 1930’s, it shows a nattily dressed skeleton sitting in an armchair.  It isn’t meant to be a Halloween decoration, but in our house it probably will be.  We thought it was a good buy at $25.

The last thing we bought at Twin City was a cardboard advertising sign for a product called Papsin.  We liked the graphics and the fact that it was hand-painted by a commercial artist from Fort Smith, AR.  He even signed it on the front.

Whew!  That was a lot of catching up to do.  We still have several states left to cover.  One more blog might do it.  Of course, it might not get done until we actually get home.

The post Travel-Log #8: Broad Summary (Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas) – Submitted by Carol on 10/3/12 appeared first on The Collector Gene.

A giant, new, 10,000 square foot building with no personality whatsoever, it didn’t look like the kind of place where any antique bargain could be found.  However, as we know from experience, an antique hunter can never tell where a great find will surface, so in we went.  Many of the 120 dealers inside dealt with the kind of antiques and collectibles we like – toys, advertising, political items, paper things, holiday decorations, etc.  For the most part, they knew their prices, too.  However, every dealer offered a minimum of a ten percent discount, and many were offering twenty percent off, so that made the prices much more appealing.

We walked out with three items that we were quite happy about:  a Roosevelt-Truman bumper sticker from 1944, a plastic patriotic WWII pin with an eagle, a shield, and the word “Son” on it, and a large, approximately five-inch tall bisque long-billed Donald Duck figurine.

Jim learned early on in his political items collecting that Truman pieces are relatively rare, especially among 20^th century candidates.  He had joked before the trip that he hoped to find a Truman piece in Missouri.  Lo and behold, there was the Roosevelt-Truman bumper sticker.  The price of $30 may seem steep, but it’s the first one Jim has ever seen.  After all, bumper stickers aren’t the type of thing usually saved for posterity.  A nice, large Truman button for $30 would have been better, but collectors know to take what they can get.

For the past several years, both Jim and I have been looking for affordable WWII home front collectibles.  As the “Greatest Generation” passes on, the younger generations are becoming more fascinated by this dramatic period in history and more appreciative of what their parents and grandparents went through and accomplished.

I don’t know how many women actually wore the patriotic jewelry from the 1940’s that I see at flea markets and in antique shops, but it’s very interesting and colorful.  I thought that this pin made of early plastic and accented with sparkling jewels was a good buy at $12.  Obviously, it was intended to be worn by a mother whose son was in the service.

The most expensive item we bought was the bisque long-billed Donald Duck.  This jaunty guy stands relatively tall at about five inches.  His paint is excellent (Many of these bisque figurines have severely faded paint.) and he’s marked “Walt Disney” and “Made in Japan.”  Donald Duck had a long bill for only a few years.  He started out that way in 1934, but it was already shrinking by 1937, so it’s pretty easy to date these figurines.  We especially liked this Donald because we don’t ever remember seeing one this size playing a violin.  He cost $58.  That may seem expensive, but we’ve seen comparable pieces for more than $100 on numerous occasions.

Lesson to be learned from our experience at W. D. Pickers:  Don’t overlook large, interstate antique malls.  There may not be as many bargains as can be found at a flea market, but good quality items at affordable prices are not that unusual.

The post Travel-Log #3: Platte City, Missouri – 9/9/12 Submitted by Carol appeared first on The Collector Gene.

There is no doubt that history remembers Abraham Lincoln.  Among all the famous people of our past, Lincoln shares an elevated status achieved by only one other person – George Washington.

Without George Washington, there may well not have been a United States of America and without Abraham Lincoln it may not have stayed together.  Countless books have been written about every aspect of Lincoln’s life.  His image is known to every American who knows even a little bit of history.  He has become iconic – the stuff of myth and legend.  He is the man who was born in a frontier log cabin, received little formal education and yet is regarded as a genius.  He led us through the worst crisis in American history only to be assassinated days after it ended.  Many have speculated the “what ifs” had Lincoln served his second term.

Such an important figure also demands a high figure in the collecting world.  While finding objects with Lincoln’s image on them is not difficult, finding objects that date to his presidency or his assassination are highly prized by collectors.  I am fortunate that I have managed to find a few items over the years that I have been able to afford.  Among them is the badge featured in this article.

When Lincoln ran for president in 1860, he and the other candidates were the beneficiaries of a new technology that did not exist in prior elections.  For the first time ever, it was possible to produce a campaign item that actually had a real picture of the candidate on it.  Consequently, for the first time in history the average voter got to see what his future President really looked like.  These pictures were produced on small pieces of iron and were called “ferrotypes” They were usually encased in a brass “shell”.

By 1864, when Lincoln was running for re-election, the technology had evolved further so that images could also be produced on paper.  An easy way to tell which campaign a Lincoln item is from is in 1860 he didn’t have the beard yet.

Lincoln fully expected to lose the election of 1864.  That would have been bad enough but his Democratic opponent that year was none other than George McClellan, the general Lincoln had fired twice. The Democratic platform promoted a negotiated peace with the south which might have left the issues of slavery and union unresolved.  McClellan did not personally support these ideas but fears persisted how the Democrats would pursue the war. The fortunes of war ultimately turned in favor of the north though, thanks in large part to General Sherman’s march through Georgia, and Lincoln was, of course, re-elected.  His second term had barely begun when the war effectively ended with Lee’s surrender to Grant.  Lincoln was assassinated less than a week later on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth.

The reason I mention all of this is that the item pictured in this article was worn by the person who sewed the little note to the back of the black ribbon.  He was certainly not alone in his mourning of the late President.  Literally millions of Americans participated at least in some way in Lincoln’s funeral.  If you take into account that the train that transported Lincoln’s body from Washington, D. C. traveled a long circular route through many northern cities on the way back to Springfield, Illinois for burial and his open casket lay in state for literally thousands of people to view in each city (500,000 in New York City alone) it is easy to speculate that more people cast their eyes upon Lincoln than all of the other Presidents combined up to that time.  If you take into account those that watched each funeral procession in each city and even those who simply stood by as the train passed by (as entire towns did) it probably would rank as the single event shared by more Americans than any other up to that time and possibly for all time.  Those of us who remember the Kennedy assassination will never forget that time, but most of us stayed home glued to the TV –something not possible in Lincoln’s time.

The inscription sewn to the back of this ribbon reads “Badge worn by me after the assassination of President Lincoln April, 14 1865.”

What makes this little badge unique is that it most likely didn’t start out as an object to mourn the dead president.  It started out as an object to show support of his re-election in 1864.

In Ted Hake’s “Political Buttons Book III 1789-1916”, item #3092 looks to be the same badge with the obvious exception that the ribbon looks like a small American flag.  Given that the black ribbon is somewhat crudely attached, it seems likely that someone simply changed out the ribbon.  It makes sense given that only a few months would have passed from the election to the assassination.

I doubt the individual who did this was thinking much about the value of this item almost one hundred and fifty years later.

From a collecting standpoint, it would have been better if he had left it alone.  Campaign items are generally worth more than mourning objects.  In terms of history, however, I think it makes this little item more interesting.  After all, the re-election of Lincoln was crucial point in history necessary to end the war, slavery and restore the union.  His second inaugural speech is one of his most famous (“with malice toward none and charity for all”) and his mourning was the beginning of the elevation of Lincoln from a living mortal to one of the most revered individuals in of all time.

That’s a lot of history in one little object that fits in the palm of your hand.

The post Mourning Lincoln – The Road to Immortality appeared first on The Collector Gene.