The Love Of Truth. Mark The Boy [Washington, George] Americana,Broadside,Political,Presidency,Virginia

Commemorative cotton handkerchief, laid down on a board. 12-1/4" x 11-1/8." Printed in blue inks. "The Love Of Truth" is printed above "Mark The Boy," which is printed on a ribbon that flows across a vignette and down both sides. The vignette depicts a young George Washington and his father in the garden of their home. George carries his hatchet; his father points to the cherry tree. Below the vignette a three-column poem recounts George's famous admission that he had cut down the cherry tree. "I cannot, will not tell a lie." The poem begins, "At six years old, George, full of boyish tricks,/ Would often please himself by chopping sticks." His father, overwhelmed by George's strength of character, says, "Run to my open arms, my dearest boy; / Your love of truth bespeaks a father's joy:/ My sudden anger and my grief are fled,/ Although my lovely cherry-tree is dead" A dark border surrounds the handkerchief. Some lightening at the bottom and light wear, about three letters lost in the first column. Else Very Good. This handkerchief tells the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Mason Locke Weems invented it. Its first appearance was in the 1806 fifth edition of his Life of Washington. This handkerchief may be the first appearance of the legend in verse, as its printing has been attributed to the same year as Weems's fifth edition. Collins locates one copy at Cornell University. OCLC adds 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. Collins, Threads of History 39 [1- Cornell]. Not in Wegelin. OCLC 18399919 [MI State, Free Lib of Phila., Boston Ath.], 1329172496 [1- Brown], 775688050 [1- Yale] as of April 2024.