A FABULOUS DISPLAY – BROADSIDE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON’S DEATH
[WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799)]. The Committee chosen by the Town to adopt such Measures as may indicate the Public Sensibility on the late Afflictive Event of the Death of General George Washington, announce the following Arrangements, to be adopted on Thursday, the Ninth Day of January inst. Boston, 6 January 1800. Broadside on paper (435 x 218 mm), single column, text within a heavy black mourning rule (browned, light stain in upper right corner, a few short fold separations and tears). Framed and glazed. Provenance: Ambassador and Mrs. J. William Middendorf II (Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, 18 May 1973, lot 127). A VERY RARE BOSTON BROADSIDE MOURNING GEORGE WASHINGTON AND DETAILING THE CITY’S MEMORIAL OBSERVANCES. A special committee from the city that ignited the American Revolution decreed that beginning on January 9 and continuing until February 22, both men and women should wear black armbands. On the ninth itself, guns and bells are to be sounded throughout the day, flags of ships in the Harbor are to be lowered to half-mast, and all stores and shops are to be closed. The committee further invited “all Classes of their Fellow-Citizens to join in” an elaborate order of procession to hear a eulogy delivered by George Richards Minot at the Old South Meeting-House, including the male youth of the town, uniformed companies of militia, selectmen, members of the House of Representatives and other officeholders, physicians, and lawyers, and many other elements of society, including those “Not enumerated in the foregoing classes.” All participants were urged to observe “the Necessity of silent, dignified and respectful Demeanour, which alone can do Justice to the Sensibility of the Inhabitants, in their Attempt to evidence their Respect for the Memory of the great, the good, and beloved Washington.” This is the only example of this broadside to be sold at auction in more than half a century. Evans 36996.