visitor. This magnificent volume is the gift to
the Fair of Mrs. Thomas P. James, who
collected the materials for it and prepared the
work most skilfully. It contains portraits of
Washington; an autograph letter written by
the same distinguished man; a lock of his
hair; original manuscript pages from Mar
shall’s and Sparks’ lives of Washington, and
a number of fine water-color pictures taken
by a compefent artist during the McClellan
campaign on the Potomac. This beautiful and
historically invaluable book is to be given to
the lion. Edward Everett.
At this stand we also have two curiosities
which should gladden the eyes of a local anti
quarian. One is the portrait of the Rev. Mr.
Duchd, who delivered the famous first prayer
in the first Continental Congress, when that
august body met in Carpenter’s Hall, Phila
delphia, in 1774. There, also, is a page of
the manuscript copy of the same prayer in the
handwriting of John Hancock.
The tired visitor can rest upon a Washing
ton sofa or a Washington chair while looking
around at the various relics of the great man
which are displayed all about him. (.And,
by the way, upon one of these very Washing
ton chairs President Lincoln rested when he
visited the Fair on .Tune 10, 1864.)
Here is the Washington Department proper,
just inside the door, and upon the west side of
the room. Mrs. John Fallon usually presides
at this spot, and the duty is a labor of love to
which she bends all her energies. A glass
show-case is the sanctum sanctorum, which con
tains the most precious of the Washington
relics. There are locks of Washington’s hair,
presented by Miss Nancy Brigham Peters and
Miss Furey; busts, portraits, &c., of Wash
ington, and among the portraits an original
pencil-sketch of the great man, made by
Charles Wilson Peale; dishes used by Wash
ington, a china cup and saucer of quaint de
vice and pattern, that were used at the wed
ding of George Washington and the widow,
Martha Custis; a leaden spoon marked “G.
W.” which was found at Mt. Vernon ; Wash
ington’s butter-dish; a pair of salt-cellars
given by Washington as a wedding present to
Mrs. Frey in 1788, a lady who is now a loyal
resident of Philadelphia, Missouri, and given
by her to the Fair; pieces of the Washington elm,
at Cambridge; a file of the K. J. Gazette for
1799, containing a notice of the death of
Washington, and having its pages draped in
mourning for him; in short, more Washing
ton relics than were ever gathered together
north of the Potomac.
And then, too, there is a quilt which was
presented to the Fair by the Mrs. Frey named
above. 'This quilt has a history. According
to the statement of the donor, when the revo
lutionary war began in earnest, the gentle
men raised troops and the ladies collected at
Mrs. Washington’s house to sew for them.
Oitb ID.a.iljY :e.
Her (Mrs. Frey’s) great-grandmother spent
the year at Mrs. Washington’s, as did many
other ladies whose husbands had gone to fight
for their country. In leisure hours they
pieced quilts as keepsakes. At this time cot
ton was not made into calico. The linen scraps
in the quilt were left from the shirts of Capt.
George Washington, and the chintz from his
mother’s and wife’s dresses. The outside nar
row stripe was some of the first imported to
America. The spread is lined with what was
called muslin, which was also imported.
There are some other odd matters in this
case which do not properly come under the
head of Washington relics. There is a very
curious watch, which was presented by Lafay
ette to General Anthony Wayne, and another
equally curious time-piece that was used in the
last illness of the poet Cowper. A quaintly
carved powder-horn of the time of Cromwell
attracts the attention of the curious.
In the way of clocks we have one exhibited
which belongs to Mr. John A. McAllister, and
which that gentleman claims to have been the
first, or among the first ever brought to the
United States. There is another ancient
time-piece which belongs to Mr. B. J. Lee
dom, of Germantown, which Mr. L. says came
over in the ship Welcome, with William Penn,
in 1082.
The chair, or rather a combination of chair
and table, upon which Jefferson drafted the
Declaration of Independence, is exhibited hard
by the relics which we have just described.
In its immediate vicinity is the President’s
chair of the American Philosophical Society,
a chair that was used by Benjamin Franklin,
and by every President of the Society since
his time. Marie Antoinette’s chair, which is
among this chair collection, will commend
itself to the notice of all who take an interest
in the sad story of the hapless Queen who
followed her husband to the guillotine, after
having been for years the royal mistress of
the Tuilleries. The chair is covered with the
same old Gobelin tapestry which adorned it
before the kingly residence it graced was
given over to sack and pillage.
Franklin’s chess table is appropriately
placed near by the relics of his revolutionary
associates, and of the unfortunate lady who
graced the court where he was an honored
guest. On this table Franklin and Washington
were accustomed to play chess together.
If we were preparing a catalogue of the
Department of Curiosities and Relics, and had
abundant room for description, we would
revel among the curious things spread around
us ; but want of space admonishes us to be
brief. We go on in the line of march we
have taken up on the west side of the apart
ment, and notice in their regular order a piece
of Shakspeare’s mulberry tree; an autograph
quilt, bearing the sign manual of scores of
illustrious personages, from President Lincoln
down; sets of rare old china that would be
valuable and curious to any appreciative per
son, but estimated to be worth almost their
weight in gold to their owners; heathen idols,
and relics of almost all kinds from Holy Land ;
a drinking cup of virgin silver, most curiously
wrought, and lined with gold, and (what is
best) a gift to the Fair; Mrs. Franklin’s wed
ding dress; a dress worked with peacock’s
feathers, worn by Miss Ramsey, a revolution
ary beauty ; curious paintings and valuable
engravings; the Constitution of the Society
of the Cincinnati, signed by all the principal
officers of the Revolution, from Washington
down; a copy of Marshall’s “Life of Wash
ington,” containing the autograph of its
former owner, Robert Southey, and bound
in an old dress of the poet’s wife.
At the upper end of the old curiosity shop
there is an unique collection of brackets and
other ornaments, most ingeniously made from
the roots of the American laurel. There is
also a very curious shell-work monument
erected to the memory of General Baker, who
fell at Pall’s Bluff.
Returning upon the east side of the room
there is much to interest the lover of the curi
ous. There is the original warrant for the ar
rest of Aaron Burr for treason; a similar docu
ment authorizing the taking of Benedict
Arnold into custody, on the charge of being
drunk and disorderly, (an offense more serious
in the sight of some than his great crime at
West Point, now that treason has become so
common an offense;) an original miniature of
Sir Harry Vane, Speaker of the Long Parlia
ment, taken in 1G47 ; a piece of the court-dress
of Marie Antoinette; a curious clock and vase
which formerly belonged to the Empress Jose
phine, and whioli is now the property of Miss
Fisher ; an exquisite bas relief, in yellow mar
ble, representing Guido’s Aurora, formerly
the property of Cardinal Antonelli, and given
to the Fair by his Eminence, with his photo
graph and autograph.
In the centre of the apartment is a range of
vases, the contents of which would gladden
the heart and delight the eyes of Mr. Jona
than Oldbuck. There are books printed by
Caxton and his German cotemporaries; those
marvellous old, illuminated missals, upon
parchment, that were made before Faust or
Schoeffer were dreamed of; and curious liter
aure of almost all ages.
We find also, in the same range, a number
of Jefferson relics and other curious matters
that demand an amount of space in the way of
deserved notice quite equal to all the room
which we can bestow upon the whole depart
ment.
We are almost ashamed to take up the priced
catalogue of autographs in this department,
and to feel a conviction of the utter hopeless
ness of our being able to go into any circum
stantial notice of its rich contents. We can