(1802) "MARTHA WASHINGTON" Printed Silk Mourning Ribbon for Martha Washington, Bearing her Name Within a highly Ornate Rosette and Scrollwork Border, Produced Following her Death on May 22nd, 1802, Choice Very Fine.
An extremely rare Printed Silk Mourning Ribbon, measuring 9 x 1.5 inches, printed in deep black on white silk, with "MARTHA WASHINGTON" running the full length between matching borders of ornate scrollwork and medallion rosettes. This historic Memorial Ribbon was produced to mark her death at Mount Vernon on May 22, 1802. Martha Washington died a widow of two and a half years, having outlived her husband George. All four of her children and two previous husbands were gone, and this nation mourned her passing much as it had mourned for George Washington's own death less than three years earlier in December 1799. That sorrowful event that had already established an American tradition of printed “mourning” textiles bearing the Washington name. Provenance Ex: Collection of Rex Stark.
Ribbons, handkerchiefs, and other cloth mementos produced in this period were commonly worn or displayed at memorial observances, church services, and private gatherings held in Martha Washington’s honor. Each a small wearable way for ordinary Americans to publicly grieve the loss of the woman so well known throughout the young republic as "Lady Washington."

This silk ribbon survives as a rare and personal piece of that mourning, its bold lettering and decorative border a fitting tribute to the noble woman who had stood beside the nation's first president throughout the American revolution, his presidency, and finally her widowhood, dying at Mount Vernon herself only two and a half years after the husband for whom she never stopped grieving.
[Federal Period, Early Republic, 19th Century America] [Martha Washington, George Washington, Mourning and Memorial Customs] [Textiles, Ribbons, Political Ephemera]