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Sanitary Fair Sale. Catalogue of Miscellaneous Goods Remaining From the Great Sanitary Fair, To be Sold at Public Sale, On Tuesday, December 6, 1864…by Thomas Birch & Son, Auctioneers.
[Philadelphia], 6 December 1864. Broadside, 17” x 10.25”. A most interesting broadside advertising the sale at auction of goods unsold at one of Philadelphia’s sanitary fairs, listing a wide variety of items, including a smattering of interesting Civil War-related objects. Among the 260 items listed here (located either on the store’s second or third floor) are sewing machines, 200 Stroud’s Slave Laws, atlases and maps, Ives’ Music Holder, an automaton figure of monkey fiddler, “a large invoice of fine photographs,” play houses, engravings, “tributes to the fair,” a “photograph apparatus,” eight casts of Washington’s face, a model steamboat, ear trumpets, lithographic ink, an Indian’s hatchet, and so forth. The Civil War-related objects include such a rebel torpedo, “leaves from the Battle Field,” busts of Generals Meade and Grant, a military bridle, etc. Sanitary fairs were organized by civilians during the Civil War to raise funds on behalf of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and other organizations that provided relief to the Union Army. Over the course of the war, the fairs became one of the most popular means of fundraising for the Union cause. As noted by Kerry L. Bryan, Philadelphia’s sanitary fairs in particular “represented the spirit of patriotic volunteerism that pervaded the city during the Civil War. These grassroots efforts, climaxed by the Great Central Fair of 1864 in Logan Square, provided a creative and communal means for ordinary citizens to promote the welfare of Union soldiers and dedicate themselves to the survival of the nation. They also made Philadelphia a vital center in the Union war effort.” WorldCat records just two copies, at the AAS and the Library Company of Philadelphia. REFERENCES: Bryan, Kerry L. Civil War Sanitary Fairs at philadelphiaencyclopedia.org. CONDITION: Good, 1” separations in margins along central horizontal fold, tape stains on verso coming through upper corners.
Item #7008
Price: $650.00