 Only a few examples of
this rare print are known. The hand colored
lithograph shows the interior of Tammany Hall in New
York City, profusely decorated and prepared for the
Democratic National Convention held on July 4, 1868.
The print is iconic among American flag collectors,
since an example of it was included in Boleslaw and
Marie-Louise D-O'trange Mastai's important 1973 book
"The Stars and Stripes".
Large swags of flag
bunting festoon the banisters and hang from the ceiling.
Scattered among the benches of the convention hall are
smaller vertical pennants with the initials of each of
the states, indicating where the delegates from each
state would be seated. Most wonderful is the
perspective of the scene, which gives the viewer a true
sense of the space, to include the rotunda. Though
the ceiling of the rotunda may not have actually been
fully visible from this vantage point, the artist chose
to skew the perspective to show as much of the scene as
possible, lending a charming characteristic folk art
characteristic to the composition. The print is a
hand colored and was folded within Joseph Shannon's
Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York
published by W.C. Rogers Co. in 1868. In this
year, Horatio Seymour, the current Governor of New York,
was selected by the Democrats as their party's
candidate. Seymour would later lose the election to the
Republican nominee for 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant.
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