[1871]
[1871]. General wear. . The German Peace Festival was celebrated all across the US in most major cities (including but not limited to New York, Baltimore, Washington DC and even Honolulu! The festival was to commemorated the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The festival in the cities consisted of large parades with floats, soldiers in uniform, and German singers. The engraving itself takes up nearly the entire front page of the single fold unused lettersheet. The main portion of the engraving shows a parade serpentining the sheet, with a variety of parade floats, squadrons of men on horseback or marching in uniform, German and American flags, and marching bands. At the top of the page are three close ups of sections of the parade. The first features several men in uniform on horses pulling a float with the Goddess of Victory, Nike, on top. The second features a large marching band with drum major at the front. The last image features another horse drawn float, however the float this time is of a giant top hat. This may or may not be in reference to the late President Lincoln. The base of the engraving is captioned with "Deutsches Friedensfest in Amerika [German Peace Festival in America] 187_". There is no indication as to which city this particular representation of the festival took place in. The interior pages of this lettersheet are lined. Single fold. Measures 10 3/4" x 8 1/2" (folded), 16 3/4" x 10 3/4" (unfolded). (Inventory #: 29001862)