Black and white photograph of a very large, floral set piece ordered by the City of New York for the funeral of the former United States President, Ulysses S. Grant. The design includes a floral rendering of an American flag and a sword nestled among flowers and foliage, as well as two panels with floral lettering. The panel on the right says “A Nation’s Hero At Rest,” and the panel on the bottom has a quote from the President, “Let us have Peace, the Mail, and Express.” The mount for the photograph is torn, but would have read, “Design for the Funeral of Pres. Grant.”
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Flower arrangements are some of the most common subject matters for memorial photographs made in the nineteenth century. Cabinet cards, stereo cards, and other photographic formats are seen depicting memorial flowers, sometimes combined with other mourning imagery, phrases, or a photograph of the deceased when alive. Simple wording such as, “our baby,” “our darling,” “brother,” “sister,” “son,” “daughter,” etc. were commonly seen surrounded by a creative still life composition made from the sympathy tributes. Having these photographs taken was affordable, and in the case of notable figures, the pictures were mass-produced for sale to the public. This type of memorial photograph was most popular between 1895 and 1910. The images were often kept by the family as remembrance of the deceased individual and the outpouring of love and sympathy received in their time of greatest loss; often made into parlor cards, openly displayed in the home, or kept in a photographic album.