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A large ornamented membership certificate for a Philadelphia nativist organization. The motto "Beware of Foreign Influence" appears on a streamer above a bust portrait of George Washington. The Washington portrait is framed with oak leaves and a belt with the quotation, "First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of his Countrymen." Around it is a circle of stars in radiating beams of light.
The center of the certificate is flanked by two fasces, each ornamented with olive leaves, wreaths, daggers, and a banner. The banners are decorated with images reflecting the somewhat chauvinistic tenor of the nativist organizations. The banner on the left shows an American mariner holding a flag and waving his hat; the one on the right a full-length portrait of Washington, the general, with his horse. Wound about the fasces on the left is a ribbon reading, "Our Country and Her Flag;" on the right "United We Stand, Divided We Fall."
At the bottom of the certificate is a small emblem of an American eagle on a rock in a stormy sea, with a shield, olive branch, and arrows.
The engraver, publisher, and (probably) designer of the certificate, Washington L. Germon, was also a Philadelphia daguerreotypist and photographer. |
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