into the Civil War, must have seemed
powerfully prophetic to the sea of solemn
faces gathered in the crowded hall.
Not all celebrations were as somber as
the scene at the Capitol. In Philadelphia, a
shopkeeper named Samuel Curtis Upham
watched lively crowds surging through
the streets to the celebratory sounds of
cannon fire. He stood about five feet eight
inches tall, with a high forehead and a
square chin. His frank, alert face exuded
common sense and sobriety, qualities that
set him apart from the merrymaking mob.
When night fell, specially prepared lights
illuminated the city. Merchants on Chestnut Street competed for the brightest,
best-decorated storefront, adorning their
windows with silk and satin banners dyed
red, white and blue. Upham was one of
them: his shop stood at the intersection of
Chestnut and Fourth. He lit his store’s narrow facade so brilliantly that it caught the
eye of a passing journalist, and when Philadelphia’s weary residents picked up the
North American and United States Gazette
that Monday, they found a description of
it on the front page. Upham’s facade featured one of the night’s most impressive
displays, the journalist wrote, “a blaze of
glory from basement to apex.”
On Monday morning, Upham woke up
and went to work. He lived on the south
side of town, about a mile and a half from
his store at 403 Chestnut Street, where he
sold stationery, newspapers and cosmetics with names like Upham’s Hair Dye.
Perhaps in part because of the Gazette’s
favorable report, business that day was
Detail of Samuel Curtis Upham (center),
age 58, from a group portrait of the Associated
Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California,1877.
www.MoAF.org | Spring/Summer 2011 | Financial History 41
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. BANK PIC 1963.002:1882 (enclosure)-D.
On February 22, 1862, damp flags fluttered along Pennsylvania Avenue as
thousands of citizens walked toward the
Capitol to commemorate the 130th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.
They passed beneath its unfinished dome
in the wet, gloomy weather and joined
the throng of people trying to get inside.
Seated in the House of Representatives
were the government’s most powerful
men: congressmen and senators, generals
and commodores, cabinet members and
Supreme Court justices. They had come
to hear the secretary of the Senate read
Washington’s Farewell Address, the day’s
main event. In his final message as President, Washington had urged Americans
to put aside their regional loyalties and
unite as a nation — advice that, 10 months