We had the privilege to frame this Grand Army of the Republic Sword in a shadowbox frame, along with many ribbons and medals of rank. These items are very precious, being post American civil-war and dear to our history.
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and growing to include hundreds of posts (local community units) across the nation (predominately in the North, but also a few in the South and West), it was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota. Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans’ pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans.
Our job was to frame this collection with the utmost of care. Everything was hand sewn, pinned and carefully mounted without using adhesives or any other materials that would cause the sword, ribbons, photos and medals to degrade. Everything is museum mounted by hand and preserved under ultraviolet filtering glass. A rich cranberry linen was used to make the items really pop out. We create custom pegs to keep the blade in place, too… covered with the same fabric that the backing is.