Human Confederate Flag Postcard

Boys dressed in white and girls in blue and red stand in front of the equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond to create a human Confederate battle flag in 1907. This tableau was part of a five-day celebration in the Virginia capital that honored the Confederate cause. The festivities opened with the unveiling of a monument to General J. E. B. Stuart and closed with the unveiling of a monument to the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. The events coincided with a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans that was taking place in the city. This mass-produced, colored postcard was based on an original photograph taken by Huestis Pratt Cook, a prominent local photographer. The tag line to the postcard attests to a Lost Cause view of the Confederacy: And Twill Live In Song and Story Though Its Folds Are In the Dust.