Description

Silk, swallow-tail American flag pennant features a field of red and white stripes with a notch on the proper left side. Two rings of gold stars are painted on a blue field in the top proper right corner. The flag has been backed by supporting fabric and is covered in stabilizing nylon net. It is mounted on a tan fabric-covered board. The pennant originally belonged to Edwin M. Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War and hung in his office. After Stanton's death Mrs. Habersham, daughter of Edwin M. Stanton and friend and patient of Dr. Butler, presented the flag to Dr. Winthrop Butler (1838-1907) who had served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Saratoga. After the war he practiced medicine at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, until the early 1900's. Mrs. Adelaide Butler, widow of Dr. Winthrop Butler, gifted the flag to her nephew, Henry Clark Ottiwell of Vineyard, Massachusetts, who then gifted the flag to the Lincoln National Life Foundation on September 18, 1967. For more information see "Lincoln Lore" Number 1585, March, 1970, page 1. The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection also includes several military documents written/signed by Winthrop Butler. Go to www.lincolncollection.org and search for Winthrop Butler to see them online. Part of the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum