Handkerchief
Boston Chemical Printing Company
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The text of the poem "Mary Dow" was written by Hannah Flagg Gould. In 1830, the Boston Chemical Printing Company published a "chapbook" style version of the Gould poem that is printed on this handkerchief. Other poems by Gould were also printed on similar handkerchiefs. A version of this poem (lines 1-32 and 45-52) appeared in the 1837 "McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader," the third volume of a popular educational book series for children. Both poems, "The Little Beggar Girl" and "Mary Dow," deal with the social and moral issues surrounding the rich and the poor.
The Costume Institute
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.