With Civil War imminent, one journalist noted that “Washington at that time consisted of two entirely different communities, divided by official and social lines.” The working class and career government clerks were decidedly pro-Union while the social elite and money men were Confederate sympathizers. 

Many tried to find a way to capitalize on the new patriotic zeal that engulfed the city. Patriotic covers, usually envelopes printed with patriotic images, allowed citizens to show their support for the Union or the Confederacy in the same way that people use bumper stickers today.

Print maker G. Heerbrandt’s the "Rose of Washington," is arguably one of the most popular Union patriotic cover designs made during the Civil War. The original rose design is credited to Charles Magnus, but as the design's popularity increased, printers throughout the United States began creating similar items

The "Rose" was folded to look like a simple paper flower, but unfurled revealing a dozen images of buildings found in Washington, D.C. This unique object allows us a glimpse of city as it would have looked at the time of Lincoln's first inauguration.