Fragments of the First Confederate Flag from the famous 19th century Charles Gunther collection. Click picture and "Detailed Description".
Fragments of the First National Flag of the Confederacy which was established on March 5, 1861. The flag was once part of the famous Charles F. Gunther Collection. Gunther was a German-American confectioner and collector. His family moved from Württemberg to Pennsylvania in 1842, and then resettled in Peru, Illinois. In 1860, Gunther traveled south and landed a job with Bohlen, Wilson & Company, an ice distributor based in Memphis, Tennessee. When the Civil War broke out, Gunther pledged to "stick by Memphis", and helped transport Confederate soldiers along the tributaries of the Mississippi River. He was captured by Union troops in 1862, but was released and traveled back to Illinois.
After the Civil War, Gunther traveled to Europe to learn the candy making business. He started his own candy company in Chicago in 1868 but the business was destroyed in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. He quickly recovered and built a new factory and eventually amassed a fortune, and began purchasing historical artifacts to display in his factory. Most of these were artifacts from the Civil War, and one of his most historic items was Abraham Lincoln's deathbed, which he purchased in 1877.
Gunther's collection continued to grow, and he eventually turned his sights to the Libby Prison, a former Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia. Gunther purchased the structure and had it dismantled and shipped to Chicago, where it was reassembled and converted into a museum to house Gunther's artifacts. It opened to the public in 1889 and hosted thousands of visitors within its first few months of existence. The infirmary of the prison was converted into the Lincoln Room, in which Gunther displayed Lincoln's deathbed, along with other artifacts associated with Lincoln's assassination.
During the 1890s, Gunther became involved with Chicago's growing convention industry. When the original Chicago Coliseum burned down in 1897, Gunther decided to build a new Coliseum on the site of the Libby Prison, since attendance at the museum was beginning to wane. The prison building was disassembled, and parts of it were donated to the Chicago Historical Society. Gunther offered the rest of his collection to the city, with the hope that the city would build a museum for it in Garfield Park, but Illinois law prevented such a building from being constructed on parkland.
After Gunther's death in 1920, the Chicago Historical Society paid $150,000 for the bulk of Gunther's collection, which by that point also included the table on which Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. Shortly afterwards, the society began building a $1 million museum to display its expanded collection. The building opened in 1932 at Clark Street and North Avenue, and is currently known as the Chicago History Museum.
The original flag measured 60” x 90” and had a circle of twelve stars, representing the number of states of the Confederacy. It was made of silk, and being such a delicate fabric, it would deteriorate over time. Being such a historic piece, Gunther decided not to let it worsen, and decided to cut it up into pieces to be sold as souvenirs. The pieces are encased in plastic and are attached to a specially designed matte, which could easily be put into a frame. The description of the artifact is on the reverse. This unique and rare piece has been in my private collection for over twenty years.
