Set in Perpetua on Rives, this broadside is Thoreau’s famous quote from his well-known, 1854 “Slavery in Massachusetts” speech/essay. The text reads:
It chanced the other day that I scented a white water lily, and a season I had waited for had arrived. It is the emblem of purity. It bursts up so pure and fair to the eye, and so sweet to the scent, as if to show us what purity and sweetness reside in, and can be extracted from, the slime and muck of earth. I think I have plucked the first one that has opened for a mile. What confirmation of our hopes is in the fragrance of this flower! I shall not so soon despair of the world for it […]. It suggests what kind of laws have prevailed longest and widest, and still prevail, and that the time may come when man’s deeds will smell as sweet.
Designed, engraved, printed & hand-colored by Abigail Rorer. Hand-colored engraving with letterpress. 10 x 20.5. Edition: 50. Price: $145