Napoleon’s Napkin, Island of Elba, Italy, 1815
date: label: associated date
content: 1815
name: label: associated person
content: Napoleon I Emperor of France
notes: label: Description
content: The Emperor Napoleon gave this table napkin to William Bayard on February 26, 1815, the morning Napoleon escaped exile on the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. The napkin is embroidered in one corner with a small green crown above the letter N and in the opposite corner with the red initials W.B. William Bayard, a wealthy American who traveled widely among the courts of Europe, had called upon the exiled French emperor, who reportedly invited Bayard to join his party returning to France. Instead, Bayard came home with his story and two of the emperor’s napkins.
label: Description
content: Bayard gave the two napkins to Lucy Hunter Churchill, the wife of US Army Inspector General Sylvester Churchill. Mrs. Churchill, the future mother-in-law of Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird, was said to be a keen admirer of Napoleon. The napkin displayed here was bequeathed to the museum by the Bairds’ daughter, Lucy Hunter Baird, in 1914.
label: Description
content: Bequest of Lucy Hunter Baird, 1914
place: label: Associated Place
content: Italy: Tuscany, Elba
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, General History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Souvenir Nation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Estate of Lucy Hunter Baird
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.15037
label: catalog number
content: 15037
label: accession number
content: 55865
objectType: label: Object Name
content: napkin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: linen (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 in x 45 in; 55.88 cm x 114.3 cm