Yankee Doodle Frame

You guys know I do a frame project for just about every holiday and the 4th of July is no exception!

I have this awesome book that I bought forever ago.  I love it for three reasons.  First, I love the 4th of July!  Second, I love woodcut prints.  I don't know why, but I've always been attracted to them.  Third, I love the song, "Yankee Doodle Dandy". 

This book is so awesome.   The woodcuts are by Ed Emberley.  The type was hand set and printed on a small hand press by the artist.  It is the same type (Caslon Old Face) and was cast by the same foundry in England that was quite popular with American colonial printers, including Ben Franklin.  It was also used in, of all things, the Declaration of Independence.  How cool is that?!  The original words sung by the English are generally attributed to Dr. Richard Shackburg, but the authors of the American version have never been determined.

This book "Yankee Doodle" tells the back story of the song which is such a great story.  I'll share a few facts with you at the end of this post, but for now......back to the project.

Obviously, I was not going to tear up this precious book to make a craft project, so I made a copy of the page I wanted along with some of the text.

I wanted it to look old, so I got out my antiquing gel and watered it down a little and brushed some on.

  I will say, if you do this, you should practice a little on another page because it can be too dark.

Here is a close up of the page I selected after I used a glue stick to attach the text and put one coat of gel on it.

Here it is after a second coat.  I did let it dry between coats.

I just love the little dog chasing the soldier!

I put it in one of my favorite frames and "called it macaroni".  (Okay, I just had to say that....sorry!)

So I promised you a few facts about the song......

The song was not written by an American....it was written by a surgeon in the British army.

The British troops sang it during the American Revolution to taunt the rebel American troops who had no proper uniforms and of course did not look nearly as snappy as the Brits with their flashy red and white uniforms!

It was sung by the British as they marched to the Battle of Lexington where they were sure they would be giving the Americans  a good whipping.  However, the Americans outsmarted them and it was they who ended up singing Yankee Doodle as they drove the Brits back to Boston.  It has been a treasured American song ever since.

The word DOODLE, in those times, meant "a silly person".

MACARONI meant very fancy trimming, i.e. gold braids, ribbons and plumes.

General George Washington was called CAPTAIN Washington in the song because at the time the song was written, he had not yet been promoted to General.

If you are interested....look up both the American version and the original British version.

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