OLD NORTH STATE TOAST
12x18 Letterpress Print
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This letterpress print is handmade wall art. It is a 12”x18” letterpress poster. The text features “The Old North State” poem, the official North Carolina State Toast. The imagery is hand drawn botanical art, hand drawn landscape art, and hand lettered poetry.

North Carolina is the only of the fifty states to have an official State Toast. "The Old North State," both the title of the poem, and our traditional nickname was written and first delivered by Mrs. Leonora Monteiro in 1904. It is not and never was affiliated with the Confederate States of America, having been written more than 40 years after Appomattox. It was officially adopted as The State Toast by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1957. The text "Esse Quam Videri" is at the bottom of the print. This is the North Carolina State Motto. It translates roughly as "to [authentically] be not merely to appear," or put more simply, the distinction between essence and appearance.

This poem mentions native plants of North Carolina: long leaf pine, cotton bloom, scuppernong, southern moss, jessamine, galax, rhododendron. It mentions Mount Mitchell, the highest Appalachian peak - located just Northwest of Asheville in Pisgah National Forest. All of these are represented in the hand-drawn botanical art surrounding the poem. This print has a tactile texture from the letterpress impression on cotton paper. It is suitable for framing and makes great wall art. Fits any standard 12"x18" frame.

My home studio is located in the mountains of Western North Carolina. This print was inspired by the joy of living in Appalachia and appreciation of all the life that flourishes here.

Method of Production:
1.) Original design is created using a mixture of hand drawing and digital layout techniques.
2.) The design is made into a physical, three-dimensional, photopolymer printing plate.
3.) Rubber based ink is applied the the rollers of a Vandercook Printing Press built c. 1960s.
4.) Cotton paper is fed by hand, then physically cranked over the printing plate, thus imprinting the image onto the paper.
5.) Step 4 is repeated for each run of the press.

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The official text of the poem
by Mrs. Leonora Monteiro in 1904:

Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!

Here's to the land of the cotton bloom white,
Where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night,
Where the soft southern moss and jessamine mate,
'Neath the murmuring pines of the Old North State!

Here's to the land where the galax grows,
Where the rhododendron's rosette glows,
Where soars Mount Mitchell's summit great,
In the "Land of the Sky," in the Old North State!

Here's to the land where maidens are fair,
Where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
The near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
The blessed land, the best land, the Old North State!

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Cheers!!

Handmade art gift under $50. Great gift for UNC Tarheels. Great gift for home state North Carolina. Great gift for friends moved away from North Carolina. Great gift for North Carolina.