This painting, signed M. Bemis, is backed with a page from the Norwich, Connecticut, Morning Bulletin dated June 14, 1862. According to family history, Mrs. Bemis's husband served in the 16th Cennecticut volunteer infantry mustered in 1862. Mr. Bemis served with a Clayton Roath and perhaps his father, Erastus, in whose family this picture descended.

The flag with thirty-four stars recalls the American flag of 1861, the year Kansas joined the United States, on July 2. A thirty-fifth star was added to the flag two years later when West Virginia entered the union. The circular arrangment of the stars in this painting was not the official design until forty-eight states were established, in 1912.

Lee Kogan, "Wreath of Flowers with American Flag," FOILED: Tinsel Painting in America (New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2013), 95