Winner - Lithograph Centennial Quick Step - ca 1852 v2 - Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee Design

This design reproduces a mid-nineteenth-century sheet music cover, a lithograph introducing a centennial quick step.

Visual Elements & Composition

The artwork is laid out as a sheet music cover, a single printed front page with the title as the main line of text, framing the illustration beneath it. Lithographic printing gives the image its drawn, layered character, and the arrangement reads as a deliberate poster-style front page rather than a loose picture.

Meaning & Symbolism

Covers like this one were cultural artifacts of their time. Publishers used them to commemorate national events, popular dances and civic milestones. The quick step, a lively march style from nineteenth-century band repertoire, carried that energy into parades, celebrations and public gatherings. The title names a centennial, tying the piece to a moment of national reflection and to the music that marked it. Prints like this one record the point where popular music, graphic design and mass-produced imagery met before the digital age.

Where the Print Meets the Tee

A sheet music cover was made to be held, turned and read at close range, and a tee brings it into that same personal space, seen up close in conversation. The chest works as one open printed panel, so the cover's self-contained, framed layout translates directly to the shirt. Wearing it puts a piece of 1850s popular print culture onto an everyday garment.