From the desk of Nathan Tardiff (founder of Noodler’s Ink):

Any fellow American who cares to read about the reasons for and development/properties of this ink for the 2017 Washington DC Pen Show called House/Divided.

Dear fountain pen and ink aficionados,

Some of us know that our grandparents knew (or at least knew of) veterans of our terrible Civil War, and that relatively recent perspective in our relatively young country (particularly when compared to China, Italy, Egypt, etc..) can make that conflict appear to some as if it took place too close to our time for comfort. The words of both Sam Houston and Abraham Lincoln (quoted on the back of each label) warned us of the danger in 1850 and 1858, both in the South and in the North.

Abraham Lincoln himself was to a great extent the final victim of that conflict. His death was not greeted with joy by many of his former enemies, as his intentions were by then known to seek the healing of the deep wounds caused by the conflict. We lost one of our greatest statesmen and leaders as a mere bookend to the loss of much of an entire generation, as the carnage of their departing from mortal coils remains the worst we have experienced as a people.

The hatred and rage that exists today between people who, until recently, simply had a differing opinion as to how best to preserve and protect our freedom and liberty has reached a point of reminding meand perhaps some of youabout the man who lay in that bed waiting for death after that long struggle for freedom and liberty. The same freedom and liberty Americans died for in the revolt against the crown and its ancient aristocracy, and that which Americans died for in the fight against later enemies of freedom who believed people were better governed by others rather than governed by themselves.

Thusthe inkis a combination of the colors red and blue, unified into a deep 19th century style cordovan plum color. Alas, if tampered with it can be broken upthe blue is brightly electric when reflecting the rays of a black light and will overpower the red in that spectrum and can be made to halo the red on some papers yet with washing or soaking the combination is lost, and the blue of the union slowly gives way to a permanent blood red alonewhich I hope is a warning to those who might confuse blue and red with blue and gray. If we all keep seeking more liberty and freedom for all, our experiment might live on a few more centuries.