2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 40. 



Washington, from whom it passed to a son of the same name, and 

 in 1858 was purchased from him by the Mount Vernon Ladies' 

 Association.^ 



By an act of Congress approved June 20, 1878," the Government 

 purchased a collection of Washington relics from G. W. Lewis and 

 others, the heirs of Mrs. Lawrence Lewis,^ the adopted daughter 

 of Washington and the wife of his nephew Major Lawrence Lewis. 

 After the death of Mi-s. Washington in 1802 these objects had passed 

 into the hands of Mrs. Lewis, and on her death in 1852 were received 

 by her heirs, who held them until their purchase by the Govermnent 

 in 1878, when they were deposited in the United States Patent 

 Office, wliero they remained until transferred to the United States 

 National Museum in 1883. 



The objects purchased from the Lewis heirs form the greater portion 

 of the Washingtoniana in the Museum, and are designated as belong- 

 ing to the ''Lewis collection" in the present catalogue. The sources 

 of other Washington relics, received by the Museum at various times 

 as loans or gifts, are given in connection with the description of the 

 articles. 



In the Museum collection of Washingtoniana, manuscripts are lack- 

 ing. The science of history, however, is not confined to manuscrijDts 

 alone for the sources of its data, and the collection as it stands is of 

 great interest and value, both to the student of history and to the 

 general public. 



In the preparation of this catalogue a nuralier of works on antiques 

 have been consulted and references to these are given in footnotes. 

 Besides the printed authorities referred to in the footnotes, the in- 

 formation herein given has been derived from labels accompanying 

 the objects while in the Patent Office,^ and from the correspondence 

 of the Museum authorities with the Patent Office authorities and 

 with individuals who have had more or less personal knowledge 

 of the various objects in the collection. Information concerning 

 the collection, not otherwise attributed in the footnotes, has been 

 derived from these manuscript sources now in the Museum files. 



Acknowledgment should be made of the important assistance 

 rendered in the preparation of this catalogue b}^ Mi-. A. Howard 

 Clark, curator of the Division of History of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, under whose supervision the Wasliington collection 

 was removed from the Patent Office to its present location in 1883. 



1 See Moimt Vernon and its Preservation, 1858-1910, by Thomas Nelson Page, New York, 1010. 



' See U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 20, p. 218. 



3 Eleanor Parke Custis (Nelly Custis), the granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, married Lawrence 

 Lewis, son of Fielding Lewis and "Betty" Washington, sister of General AVasliington. See Appendix! 

 of this paper. 



< Alfred Hunter, in his work, A popular catalogue of the extraordinary curiosities in the National Insti- 

 tute, arranged in the building belonging to the Patent Office, Washington, 185S, refers briefly to the 

 Washington collection then in the Patent Office. 



