The Washingtons, like other eighteenth-century Americans, purchased straight pins imported from England. Expensive and difficult to produce, they came in a variety of sizes intended for different purposes. These four common or "middling" examples were used for fastening one's clothing or for sewing. In the eighteenth-century, women typically stored pins in cloth needle books and pin cushions, these pins were discovered in a snuff box believed to have been owned by Martha Washington.

See also snuff box, W-2776/A.