Specialized tables with storage compartments were popular additions to elite homes during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. "Work," a synonym for women's plain or fancy needlework, could be safely stored in the hinged compartment of the table while not in use or easily retrieved for polite employment when visiting. Family tradition maintains this rather austere work table belonged to Martha Washington and was given to her great-great-grandniece as a wedding present in 1834. Its early 1800s date of manufacture, however, suggests purchase by the next generation of Washingtons who lived at Mount Vernon.