Canteen
To supplement their often bland military rations, officers of means invested in canteens: small, lidded cases divided into lined compartments harboring glass bottles filled with wine, liquor, and condiments. George Washington is believed to have owned the three canteens featured here. Heavily worn, they may have been acquired during his military service during the French and Indian War or the American Revolution. They were among the handful of original Washington objects left at Mount Vernon when the Association purchased the property in 1860.
Published ReferencesJames C. Rees, Treasures from Mount Vernon: George Washington Revealed (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1999), 49.
Mount Vernon Ladies Association, General Washington's Swords and Campaign Equipment (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1944), 34-35.
Benson J. Lossing, George Washington's Mount Vernon or Mount Vernon and its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictoral (New York: W. A. Townsend & Company, 1859), 39.