Fishing line

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This fishing line was found in a small tackle box believed to have belonged to George Washington. Washington enjoyed fishing both as a gentleman's contemplative recreation and as a practical means of securing provisions while on the frontier. His diary records successful catches of a dolphin and shark in Barbados, a legendary catfish in the Ohio Country, and trout and perch during the recess of the Constitutional Convention in the hot summer of 1787.

See also the tackle box, W-2201/A-B, and additional tackle, W-2201/D-Y.

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Date1760-1800

Geography Probably made - England

Medium/TechniqueHorsehair, wood

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 1/4 in. x 3 in. x 2 3/8 in. (0.64 cm x 7.62 cm x 6.05 cm)

Credit LineGift of Camille E. Bryan, 1958

Object numberW-2201/C

DescriptionFishing line: Black, horsehair fishing line wrapped around a small piece of wood.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 205.

Commander Donald B. Leach, "George Washington: Waterman and Fisherman, 1760-1799," Yearbook: The Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia 28 (2001-2002): 10-11.

"Washington's Fishing Tackle," Forest and Stream (1 December 1906): 869.

F. L. Brockett, The Lodge of Washington: A History of the Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22, A. F. and A. M. of Alexandria, VA, 1783-1876 (Alexandria, Virginia: G. H. Ramey & Son, 1899), 156.

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