Fishhook
Label Text
This fishhook was one of several 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 fishhooks and tackle, W-2201/C-Y.
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Date1760-1800
Geography
Made -
England
Medium/TechniqueIron alloy, japanning
DimensionsOverall: 1 7/8 in. x 5/8 in. (4.78 cm x 1.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Camille E. Bryan, 1958
Object numberW-2201/R
DescriptionFish hook of drawn wire with a single barb at the point; plier marks on the sides at the top of the shank; kirbed hook.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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