The article in the Jan./Feb. issue entitled "The Other George W." about our first president was most interesting and informative. The one item that caught my attention was where the author, Tait Trussell, stated in the
beginning of paragraph seven, "Washington did not have wooden teeth."
Back in the '60s, while employed as a schoolteacher on an American Air Force base in Oxfordshire, England, I took students on field trips to various historic sites. One of these was the former home of President Washington's uncle, Lawrence Washington, located a little way out of the town of Banbury. It had been converted into a museum and contained many objects of the 18th century, including a set of wooden teeth which was in a large glass container and bore a sign claiming that these false teeth belonged to the American Revolutionary general and president George Washington! This set of wooden teeth was stained and somewhat worn, as if the deceased owner had enjoyed his food and wine. It appears that these false teeth were false, indeed!
John Egan
Concord, California
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