This small wooden cup is made from wood taken from the famous “Washington Elm” that once stood on Cambridge Common. The Washington Elm was the subject of a legend that was believed by many for almost a century, namely that it was under this tree that George Washington assumed command of the army on July 3, 1775 after his arrival in Cambridge. When the tree finally came down in 1923, hundreds of pieces of it were saved as souvenirs and even shoots were distributed so that the tree would in some sense live on.
Two years after it came down, the story behind the tree was revealed to be false by Samuel F. Batchelder, who presented a paper at the Cambridge Historical Society. Although the story had been around since the 1830s, it really took off in 1876 with the publication of The Diary of Dorothy Dudley, which was a fictional account written by Mary Williams Greeley to help celebrate the country’s centennial year. The story stuck though, and was widely believed to be accurate until Batchelder’s 1925 paper set the record straight.
Which member of the Longfellow family acquired this piece is unknown, but it is unsurprising that they did so due to the family’s interest in George Washington. In addition, there had been a stone tablet in front of the tree which read:
UNDER THIS TREE
WASHINGTON
FIRST TOOK COMMAND
OF THE
AMERICAN ARMY
JULY 3D, 1775
The lines on the tablet were reportedly composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.