The Time I Saw George Washington’s Dentures
So I have a increasingly legitimate infatuation with the American Revolution; many thanks to Rick Lawton the Eternal American Patriot, it’s snowballed and is getting out of control. So much so that when I heard Washington’s original dentures were in special collections at the New York Academy of Medicine, I naturally emailed the curator to see them in person…with that, I found my line and I crossed it.
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With my friend Amanda, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New York Historical Society (coaxed into chaperoning me with the promise to avocado toast at Bluestone Lane after), we got a fantastic private tour by the library Curator, Anne Garner.
First off the bat; akin to the cherry tree story and his “never telling a lie”, President Washington’s teeth were not wooden…but the man did have horrific dental hygiene. Washington went through multiple sets of dentures, however in 1789, Manhattan dentist John Greenwood fit him with the lower denture that has been in the museum’s possession for 80 years. The denture itself is made out of hippopotamus ivory and is ungodly bulky, which explains the President’s famously large lips. The dentures were inlaid with human teeth, of which six still remain. There was a space left for his last tooth, a bicuspid in his left lower jaw, which stayed in his mouth until 1794. The General had a rough go with his oral health and did everything in his power to conceal his rotting gums from the public. As the face of the nation, it was utmost importance to appear able and healthy. A preserved modern sentiment, tooth decay and general lack of teeth was not regarded as *noble*. For these dentures he paid $60, which we estimated would be ~$3,000 nowadays.
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Dentistry was savage back then – imagine zero anesthesia, just a set of pliers to twist the tooth out. This is a common torture in every Saw movie. Washington most likely chose Greenwood as he was on the cutting edge of dentistry. He invented and made practice of the first dental engine, a foot-powered drill made from a spinning wheel, which sounds fabulous until you remember patients were sans painkillers
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If you turn on the news and there’s a report of a maniacal blonde woman who was tackled outside of a New York museum for trying to run away with a historical relic belonging to George Washington, you can fondly say, “I know her.”
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Anne showed us a handful of really amazing things, but for some other top gems:
9th century manuscript of Apicius’ De re Coquinaria, a collection of Roman and Greek recipes, which is the oldest cookbook in the West – the other copy is held in the Vatican.
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We also viewed this sexist 1930’s book from the same author that brought you “Ideal Marriage; in Physiology and Tecnhique”, “Sex Hostility in Marriage; it’s origin, prevention and treatment.”, and “Fertility and Sterility in Marriage; their voluntary promotion and limitation.”
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If you too are interested in seeing what lies in special and rare collections,
contact Anne at [email protected] or a curator at any museum of your liking, to set up a private viewing and go on your own adventure.