• Three shards of Cincinnati ware, one hand-painted polychrome, two blue transfer print

• Hand from a china doll, toy cup

• Hook with an eye at one end

• Small ceramic marble with an incised decoration

It was not uncommon for slaves who worked in the master’s house to receive cast off items from the master’s family.

Society of the Cincinnati China

c. late 18th century

Found during the 2003 archeological excavation at the two surviving slave quarters at Arlington House. From a set given to George and Martha Washington during his presidency by several French military officers, and was part of GWP Custis’s Washington Treasury.

The Society of the Cincinnati was organized on May 13, 1783, near Newburgh, NY, by Continental officers who fought in the American Revolution. It is an organization of descendents of eligible commissioned officers of the Continental Army or Navy and commissioned officers of the French Army or Navy who served in the Revolutionary War. The Society is the first veteran’s organization established in the United States. George Washington served as the President General from 1783 until his death in 1799. The insignia is the eagle and was designed my Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1784.

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial