52nd Annual Delaware Show

through the capital on its way to oppose the British army at the Battle of Brandywine (fig. 4). A red, woven silk sash reportedly worn by Washington at the time of his appointment to command the Continental Army; wartime letters from Washington to George Baylor, Arthur St. Clair, Benjamin Lincoln, and Thomas Wharton; an embroidered silk apron owned by Martha Washington; and a pair of corded silk breeches dating to Washington’s presidential period were also part of Burk-era acquisitions. Perhaps rarer than any of the items owned and used by George Washington, however, is a slim leather-bound volume containing English biblical expositor William Burkitt’s An Help and Guide to Christian Families and Family Instructions; or, Principles of Religion . This work, obtained by Burk in 1928, was published in London in 1752 and bears Martha Washington’s signature on the flyleaf. It is one of just a handful of surviving books known to have been owned by her. Since Burk’s death, the Valley Forge Historical Society and its successor, the Museum of the American Revolution, have continued to expand the Washington holdings. A bequest in 1982 brought eight more Milne cups into the collection. Also acquired were a pair of identical cups believed to have been commissioned from Virginia silversmith Charles Burnett in 1798, when Washington anticipated taking the field as commander of the American army in the Quasi-War with France. More recent additions include a soldier’s discharge and officer’s oath of allegiance signed by the commander in chief; one of fifty Philadelphia-made muskets commissioned by Washington in early 1775 for the Prince William County Fig. 4. Silver camp cups commissioned by George Washington from Philadelphia silversmith Edmund Milne in 1777. — 26 —