Ship Of Theseus and Washington's Hatchet


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Posted by Sean on Saturday, March 08, 2003 at 11:28AM :

In Reply to: What is Original? posted by Cliff in WI on Saturday, March 08, 2003 at 8:26AM :

When I worked at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, this sorta thing came up all the time....

Here is George Washington's Hatchet. It is a priceless piece of history! This is the VERY hatchet Washington used when he cut down his father's cherry tree! It is priceless and unique!

So priceless that, when the curator noticed termites had infested the haft, we replaced it with a new piece of hickory from the same sub-species of tree from a specimen growing in Virginia near the Washington ancestral home. We carved and sanded it in the original style with original tools, removed the old haft, and installed the new one.

Then, in honor of the nation's bicentennial, we restored much of our collection for a touring exhibit. Among the pieces retored was the head of Washington's Hatchet. Over the years, humidity had taken it's toll, and the head had rusted to a lump of iron oxide. We commissioned a blacksmith in Jamestown to make a new head, using traditional materials, tools and methods, just as would have been used when the head was orginally forged.

We took the new head, affixed it to the new haft, and now, Washington's Hatchet is perfectly preserved for future generations of Americans....

Then the little boy asked, "What happened to the old, termite eaten haft, and the rusted head?"



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