Archaeologists have unearthed an astounding 35 glass bottles from the 18th century in the cellar of George Washington’s home.
The five storage pits buried in the dirt under Mount Vernon included 29 intact bottles of perfectly preserved cherries, a fruit associated with America’s first president who was touted as telling the truth after he cut down a cherry tree.
Workers discovered the stash amidst an ongoing renovation of Washington’s manor to repair sections of the framing and masonry.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine this spectacular archaeological discovery,” said Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn. “We were ecstatic.”
“To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented find and nothing of this scale and significance has ever been excavated in North America.”
The contents of each bottle, some of which contained berries like currants, have been carefully extracted and refrigerated at Mount Vernon, and will undergo scientific analysis. The bottles are slowly drying in the Mount Vernon archaeology lab, so will be sent off-site for conservation. (WATCH the video below…)
“These artifacts likely haven’t seen the light of day since before the American Revolution, perhaps forgotten when George Washington departed Mount Vernon to take command of the Continental Army.”
Mount Vernon Principal Archaeologist Jason Boroughs said the extraordinary discovery “continues to astonish us.”
“These perfectly preserved fruits picked and prepared more than 250 years ago are a testament to the knowledge and skill of the enslaved people who managed the food preparations from tree to table, including Doll, the cook brought to Mount Vernon by Martha Washington in 1759 and charged with oversight of the estate’s kitchen.”
“(They) provide an incredibly rare opportunity to contribute to our knowledge of the 18th-century environment, plantation food methods, and the origins of American cuisine.”
Mount Vernon has partnered with the US Department of Agriculture’s Research Service to analyze the contents of these historic bottles.
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54 cherry pits and 23 stems, likely of a tart variety, have already been identified thus far, and microscopy suggests that the cherries, with their stems neatly cut, were likely harvested by snipping them from trees with shears. The cherries may be candidates for DNA extraction, which could be compared against a database of heirloom varieties to determine the precise species.
Everyone working at the 290-year-old historic monument, which is visited by thousands daily, is now crossing their fingers that some of the pits undergoing examination will be viable for growing future fruit trees—especially as the county is poised to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.
Bradburn says the building renovation project that uncovered the pre-Revolutionary War artifacts, is Mount Vernon’s $40 million birthday gift to America.
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