image from the Library of Congress Flickr stream. no copyright restrictions exist.
In honor of President’s Day, or George Washington’s birthday (observed), we present an interesting little bit of ephemera from one of our manuscript collections, the North Callahan Collection. A 1930 University of Chattanooga alumnus, and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from this university, Dr. Callahan taught History at New York University and wrote several historical biographies, including a biography of George Washington. The bit (see below) that we are including did not show up in his book, but was likely a working draft for a newspaper article. Keep in mind that at the time this article was written, likely in the 1970’s, typewriters, not computers, were in use. Note the unusual composition of one set of dentures in the Callahan article. (You will need to click on the image to enlarge it.)
Read more about recent analysis of Washington’s dentures here, including other interesting materials used in the making of other sets of dentures.
Happy President’s Day!
