Benjamin Franklin's walking stick, about 1780
Franklin received this cane while serving as ambassador to France during the 1780s. In his will he bequeathed this reminder of the Revolution and its ideals to George Washington: "My fine crab-tree walking stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of the cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, General Washington. If it were a Sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it." Washington's grandnephew donated the cane to the U.S. government in 1843; it was transferred to the Smithsonian from the State Department in 1922.
See also:
Presidential Memorabilia, Revolutionary War
