George Washingtons Teeth

The curator was accustomed to answers and none of his manuals or degrees or acquired knowledge could explain how five days before someone had decoded the elaborate alarm system and broken into one of the display cases, stealing the set of George Washington's teeth that it contained. To further deepen the mystery, nothing else was stolen, despite the presence of several very valuable gems nearby. Not so much as a whimper was heard from the police dogs that patrolled the grounds every night. There were no fingerprints found anywhere near the scene, nor were there any signs of forced entry.

John Ashley and his men had thoroughly questioned all of the members of the Museum's work force, including James Duncan, who was the head of Security. No one saw or heard anything unusual. Ashley's return to the scene was most embarrassing for both men, for as mysteriously as the set of teeth had vanished, so they had reappeared during the previous night.

Constructed of gold and hippo and elephant bone, the teeth were worn by George Washington when he posed for the famous artist, Gilbert Stuart in 1795. Stuart had chided Washington about the teeth, claiming they stretched and ruined both his mouth and the subsequent portrait. The incident kept them at a chilly distance for the remainder of both of their lives, but the resulting image was adopted on the dollar bill. On this anniversary of the great General's birth, both the portrait on loan from the New York Historical Society and the very uniform he wore while posing for the portrait were in the very same room as the display case containing the teeth.