Small straight pin with handmade head and visible tinning

This complete copper alloy straight pin was manufactured by hand, as the wound wire head indicates. In the eighteenth century pins were coated with tin alloy, which is apparent on this example. Individuals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used straight pins for many purposes. In addition to sewing aids, as we most commonly think of them, pins were used to clasp documents, fasten clothing (in place of buttons), blankets, and shrouds, and attach objects of adornment to clothing and hair.

Pin sizes provide a clues to the object’s function. Pins of approximately 1 to 3 inches (or 24 to 70 millimeters in length), like this one, were probably used as sewing pins. George Washington and his contemporaries referred to these pins as short whites.

The presence of these pins in the House for Families not only speaks to the clothing of the residents, but also at least one kind of work enslaved women and girls conducted at Mount Vernon. Some enslaved females were tasked with the production of clothing for the enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon from the raw fabric ordered by Washington or produced on the estate. This clothing was issued once a year to each individual, and varied according by age, gender, and assignment as a field laborer or domestic servant, and. Indeed, these pins may also speak to the labor of these same enslaved women in mending and altering clothing among the residents of the House for Families.