Essay Topics:

Please write a short essay on one of the following subjects related to the Washington Elm. In writing your essay you should draw on the documents and images from the 18^th and 19^th centuries available on this web-site, and should visit either the site itself or an object associated with it. You may also find the historiographic commentaries useful in developing your ideas.

• Does it matter if the tradition of the Washington Elm is true?
• Why do you think this tradition has had such a powerful hold?
• Visit one artifact from the Washington elm, and write about how it is portrayed, where, and why. (Washington Elm Table at CPL; Washington Elm Book; Thing at CHS; chair)
• Why might soldiers? memoirs written long after the fact differ from diaries?
• Compare the painting to the collection from GW and soldiers? diaries. Describe what you think might have happened that day in Cambridge.
• Batchelder offers 2 versions of what might have happened under the Cambridge elm on July 3 (pages 276-280). Comment on them.

Discussion Questions for Section

As you read and think about the Washington Elm, keep the following questions in mind for discussion in section.