George Washington’s unconfirmed cherry tree

We ran a report on “Sunrise” Thursday morning about the discovery of the foundations of the Virginia home where George Washington grew up. It’s on the Rappahannock River, across which the keiki Keoki allegedly threw a coin, and there’s even a cherry tree on the grounds, though the CBS correspondent said archeologists were quick to say, not THAT cherry tree. Which reminds me of a fascinating point made in the book “Hidden Histories” by the former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin.

Our perception of history is shaped by what survives to the present to be studied, and sometimes what survives is misleading. As an example, Boorstin cites two books from the America of the 1800s. One was a grammar book that could probably be found in most U.S. households, not one clean copy of which survives whole to this day because this was a book that families used. The other was a full-color coffee table book; only about 100 copies were printed and all of them still exist, but virtually no one knew about the book when it was new.

The latter book, the one Americans never knew until it was old and to be found exclusively in libraries and museums, is the source of Parson Weems’ fable about Washington cutting down the cherry tree and then confessing to his father with the preface, “I cannot tell a lie.” The story itself may be a lie, made up as, ironically, a lesson on ethics. It is not to be found in any reliable source.

Because the book was so big and pretty, and survived entire, the story spread until it became standard fare in elementary school education about President Washington.

And this was before the Internet.