Boston Tea Party Chest

The Tea Chest was constructed and painted in China during the second half of the 18th century. It was used by the East India Company for the exportation of tea from China to the American colonies.

According to tradition the tea chest was taken from one of the ships in Boston Harbor, December 16, 1773. Protesting duty levied on tea, a hundred or more Boston citizens dressed as Mohawk Indians, gathered at the Doggett House on the corner of Tremont and Hollis streets, and from there, in the dark of night, went to Griffin's Wharf, borded the ships Darthmouth, Beaver and Eleanor and dumped the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor.

The chests were recovered and kept in different families. This one descended in the family of Hopestill Foster of Boston. On November 20th, 1902, John Hancock Foster presented one of those tea chests, empty of course, to the DAR Boston Tea Party Chapter.

A certificate of copy for the chest was filed on December 16, 1966. Replicas are now available through the Daughters of the American Revolution. The original tea chest has been on loan to the DAR Museum since 1969.