Mount Vernon Selects Senior Curator

MOUNT VERNON, VA – George Washington’s Mount Vernon is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Susan P. Schoelwer to the position of Robert H. Smith Senior Curator. Schoelwer has served as Mount Vernon’s curator since 2010. In that capacity she has overseen the recent refurnishing and reinterpretation of George Washington’s “New Room,” the reinstallation of the greenhouse slave quarter, and several special exhibitions in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.

Schoelwer is currently editing the forthcoming book, The General in the Garden: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon, a volume of essays inspired by Mount Vernon’s current exhibition on that topic. She previously headed the museum collections department at the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford. She holds a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University, a master of arts from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, and a bachelor of arts in History from the University of Notre Dame.

“The late Robert H. Smith was both a truly patriotic American and one of Mount Vernon’s most generous supporters,” said Carol Borchert Cadou, Mount Vernon’s senior vice president for historic preservation and collections. He grew a family-owned construction business into a real estate empire that included the creation of Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. In his later years, Smith devoted himself to philanthropy, supporting numerous historic sites, museums, and universities.

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