Muddy Hole Farm
Muddy Hole Farm was one of the five farms that made up the Mount Vernon estate. Located in the northeast corner of the plantation, running alongside Little Hunting Creek, Muddy Hole is said to have lived…
Explore the wide range of subjects related to George Washington’s world and the colonial and founding eras.
The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington was generously supported by Richard and Bonnie Dial in memory of Irby and George Prendergast.
Muddy Hole Farm was one of the five farms that made up the Mount Vernon estate. Located in the northeast corner of the plantation, running alongside Little Hunting Creek, Muddy Hole is said to have lived…
The Battle of Cowpens was fought on January 17, 1781, near Thicketty Creek, South Carolina, on a 500 square yard grazing pasture.
After gaining independence from Great Britain, one of the many contentious issues facing the United States were competing claims to western lands. These lands were generally referred to as the Northwest…
Months before his death, George Washington admitted that while he had "a large stock of Hogs—the precise number is unknown." During this period, Washington let his hogs run free to feed on vegetable…
Washington Irving was one of the most famous American authors of the nineteenth century. While he is primarily remembered for short stories such as “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow…
Hercules Posey (1747?-1812) was an enslaved cook for George Washington during the 1780s and 90s. A renowned chef during his lifetime, Hercules self-emancipated from Mount Vernon in 1797.
Elizabeth Parke Custis Law was the eldest of Martha Washington's four surviving grandchildren.
George Washington’s recipe for “Small Beer” appears in a 1757 notebook of his, which can be found today in its original form at the New York Public Library.
The upper garden was established in the 1760s and paralleled the lower or kitchen garden to its south. This garden was initially planted with fruit and nut trees, and was walled and rectangular in shape…
Washington's New Room is the largest and most ornate of the rooms found within the Mount Vernon mansion.
Andrew Lewis served as one of George Washington’s principal officers in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War.
Learn more about the New Tomb at Mount Vernon - the Washington's final resting place.
Writing in George Washington’s era was a complex technical process that required a diverse array of materials and techniques, often difficult or expensive to acquire, and laden with social meaning.
During George Washington?s lifetime lighter-than-air travel was first demonstrated. As a person who embraced new technologies, he was aware of and showed interest in the development of balloons.
Robert Morris was a financier of the American Revolution, delegate to the Second Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and senator from Pennsylvania. Given Morris’s personal…
In the first sixty years of the Mount Vernon guidebooks, the Mount Vernon Ladies? Association (MVLA) advertised the plantation as an idyllic shrine to George Washington.
The Department of Treasury is a cabinet department within the United States Executive Branch. It is managed by a secretary that is appointed by the president. The Department of Treasury was officially…