This collection of about 2,000 prints has two significant donations: a major 18th-century portrait print collection, given by Stanley DeForest Scott; and the Willard-Budd Collection of historical scenes, primarily from the 19th-century, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Gibby. Examples from this collection were featured in two traveling exhibitions -- George Washington: Profile of a Patriot and Treasures of Mount Vernon: George Washington Revealed. The majority of prints in this collection are engravings, but there are also lithographs and some etchings. There are also many drawings and watercolors, including an 1861 Winslow Homer watercolor of the Mount Vernon Mansion.
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| Sacred to Patriotism. Engraved by Cornelius Tiebout, after a painting by Charles Buxton, New York, 1798. |
In this image, Charles Buxton symbolically commemorated the departure of British forces from New York in 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War. The figure of George Washington is placed on the very pedestal from which New Yorkers had toppled a statue of King George III at the beginning of the Revolution. Buxton sent two proof prints of this work, engraved by Cornelius Tiebout, to George Washington. One was on satin, which Washington hung in his parlor at Mount Vernon.
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| Apotheosis of Washington engraving by David Edwin, after Rembrandt Peale, Philadelphia, c. 1800-01. Donated to the Association by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley DeForest Scott, 1998. |
The tendency of Americans to idolize George Washington, which had been exhibited to some extent even before his death, became stronger after he died. In this engraving, Washington is being drawn up into heaven. The engraving's title, Apotheosis, refers to the glorification of a person as an ideal, or in its most extreme meaning, to the elevation of a person to the rank of a god.
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| A Display of the United States of America, Amos Doolittle, after Joseph Wright, New Haven, 1794. Donated to the Association by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley DeForest Scott, 1985. |
Following his success in the American Revolution and his election to the Presidency in 1789, George Washington and the new United States became closely identified in the eyes of much of the world. In the opinion of his contemporaries (as well as modern historians), Washington's role as the central figure in the new federal government was crucial to its success. Doolittle's print graphically represents that idea.
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| The Washington Family, Edward Savage, after his own painting, published in Philadelphia and London, 1798. |
With his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, George Washington gained a ready-made family. Her son, John Parke Custis, was four years old; her daughter, Martha Parke Custis, was two. Although the Washingtons had no children together, they raised her son and daughter, as well as her son's two youngest children, Nelly and Washy (shown here), and several nieces and nephews. This engraving shows the first family looking at a plan for the new capital city, named for George Washington. It became one of the most popular images of Washington as the father of his country.
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| Louis Seize, engraved by Charles Clement Balvay Bervic (1756-1822), in 1790, after a painting by Antoine Francoise Callet (1741-1823). |
Jean-Baptiste Ternant, the French ambassador, gave this engraving to Washington in December, 1791. It hung in the executive mansion until 1797, when Washington brought it home with him to Mount Vernon. It was purchased by Bushrod Washington, George Washington's nephew and heir to Mount Vernon, and now hangs once more in the Large Dining Room at Mount Vernon. The carved frame includes Louis XVI's and Washington's cyphers and coats-of-arms.
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| The Life of George Washington: The Farmer. Lithograph by Claude Regnier, after painting by Junius Brutus Stearns. Published in New York, 1853. The Willard Budd Collection. | |||||||
George Washington left an extraordinary legacy of leadership to the American people. By the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Washington not only was depicted as statesman and soldier but also in domestic roles such as those seen in this engraving: farmer and country gentleman. Having married his “agreeable Consort” Martha Dandridge Custis when he was 26 years old, Washington devoted a lifetime to developing his farms and fisheries. He oversaw all aspects of his plantation, from directing the growing slave community to extensive experimentation with crops and livestock in order to make Mount Vernon a productive and beautiful estate.