Please note: Strollers and photography are prohibited in the galleries of the Museum.

The Museum features over 500 objects in six permanent galleries and a changing exhibition space. The Museum is not meant to be a generic decorative arts museum but instead a refreshing and insightful look into the taste, style, and personalities of the Washingtons through artifacts most closely associated with life at Mount Vernon, the Revolutionary War and presidency.

The Founders, Washington Committee for Historic Mount Vernon Gallery

Jean-Antoine Houdon's terra-cotta bust of George Washington greets visitors to the Donald W. Reynolds Museum

The Houdon Bust

The Houdon Bust Gallery features Mount Vernon’s most prized artifact, Jean-Antoine Houdon’s terra cotta bust of George Washington. This remarkable sculpture – the most accurate likeness of Washington ever created – is exhibited with dramatic lighting in a circular, domed gallery designed exclusively to showcase the piece. The bust is installed at Washington’s height to give visitors an indication of how he towered over most of his contemporaries.

Adjacent to the gallery is a video nook where visitors can learn how the life mask was prepared and the terra cotta bust created.

The A. Alfred Taubman Gallery
The World of George Washington

The first gallery visitors encounter after the Houdon bust features highlights from Mount Vernon’s collection – extraordinary Washington objects from England, Europe, China, and America that reflect the man and his love of beauty, his refined taste, his status within his world, and his purchasing power. Mount Vernon’s holdings include a wealth of fine and decorative arts produced by some of the best artists and craftsmen of the Colonial period, and they are on display in the Introducing Washington’s World Gallery where they can be studied closely outside of the historic house period room.

The highlight of the gallery is an elegant presidential dining scenario, depicting one of the dinners that Washington held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m., when Congressmen and other government officials were invited to dine with the President. The scenario features such pieces as their French porcelain dinner service and a menu based on the account of a Massachusetts Congressman who attended one of those dinners in 1795.

The John and Adrienne Mars Gallery
From Soldier to Statesman

George Washington After the Batttle of Princeton, Charles Willson Peale

This elegant gallery will be of great interest to visitors, since it focuses on the more public persona of George Washington and features beautiful and historic artifacts relating to his military career and presidency. Current visitors to the estate have little opportunity to learn more about these two important aspects of Washington’s life. Through this new gallery, they will gain a better sense of Washington during the Revolution and in the fledgling years of our nation.

Objects pertaining to his renowned military career include the monumental portrait of Washington at the Battle of Princeton by Charles Willson Peale. Washington's sword, silver camp cups, and a pair of silver spurs he gave to a soldier at Valley Forge -- so that he could ride to Boston for much-needed supplies -- are displayed in a case flanking the portrait.

Another flanking case features a variety of pieces from the famous Society of the Cincinnati service. Another, later Charles Willson Peale painting gives visitors a closer look at our first President. It is complemented by a stylish French side chair as well as a chair from the first Congress over which he presided.

Also featured are smaller-scale pieces including a pair of silver and paste shoe buckles worn to Washington's inauguration, buttons made to commemorate the inauguration, and a cabinet-size portrait of President Washington.

The Elizabeth and Stanley Deforest Scott Gallery
At Home with the Washingtons

At Home with the Washingtons Gallery

This largest of all the permanent collection galleries in the new Museum gives a glimpse of the Washingtons’ daily lives, whether at Mount Vernon or on the road. Visitors will leave this gallery with a far better idea of how the Washingtons lived “behind the scenes” and out of the public eye.

Guests will first encounter a magnificent twelve-foot wide painting of Washington and his family and the Marquis de Lafayette on the piazza -- on indefinite loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The appearance of Mount Vernon will be revealed through early paintings, the original weathervane in the form of the dove of peace, and original sundial.

The L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation Gallery
Washington Style

The Washington Style Gallery

The cases in this gallery present the personal objects used and worn by George and Martha Washington, their children and grandchildren. From objects that were used on a daily basis, to those reserved for more special occasions, the style of the Washingtons emerges. Personal objects highlight the emphasis placed on physical appearance and the importance of particular imports in Colonial America.

Objects in the gallery range from George Washington's shoe and knee buckles to Martha Washington's earrings and necklaces. One case is devoted to the costly textiles worn by the Washington family. Another focuses on jewel-like miniatures of members of the Washington family. The intimate gallery is anchored by two "porthole" portraits of George and Martha Washington.

The Gilder Lehrman Gallery
Books and Manuscripts

Book and Manuscript Gallery

  

The Book and Manuscript Gallery focuses on Washington’s seemingly insatiable hunger for knowledge, his keen curiosity, and his life-long desire to better understand the world around him, as shown through manuscripts, maps, prints, and books. These rare and important objects from two premier collections – that of Mount Vernon and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History – address broader topics such as our country’s founding documents, slavery, and Washington’s Last Will and Testament. It is also enriched by loans from the Boston Athenaeum, the keeper of the largest collection of original books owned by Washington.

The F.M. Kirby Foundation
Temporary Exhibitions

F. M. Kirby Foundation Gallery

This 1,100-square-foot space can accommodate one or two exhibitions per year, organized either by Mount Vernon or by other institutions. The inaugural exhibition, A Son and His Adoptive Father, which opened in October 2006, focused on the close relationship between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. This popular display of French and American artifacts was the first major show mounted by Mount Vernon; it traveled to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and the New-York Historical Society. Setting the President’s Table: American Presidential China, on display through January 21, 2009, features porcelain objects related to presidents from Washington to Ronald Reagan. The exhibition is drawn from the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.