Open 365 days a year, Mount Vernon is located just 15 miles south of Washington DC.
From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. Spend the day with us!
Discover what made Washington "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858.
Need help with homework? Our Digital Encyclopedia has all of the answers students and teachers need.
The Washington Library is open to all researchers and scholars, by appointment only.
George Washington wrote this letter to George William Fairfax to inform him of Major Grant's unfortunate expedition to Fort Duquesne. Washington describes the circumstances of the attack, the significant number of men and officers killed, and concludes: "It is with infinite pleasure I tell you that…
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association acquired this colonial revival cabinet to exhibit relics in the mansion at the turn of the twentieth century. Its form resembles that of library bookcases and desks-and-bookcases of the late eighteenth century, but features such as its towering size, glass-enclosed…
On February 4, 1774 the surviving son of Martha Washington, John "Jacky" Parke Custis, married Eleanor Calvert, uniting two of the most well connected and wealthy families in colonial America. Although young, (nineteen and sixteen respectively), the couple recognized the importance of surrounding themselves…
As president, George Washington desired tablewares that would strike a stylistic balance between appearing too regal and not being sufficiently dignified enough to impress foreign dignitaries. In March 1790, he purchased a 309-piece service from the departing French minister, the Comte de Moustier. Moustier…
Saucepans of copper were commonly found in well-stocked kitchens of the eighteenth-century elite. They ranged in volume from one pint to four gallons and were used to sweat small groups of ingredients for the making of rich butter-based sauces. This 2-gallon tin-lined vessel was likely one of the three…
In the late 1790s, George Washington gave this diminutive trunk to the infant child of his eldest granddaughter, Eliza Parke Custis. According to an inscription on the inside of the trunk, Eliza retained the keepsake to preserve it for when her daughter could appreciate its significance. A second inscription…
As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, French and American officers formed the Society of the Cincinnati in the name of mutual support and friendship. The fraternity's name was inspired by the 5th-century B.C.E. Roman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who left his plow to defend Rome in battle, afterwards…
Known in French as a bergère (literally meaning "shepherdess"), this eighteenth-century version of the lounge chair defined casual elegance. When paired with a stool, its high back, low seat, and upholstered arms provided a supportive space in which to comfortably recline. George Washington might have…
Elegant French furnishings adorned the Washingtons' households at New York, Philadelphia, and Mount Vernon. This expensive Louis XVI-style mantel clock, ornamented with a glittering ormolu (or gilded brass) pagoda-like finial above a pair of griffins' heads and pendulum with radiant cherub's face, is…
In March 1797, Washington disposed of the desk he had used throughout his presidency and bought this stately secretary-bookcase from Philadelphia cabinetmaker John Aitken for his Study at Mount Vernon. His choice, purchased for the princely sum of $145, would have fit well in a fashionable English household…
On April 17, 1790, Washington paid New York cabinetmaker Thomas Burling £7 for this ingeniously-engineered "Uncommon Chair." It combines the sleek, contemporary design of a French bergère en gondole (or barrel-back upholstered armchair) with a unique swivel mechanism that allows the circular seat to…
This scale rule was identified by Eliza Parke Custis Law, Martha Washington's granddaughter, as the "Box rule from the writing desk of my lamented grandmother." While Mrs. Washington may have used it for marking straight lines, laying out a grid on which to plot a needlework design, or measuring short…
Writing from Philadelphia on June 19, 1775, George Washington announces to his wife Martha's brother-in-law Burwell Bassett that he has just been unanimously elected by the colonies as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Washington eloquently expresses, "I am now Imbarkd on a tempestuous Ocean…
In 1752, at the age of 20, George Washington was initiated into the fraternal organization of Freemasons, and in 1788 he was appointed Master of the Alexandria Lodge. In 1795, John Jones of Dublin, Ireland, the proprietor of The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine, sent Washington this set of five volumes…
George Washington preferred to have his own hair powdered and dressed in a tightly braided queue, a style favored by military officers. Once the hair was in a queue, it was often wound with a black ribbon, and for dress occasions, encased in a black silk bag. Though yards of hair ribbon and hair bags…
