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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.
In the early nineteenth century, pincushions provided a safe repository for straight pins that were otherwise easily lost and painfully found. Decorative examples were frequently given as gifts or chosen by instructresses to display the ornamental skills acquired by their young female pupils. Though…
George Washington's first recorded order of London silver for Mount Vernon included "A Neat cruit stand & Casters" along with "2 best cut glass cruets." The stand is the earliest known piece bearing Washington's coat of arms. During the 1760s, Richard Lomax Clay, an oilman on Fishstreet Hill, London,…
Although the silver caps on both cruets from George Washington's stand are unmarked, the similarity of their finials to that on Samuel Wood's marked caster (see W-2526) suggests Wood made all three surviving pieces. Cut glass was a luxury good in the 1750s. Grinding and polishing the hollow-diamond facets…
Although the silver caps on both cruets from George Washington's stand are unmarked, the similarity of their finials to that on Samuel Wood's marked caster (see caster W-2526) suggests Wood made all three surviving pieces. Cut glass was a luxury good in the 1750s. Grinding and polishing the hollow-diamond…
Small seed pearls imported from China and India to be strung on horsehair or silk into earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and hair ornaments achieved great popularity in federal America. During the presidency, Martha Washington purchased readily available seed pearl jewelry that was imported or made by…
The marks on George Washington's cruet stand and this caster indicate two different silversmiths made them twenty years apart. The fact that the stand's maker, Jabez Daniell, served his apprenticeship with Samuel Wood, who crafted the caster, perhaps explains this combination. The weight of the silver…
Small seed pearls imported from China and India and strung on horsehair or silk into earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and hair ornaments achieved great popularity in federal America. Their smooth white texture and color melded with the neoclassical aesthetic that harkened back to ancient Greece and Rome…
While the direct source of the image on this cup has not been identified, it was likely a copy of the oil painting (H-2445/A) of the East Front of Mount Vernon painted by artist Edward Savage, c. 1787-1792. On the cup, the arrangement of the fence and walls is slightly different than in the painting…
American chairmakers perfected the fan-back Windsor side chair, so-called because the flaring spindles of its back resemble a partially open fan, in the 1780s. The central, elongated baluster or vase-like turnings atop short spools and tapered ends on the back posts and legs of this one suggest it was…
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…
The artist who decorated this cup based his view of Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, on a painting produced by Edward Savage c. 1787-1792. Several versions of this design and five different border patterns have been identified on surviving porcelains, suggesting that quite a few Americans chose this…
George Washington purchased these candlestands for £ 3.10 on December 2, 1759 from the Scottish cabinetmaker James Allan of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Rising from an ingenious combination of C-scrolls and acanthus leaves, these fashionable stands enabled candles to be elevated and placed around the room…
Like their contemporaries, George and Martha Washington used attractive, durable, and relatively inexpensive Windsor chairs in a variety of spaces. The household inventory taken after George Washington died records 30 placed outside on the Mansion's piazza, with another 10 in a first-floor parlor and…
Modeled by hand, from the life, and likely fired in Mount Vernon’s bake oven, this extraordinarily naturalistic clay bust of George Washington is perhaps the most treasured object in the Mount Vernon collection. Its French artist, Jean-Antoine Houdon, called by Thomas Jefferson the ‘first statuary…
