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.
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The Washington Library is open to all researchers and scholars, by appointment only.
This portrait in pastels of Martha Washington by English artist James Sharples was drawn from life when Mrs. Washington was 64. Sharples reportedly produced his pastel portraits relatively quickly—within several hours—and yet their characterizations of the sitters were generally superb. A number…
Following the death of John Parke Custis in November 1781 Eleanor Calvert Custis and her four young children moved in with her in-laws, the Washingtons. Eleanor had married young, and still retained a great deal of beauty and charm, as shown in this 1782 portrait miniature. It was perhaps this pleasing…
This is a portion of the letter George Washington sent from his camp at Cambridge on November 26, 1775, to his cousin and farm manager, Lund Washington, regarding the management of Mount Vernon and Lund's responsibilities during the General's absence. It details wages, hospitality to be shown, and the…
This miniature is related to a portrait of George Washington commissioned for Harvard University. Washington sat for Savage on 21 December 1789 “at the request of the President and Governors” of the University. The resulting portrait was given to Harvard by August 1791, and became one of the most…
On December 14, 1776, George Washington sent this letter to Brigadier General James Ewing at Trenton Ferry. Concerned about a possible British advance across the Delaware River, Washington provides strategies for the defense of the troops. Ewing is to spare no expense to procure a spy to send across…
This likeness of Georges Washington Motier de Lafayette was taken from life by English artist James Sharples in Philadelphia in May 1796, when it was paid for by George Washington. It depicts the son of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was named in tribute to General Washington. The young Lafayette, disguised…
James Sharples' charming likeness of a teenage Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis supports the many contemporary descriptions of her which praise her beauty as well as her intelligence, wit, and artistic and musical talents. Here she is portrayed with wind-blown hair and a landscape background as if she were…
In his diary on September 12, 1785, George Washington notes that "A Mr. Cawood, Sheriff of Charles County in Maryland, came here in the forenoon with an acct. of Taxes of the Land I hold in that County & in Nangemy Neck." This account, titled "His Excellency Gen. George Washington in Account with Benjamin…
As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, George Washington consulted booksellers' catalogues and made lists of titles he wished to purchase. On June 20, 1783, while camped at Newburgh, George Washington wrote to Lieutenant Colonel William Stephens Smith requesting the purchase of this two-volume revised…
Following the end of his presidency and prior to his departure from Philadelphia, George and Martha Washington paid a visit to the Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver Wolcott and his wife, Elizabeth. Washington had appointed Wolcott in 1795, and the two men shared many professional and personal ties.…
