1893
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1866–1933) was a Russian naval officer, reformer, and memoirist who served as advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and helped develop Russian military aviation.
He visited Mount Vernon in 1893, reported by Harrison Howell Dodge, Mount Vernon's long-time superintendent, in his 1932 book Mount Vernon, its owner and its story.
In 1893 we were visited by the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia. As I [Harrison Howell Dodge] was walking with him about the grounds he said, “Where might I see the Ock.” I was puzzled by the word and asked him to spell it. “I think,” he replied, “it is o-a-k. It is a tree from which acorns were planted in the Peterhof Palace grounds. We now have there as a result, a handsome tree we call the Washington Oak.”
I then remembered that a brother of Charles Sumner, when visiting Mount Vernon just prior to his departure for Saint Petersburg, had taken a few acorns from under the large oak which then grew at the Tomb. Shortly after arrival in the Russian capital he obtained permission to plant them in the palace grounds.”