1893
Here is how his visit was recalled by Harrison Howell Dodge:
“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.”