Laura Macaluso

George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Using maps and historic and contemporary photographs, this virtual presentation will trace the development of Mount Vernon from a traditional Virginia farmhouse to a Georgian mansion, with massive wings, a Palladian window in the New Room, and color schemes done in the highest contemporary style. Highlights of the interior include Washington’s painting collection of American waterways, the Key to the Bastille, and his personal study, where a love for technology, learning and family are on display. The presentation will address the workings of Mount Vernon as a house but also as part of an 8,000-acre plantation, on which more than 300 enslaved men, women and children lived and worked. A tour (through photographs) of the outbuildings of Mount Vernon discusses this work, and will include the gardens, orchard, greenhouse, and Pioneer Farm. Every visit to Mount Vernon must include stops at the Washingtons’ tomb, and the cemetery for the enslaved.

Session Handouts

George Washington’s Mount Vernon: New Books & Media Resource

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