Collections : [The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon]

The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon

The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
3600 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
Primary Collecting Areas:
George and Martha Washington, Mount Vernon, Founding Era and Early Republic, Historic preservation, Decorative arts, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
Description:

The Fred W. Smith National Library includes general collections, special collections and archives as a resource for scholars, students, and those interested in George Washington, colonial America and the Revolutionary and founding eras.

The library's general collections include secondary source materials on the Washington and Custis families, and the colonial and founding eras.

The Special Collections materials highlight the lives of George and Martha Washington as well as their descendants through correspondence, financial materials, and original books from George and Martha Washington's library.

The archives of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association holds the historic institutional records of the organization dating back to its founding in 1853.

POC: Reference services
Phone: (703) 780-3600
Start Over Repository The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon Date range 1783

Letter, from Lund Washington Box 20, Folder 1783.10.01

Unsuccessful in collecting rents--tenants over the ridge will pay as soon as specie is in circulation among them--they have good crops--Mr. Throckmorton undesirable tenant because he would put negroes and overseer on land, lowering quality--describes tenants and plantations--tenants on this side the ridge in bad shape, can't pay--new cook, Richard Burnett ill, very good industrious fellow, but complains of being lonely--refuses to mix with negroes--[Pitman] best kitchen gardner they've had--kiln for drying wheat--Dow's land--Washington's house in Alexandria--Dr. Stuart to build in Alexandria--got negro from Norfolk where he's been since seige of York.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. George Washington collection
  3. Series 2. To George Washington

Letter, Prentice Bowen to Colonel Weisenfelt Box 8, Folder 1783.04.25

A.L.S. 1 page. Continental officer Prentice Bowden writes from Clarkstown, NY saying he will be prevented from attending a meeting called but assents to the wishes of his fellow soldiers and accepts "the Commutation agreeable to the resolve of Congress.-"

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. Historic manuscript collection
  3. Series 1. Documents and Manuscripts
  4. Manuscripts Box 8

Letter, to Benjamin Harrison Box 3, Folder 1783.03.19

Written from Newburgh while facing a mutiny due to a lack of soldier's pay and supplies, George Washington appealed to Virginia's governor, Benjamin Harrison, for financial support of his troops. Referencing an earlier letter, he began, "About the first of this Month I wrote you along letter. I touched upon the state of the Army. …I little expected at the time of writing that letter, that we were on the eve of an important crisis to this Army; when the touch stone of discord was to be applied—and the virtue of its members to undergo the severest trial." Washington continued, "You have not been altogether unacquainted, I dare say, with the fears, the hopes, the apprehensions and the expectations of the Army relatively to the provision which is to be made for them hereafter. Altho' a firm reliance on the integrety of Congress and a belief that the Public would finally do justice to all its Servants, and give an indisputable Security for the payment of the half-pay of the Officers had kept them amidst a variety of sufferings tolerably quiet and contented for two or three years past; Yet the total want of pay—the little prospect of receiving any from the unpromising state of the public finances—and the absolute aversion of the States to establish any Continental funds for the payment of the Debt due to the Army, did at the close of the last Campaign excite greater discontents & threaten more serious & alarming consequences than it is easy for me to describe or you to conceive." With words of praise for his troops, he ended his request: "all the feelings of gratitude towards a body of Men who have merited infinitely well of their Country." Washington wrote thousands of similar letters to state and local leaders throughout the Revolution.
  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. George Washington collection
  3. Series 1. From George Washington

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