George Washington Collection Mssgw
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8n3045b Online items available George Washington Collection mssGW Melissa Haley The Huntington Library Online finding aid last updated 2021 January 26 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org George Washington Collection mssGW 1 mssGW Contributing Institution: The Huntington Library Title: George Washington collection Creator: Washington, George, 1732-1799 Identifier/Call Number: mssGW Physical Description: 29 Linear Feet(24 flat boxes) Date (inclusive): 1749-1806 Abstract: This collection contains correspondence, surveys, military records, memoranda, accounts, receipts, and ephemera pertaining to George Washington's careers as surveyor, military leader, and U.S. president. Also present are Washington family correspondence and material relating to Mount Vernon and Washington's household, including several items regarding enslaved laborers. Language of Material: Materials are mostly in English with a few items in French. Conditions Governing Access RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time. Conditions Governing Use The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher. Preferred Citation [Identification of item]. George Washington collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Immediate Source of Acquisition The George Washington collection was assembled by the Huntington Library, and consists primarily of purchases made by Henry E. Huntington, especially from George D. Smith in 1920-1921, who had purchased 170 Washington manuscripts from collector Grenville Kane in 1913 and from an unidentified collection in 1915. Other purchases include the William K. Bixby Americana collection in 1918; from the Anderson Galleries, Maggs Brothers, and other auction houses, 1920-1923; and from the American Art Association, 1912-1926. The Washington-McDougall correspondence was purchased from A.S.W. Rosenbach in 1923. Many Martha Washington items came from J.F. Meegan in the 1920s. Source of acquisition is noted at the item level, when known. Custodial History The George Washington collection also consists of numerous items transferred from other Huntington Library manuscript collections; item call numbers reflect these removals and refer to the following collections: the Loudon papers: Americana (LO), the R.A. Brock collection and papers (BR), the James McHenry papers (MH), the Charles Thomas Harbeck manuscript collection (HR), the Charles-René-Dominique Sochet Destouches papers (DE), the Spence and Lowell families papers (SL), and the Richard Clough Anderson papers (AND). Biographical / Historical George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799), the first president of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of a planter and enslaver. At age 17, he started working as a licensed land surveyor. Washington's military career began in 1752 when he was appointed to the Virginia militia. In 1753, he was sent by Virginia's governor as special envoy to the French in the Ohio Valley. During the French and Indian War, he served as a volunteer aide-de-camp, and as colonel of the Virginia Regiment in command of the colony's forces defending the frontier, resigning his commission in 1758. Washington married widow Martha Dandridge Custis on January 6, 1759, and helped raise her two surviving children from her first marriage, John ("Jacky") Parke Custis (1754-1781) and Martha ("Patsy") Parke Custis (1756-1773). In 1761, Washington inherited his family's tobacco plantation, Mount Vernon. Over the next several decades, he would expand the plantation, diversify his crops, and add a gristmill and distillery to the property. Enslaved persons performed the majority of the maintenance and construction of Mount Vernon, working in the household, tobacco and grain fields, and at various trades; the Washington family enslaved at least 577 laborers on the property over several decades. Washington served as a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1774. When war broke out with Great Britain in 1775, he was appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army. Major Revolutionary War actions included the Siege of Boston (1775-1776); battles and movements around New York City (1776), Pennsylvania (1777), and New Jersey (1778-1780); and an alliance with France in 1778. Great Britain surrendered in October 1781 and negotiations to end the war continued until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783. Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783 and he returned to civilian life at Mount Vernon. George Washington Collection mssGW 2 mssGW In 1787, Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention and encouraged its ratification. He was unanimously chosen as first president of the United States by the electoral college, taking office April 30, 1789 in New York City. In July 1790 the capital was moved to Philadelphia. Washington's first term involved the creation of the executive branch, building a cabinet, filling the Supreme Court, and formalizing procedures and protocols for the new government. He was reluctant to serve a second term as president but a number of factors created pressure on him to do so, including economic concerns, relationships and conflicts with Native Americans, and growing political strife within the new government. He was again unanimously elected to a second term, which was marked by partisanship and foreign affairs with France, Spain, and Great Britain. Both terms involved plans to create a new national capital at Washington, D.C. Washington's second term ended on March 4, 1797 and he returned to Mount Vernon, where he spent the remaining years of his life. Scope and Contents The bulk of the George Washington collection is correspondence; the collection also contains surveys, military records, memoranda, accounts, receipts, and ephemera. Material dates from 1749 to 1806 and spans Washington's entire adulthood, from his early years as a Virginia surveyor and through his military career to the final days of his presidency. Also present in the collection are Washington family correspondence and material pertaining to Mount Vernon and Washington's household, including several items regarding enslaved laborers. The military material in the Washington collection is primarily correspondence and relates to both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. French and Indian War material pertains to the Virginia Regiment, forts, supplies, funds and soldiers' pay, and relations with Native Americans. Revolutionary War records also include appointments, addresses, orders, returns, commissions, brigade lists, warrants, and congressional resolutions. The bulk of correspondence is between Washington and other generals and military personnel, including Alexander McDougall, James Mitchell Varnum, George Clinton, William Alexander, Elias Dayton, Israel Shreve, and others; many are in the handwriting of his various aides-de-camp and secretaries, including Alexander Hamilton, Tench Tilghman, Robert Hanson Harrison, and Richard Kidder Meade. Revolutionary War letters and documents pertain to military strategy, intelligence, troop movements and expeditions, instructions to generals, and British positions; procurement and supplies, including food and clothing; the relationship with the French; suspected spies; methods of correspondence; and peace. They also relate to the recruitment and enlistment of soldiers, soldiers' conduct, and pardons and executions. In addition, some items refer to civilian behavior and the appropriation of civilian property. Few items relate specifically to Washington's government work during the years of his presidency, other than several items that discuss congressional acts and bills. A small number of documents pertain to the new government's relationship with Native Americans including the Eel River tribe (1793 May 7). The bulk of correspondence from this period are letters to Tobias Lear, Washington's personal secretary, and relate primarily to household matters, including setting up house in Philadelphia, Washington's properties, and tenants and renters. Items also pertain to Potomac Company activities and its river and canal projects around Washington, D.C., in Maryland and Virginia. Also included are several items that discuss the development of the District of Columbia. The collection contains a small amount of personal and family material, including correspondence with Bushrod Washington, George Augustine Washington, and Elizabeth ("Betty") Washington Lewis. There are also several letters from Martha Washington to family members, especially to her niece, Frances (Fanny) Bassett Washington Lear. A 1792 Washington family genealogy includes a narrative and chart. A number of items in the collection pertain to Mount Vernon and the Washington household, including surveys and records of lands granted to Washington and Mount Vernon properties; items relating to farming and crops; and household accounts, bills, receipts, orders, and inventories. Also included are fabric samples of furniture covering from Mount Vernon, and of a curtain used by Washington while president in New York and Philadelphia. Several items