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 Subjects Slavery

John Augustine Washington III, Mount Vernon, to Eleanor Love Selden Washington, 1846 Box 1, Folder 8

West [Ford] has taken sick this morning. "The stockings and socks for the negroes are nearly done…The coat patterns are eaten up by the rats…"

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden correspondence, 1842/1860
  3. Letters from John Augustine Washington III, 1842/1860

John Augustine Washington III, Mount Vernon, to Eleanor Love Selden Washington, 1848 Box 1, Folder 10

"Between pleasant company and bad weather I was detained in the lower country some days longer than I expected." Pleased with Gloucester. Disappointed in Old Point. Gabriel's duties and tasks.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden correspondence, 1842/1860
  3. Letters from John Augustine Washington III, 1842/1860

John Augustine Washington III, Mount Vernon, to Eleanor Love Selden Washington, 1849 Box 1, Folder 11

Wheat machine broke. Sends thirty dollars. Colonel Bailey Peyton is to marry Julia Thompson. Employed three Irish workers to see if they could replace slaves but the "experiment" failed.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden correspondence, 1842/1860
  3. Letters from John Augustine Washington III, 1842/1860

John Augustine Washington III, Mount Vernon, to Eleanor Love Selden Washington, 1852 Box 1, Folder 16

Going to Alexandria to sell a load of wheat. The slave Eliza was injured when she "ran a needle in her arm and broke it off…" Ends with proclamation of undying love: "Indeed as I grow older my heart seems to cling closer to you…and never do I feel this more deeply than when you are absent from me."

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden correspondence, 1842/1860
  3. Letters from John Augustine Washington III, 1842/1860

John Augustine Washington III, Mount Vernon, to Eleanor Love Selden Washington, 1852 Box 1, Folder 16

Finished ploughing in Maryland. Tried to sell the slave Matilda but she was unwilling. Has employed a German gardener. Gives updates on the steamboat, visitors, and construction of new wharf.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden correspondence, 1842/1860
  3. Letters from John Augustine Washington III, 1842/1860

Judith B. Alexander to John Augustine Washington III, 1860 Box 9, Folder 1860.03.26

Judith is sure Augustine's family will be very happy in Fauquier. Mr. Alexander's health is poor. Their overseer "keeps the hands active by a natural authority without severity." Would like his advice as to Dr. Crawford's estate. Describes her money problems.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. John Augustine Washington III and family papers, 1789/1994
  3. Series 1. Correspondence, 1797/1969
  4. Subseries 1.1. John Augustine Washington III, 1835/1861

Lease deed, between Penelope French and George Washington for Dogue Run Plantation and enslaved African Americans, 1786 3 pages Box 21, Folder 1786.10.18

This agreement between George Washington and Penelope French secured for his use the last piece of property he added to his Mount Vernon estate, a parcel that would become part of Union Farm. French, who had a life in interest in the land and buildings, also leased to Washington the use of twenty-one enslaved people including "Will, Paschal, Paul, Abraham, Sabine, Rosanna, Daphne, Lucy, Delia, Grace, Tom, Isaac, Robert, Moses, Julius, Spencer, Nancy, Celia, Nell, Mitty, and Lett", and three young children not named. The agreement stipulated that Washington must ensure the enslaved were "clothed and fed in the same manner as slaves usually are within this commonwealth and shall not be removed and worked out of the said county of fairfax", and is "unreasonably worked or neglected in sickness or treated within humanity", they would be returned to French.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. George Washington collection, 1654/1799
  3. Series 2. To George Washington, 1755/1799

Leaves, Record of Work Done on Mount Vernon Farms, 1786/1787 Box 39

This is a record of the work done at the various farms making up George Washington's Mount Vernon, reporting the number of hours worked by which workers, just what was being done on each farm during a particular week. Farms include Dogue Run, Ferry Plantation, Muddy Hole, River Plantation, and Frenchs Plantation (or Frenchs Quarter). Work by tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, coopers, ditchers, and millers are recorded separately. Includes "Fairfaxs Report on House People" for several weeks. Begins November 1786 and ends in April 1787. At the end of the volume there is a document titled "Memorandum of things delivered to the different Plantations from the 12th of Apl. 1786, 1786 April 12-August 31" that begins at the last page and works its way back toward the center of the volume. This used to be bound, but has since been unbound and is just leaves.

  1. The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
  2. George Washington collection, 1654/1799
  3. Series 3. Ledgers and Bound Manuscripts

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