George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

New York City, October 3, 1789 — In a national proclamation of composed of two sentences and 192 words, George Washington proclaimed the Thanksgiving holiday for:

"The great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness."

Full Proclamation

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

American Icon: National Portrait Gallery Director On George Washington And Gilbert Stuart, April 23

Chestertown, MD, April 15, 2003 — Marc Pachter, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery and an influential figure in the international museum world, will give the inaugural lecture of a new series on American art sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Washington College Department of Art. Pachter's lecture, “The Making of an American Icon: George Washington and Gilbert Stuart,” will be held Wednesday, April 23, at 5 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
In the new series, “American Pictures,” each lecture will explore the cultural and historical meanings of a single important image. Pachter's subject, the famous “Lansdowne” portrait of Washington painted by Stuart in 1796, is an especially appropriate choice, both because of the College's connection to the sitter and Pachter's own connection to the painting.
In 2001, when the Lansdowne portrait—which had been on loan to the Smithsonian for decades—was threatened with sale by the aristocratic English family that owned it, the potential loss of such a major treasure made national headlines. Pachter canvassed the country looking for a donor to save the picture, and finally, after appearing on NBC's Today show, secured a $30 million gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to purchase it and send it on a national tour.
Pachter's appearance at Washington College, however, will be the first time he has given a major public lecture on the Lansdowne portrait, which he believes helped to define the American presidency. A full-length depiction of Washington in his second term, it is, Pachter says, “a visual document comparable to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”
The New York Times has called Pachter “the Smithsonian's resident philosopher.” In a 30-year career there, he has served as counselor to the secretary, chairman of the institution's 150th anniversary celebration, and acting director of the National Museum of American History, among other roles. He has represented the Smithsonian at many international conferences, and last year delivered one of the prestigious Slade lectures at Oxford University (“Museums: Sacred Places in a Secular Age”). In 2000, he became director of the National Portrait Gallery, where he is currently overseeing a major renovation and expansion. Educated at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, Pachter has authored or edited books including Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation, Champions of American Sport, and Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art. He has been a frequent commentator, host, and interviewer on CBS, Voice of America and C-SPAN, and conducted a series of public interviews for the Smithsonian with such figures as Umberto Eco, Katherine Graham and Walter Cronkite.
The “American Pictures” series will continue in the fall, on a date to be announced, with a lecture on James McNeill Whistler by David Park Curry, curator of American arts at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and creator of an upcoming Whistler exhibition at the Freer Gallery.
For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Father Of A Nation: College Hosts Public Exhibit Of Washington Art And Artifacts February 13-28

Chestertown, MD, February 12, 2003 — In honor of George Washington's 271st birthday, Washington College has opened it archives and assembled its collection of George Washington images and artifacts for public viewing. The exhibit titled “FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY, FATHER OF OUR COLLEGE,” held in the lobby of the College's Tawes Theatre, Gibson Performing Arts Center, is free and open to the public daily, except Sundays, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., from February 13 to February 28, 2003.

Approximately 15 special items selected from over 75 in the College's archives of Washingtonia will be on display, some for the first time in many years. Items on exhibit include a 1784 copy of College founder William Smith's, “An Account of Washington College”; a 1789 commission for Chestertown's customs collector signed by President Washington himself; and various 19th century Washington-inspired busts, lithographs, prints and embroidery.

For the last four months, a small group from the Washington College community has worked to catalog artwork and historical items owned by the College which feature George Washington. This exhibit highlights the College's unique connection to the first president while displaying some unusual historical items rarely seen by the public.

Washington College—the first college chartered in the new nation—was founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, who consented to give his name and financial support to the College, and who served five years on the Board of Visitors and Governors before beginning his presidency. The Washington legacy is kept alive on campus in many ways, including the Washington Scholars Program, the Honor Code, a leadership development program, curricular offerings, and the academic programming of the College's C. V. Starr Center for the American Experience.

This exhibit was made possible by the Washington College's President's Office and the Campus Events and Visitors Committee.

Namesake Plans to Commemmorate Washington's Death

Chestertown, MD — On December 14 an unprecedented national event will take place. Across the country, bells will toll and flags will fly at half-staff in observance of the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s death. The first president’s educational namesake, Washington College, and the community that surrounds the small liberal arts and sciences college will hold a spirited commemoration of Washington’s death on the College’s Chestertown, Md., campus. Beginning at noon, the observance includes a 21-gun salute and musical tributes composed in honor of Washington, a wreath-laying with color guard accompaniment from the Maryland Air National Guard, and a solemn tolling of bells on campus at 1 p.m.

The ceremony at Washington College brings to an end an 18-month celebration of Washington’s life that brought to campus former U.S. president George Bush, the late John F. Kennedy Jr., presidential scholars Doris Kearns Goodwin and Richard Norton Smith, and Smithsonian curator Richard G. Doty.

College President John S. Toll says, "In his commitment to the ideals of scholarship, character, service, and leadership, George Washington has served as a historic role model for Washington College students."

Although most Americans believe they know everything there is to know about Washington, few realize that Washington College was founded in 1782 with his gift of 50 guineas and his permission in writing to use his name, the only school to earn that distinction. Washington served on the College’s Board of Visitors and Governors for five years and received an honorary degree from the College in 1789. Founded as the first college in the new nation, Washington College ranks among the country’s top 150 selective liberal arts colleges.

"With his gift of 50 guineas Washington invested in the future of a young democracy, knowing the new nation would require an educated citizenry in order to succeed," said President Toll.

The Washington Scholars program, a merit scholarship program that grants recipients $40,000 over four years at the College, was founded to carry on that vision. The program is open to members of the National Honor Society and the Cum Laude Society; 52 percent of the College’s 1,150 students were NHS members in high school.

Seventy-three percent of a recent graduating class intended to earn advanced degrees, while 35 percent were enrolled in Ph.D. or master’s degree programs to begin in the fall after their graduation.

Lecture Considers Washington's Attitudes Toward Death and the Afterlife

Chestertown, MD — Peter R. Henriques, a noted professor of history at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., is the guest of The Guy F. Goodfellow Memorial Lecture Series at Washington College in Chestertown. Dr. Henriques' lecture, "He Died as He Lived: George Washington's Final Struggle with the Grim King," focuses on what Washington thought about death and the afterlife in the context of his Enlightenment beliefs. Set for Thursday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m., in the Sophie Kerr Room of Miller Library, the lecture is free and open to the public.

Henriques teaches American and Virginia history with special emphasis on Virginia and the American Revolution and the Virginia Founding Fathers. His upcoming book on Washington's death and funeral in commemoration of the bicentennial of Washington's death is to be published by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. His other writings include "The Final Struggle between George Washington and the Grim King: Washington's Attitude toward Death and Afterlife," in "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography," Winter 1999; "Major Lawrence Washington vs. The Rev. Charles Green: A Case Study of the Squire and the Parson," in VMHB, April 1992; "An Uneven Friendship: The Relationship between George Washington and George Mason," VMHB, April 1989; "George Washington-William Payne Fight: A New Explanation," Northern Virginia Heritage, October 1983; "The Amiable George Washington," NVH, Feb. 1978.

The Guy F. Goodfellow Memorial Lecture Series was established upon Goodfellow's death in 1989 to honor the memory of the history professor who had taught at Washington College for 30 years. The intent of the endowed lecture series is to bring a distinguished historian to campus each year to lecture and spend time with students in emulation of Dr. Goodfellow's vibrant teaching style.

Best-selling Author Brings Citizen Washington Alive in Reading

Chestertown, MD — William Martin, whose book "Citizen Washington" has received five-star reviews from readers, reads from and signs the work at 1:30 p.m., Saturday Oct. 30, at the Casey Academic Center Forum at Washington College, Chestertown, Md.. The event is free and open to the public.

Citizen Washington is a fictional account of a young reporter's search to discover George Washington's true nature shortly after Washington's death, as one character says, before the truth goes "up in smoke." The reporter, Christopher Draper, interviews people who can tell him what they have observed and thought of "America's first icon." His interviewees range from Jacob, a slave at Mount Vernon, to such famous figures as Alexander Hamilton, the marquis de Lafayette, and even Lady Washington herself. In his book, Martin pieces together a wide-lens, multifaceted portrait of citizen Washington, speaking through the voices of his various "testifiers."

In this, the 200th year since Washington's death, the reading by Martin is particularly apt. A Washington College graduate wrote of the book, "As an alumnus of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, which was founded by a financial donation from George Washington in 1782, I have a special spot in my heart for this man, made more special by this book. By the end of the book I admired Washington more because he was human."

William Martin is the best-selling author of "Back Bay," "Cape Cod," and "Annapolis." He is also the author of the PBS documentary "George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn't Be King." A native of Boston, he graduated from Harvard and received his M.F.A. from the University of Southern California. His other novels include "The Rising of the Moon" and "Nerve Ending."

Historians Visit to Discuss George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Chestertown, MD — You can learn a lot about a man and his culture by examining his home. Particularly if that man is George Washington, and his home is Mount Vernon.

On Saturday, September 18th, two historians will visit Washington College to talk about the significance of "George Washington’s Mount Vernon" in shaping a new nation. Robert and Lee Dallzell, whose book on the subject was recently published, are giving a talk in the Casey Academic Center forum, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Robert and Lee Dalzell are the co-authors of George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America, which is considered a major contribution to the literature of architectural history, Washington, and early American studies. By portraying Washington at home as he designs and shapes Mount Vernon to meet his needs, the Dalzells provide unexpected insights into his private and public personas.

Robert Dalzell is the Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College. His wife, Lee, is head of the reference department at the Williams College Library.

This event is part of the College’s year-long celebration of the life and times of George Washington, in observance of the bicentennial of his death.

George Washington and the Currency of Fame

Washington College Hosts Smithsonian’s Numismatic Exhibit

Chestertown, MD — Money does make things happen. From his Revolutionary War headquarters in New York, General George Washington granted his name and the sum of fifty gold guineas to establish a liberal arts institution in Chestertown, Maryland. Today, Washington College is still educating responsible leaders for a changing world. In the 1790 census, this colonial port was the center of population in the new United States of America.

Later, as President Washington shaped the new democracy and advocated the establishment of the U. S. Mint, he is said to have donated his own table silver to be melted down and stamped into coinage. This governmental institution helped break the new nation’s dependency for currency on foreign countries and sparked new creativity and technology in the art of designing, stamping and engraving currency.

While he characteristically rejected the trappings of royalty and disliked the monarchical practice of having rulers appear on the nation’s money, Washington’s image has been represented on a remarkable array of American coins, medals, and paper money.

This fall, Washington College is organizing an exhibition of material on loan from the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which surveys images of George Washington on currency from the time of the United States’ founding to the post-Civil War period. Also featured in the exhibition are an English guinea, fifty of which Washington gave to help found the College in 1782, and the recent issue of the U.S. Mint of a coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of Washington’s death.

The exhibition is on display in the gallery of the Chestertown Bank on High Street in Chestertown from September 2nd through October 29th, during banking hours. Extended hours are offered for visitors to the Chestertown Candlelight Tour on September 18th and the Chestertown Wildfowl Show on October 22nd and 23rd.

The practice of using the image of Washington reflects the enormous admiration 19th-century Americans had for their first president and his broad appeal as an icon for various ideologies, notes Donald A. McColl, the assistant professor of art history at Washington College who is curating the exhibition with the assistance of students from the departments of art and history.

From Indian Peace medals to Civil War "dog tags," Washington has been seen as, among other things, Pater Patriae, new Cincinnatus, friend of commerce, and model of temperance. At the same time, his changing image bears witness to a progression in the quality of American currency from the period of dominance of British and other mints to the time when the United States boasted some of the finest designers, engravers, and die cutters in the world.

"Some of the objects in this exhibit are quite rare," notes McColl, "and the engraved bank notes in particular are quite beautiful. What is especially interesting, though, is that these specimens had a ‘currency’ in the culture, if you will. Each piece tells you about the time in which it was made."

This exhibition is sponsored by Washington College as part of a national observation of the bicentennial of George Washington's death in December 1799. For more information, please call Nancy Nunn at Washington College, at 410-778-7139.