Above the televised president ial debate tonight. So we think weve got the best thing going here and were glad you chose to be with us tonight. Id like to acknowledge some very important people who are with us this evening. Matts parents tim and debbie costello, who are here with us tonight and his wife kristin, who is here tonight. And, of course, in my book the two most important costellos are sophia and theodore and theyre at home, i guess. They can come next time. Theyre matt and kristins wonderful little kids. I would also like to welcome the members of our board of directors who are with us tonight. We have ann stock and lets give ann a hand. Yes. And bob mcgee. [ applause ] and we have two that are in route, Anita Mcbride and gail west. Both will be a little bit late but will be with us here tonight. Steve strong is the national cochair of our white house our National Council of white house history, which he and his wife andrea are here with us tonight. This is one of our most important groups here White House Historical association. Their support, their encouragement, their inspiration, their wisdom really puts the winds in the sails of so much of what we do and were grateful to have you here with us tonight, steve. Well, the program tonight, dr. Matt costello is going to share with us about his brandnew book thats hot off the presses. This is the first time were making it available. Were very proud of matt, as one of our historians here at the association. Hes been with us now how long has it been . Three years. Three years on the first. He makes quite a mark and makes quite a contribution to our work at the association. Prior to coming here, he contributed to the George Washington bib leography project, he was a fellow at mount vernon and he is currently doing two things that im particularly proud of. One is hes teaching a course at the American University for our white house history. To my knowledge this is the first time its ever been done anywhere. And we hope to broaden that beyond just American University so classes across the country can join virtually and we can expand that impact. But its cutting edge, first mover opportunity were very proud of. Hes also working on his next book which is will be published by the White House Historical university instead of the Kansas University press, which published this one, and were very proud to have the opportunity to publish his next book, which is on the renovation of the white house, undertaken by president Theodore Roosevelt in the early 20th century. Following his remarks, this podium will be moved away from the stage so everyone over here can have a clear view. And he and i will have a conversation, a few probing questions i have about his book. Then we will open the floor to questions, and then youre all invited to join us in the cou courtyard to refreshments following. Thank you very much for being here. Matt, i will turn it over to you. [applause] good evening and thank you, stewart, for that wonderful introduction. Its truly a privilege to be here tonight with you all. One of the most gratifying exercises about finishing the book is that we get to write acknowledgments. So you get to take time and really think through the people and places that made this project possible. And im thrilled that many of those people are here in this room today, including my colleagues here at the association. Thank you for your support, your encouragement. We share this accomplishment together. And in the spirit of that, were sharing some collectively thats my segue, tonight i want to talk about the subject of the book about the property of the nation. Essentially what im getting at is who owns history . And i use washington and his tomb as a lens for trying to understand that process and how it unfolded in the 19th century. Now, this project began as an offshoot of research i was doing around actually the washington monument. As i was exploring different efforts by congress to build statues and memorials and monuments, i was drawn to this particular incident of 1832. And the members of congress were debating and then voted in favor of removing George Washingtons body from mount vernon and entombing it in the just below the crypt in the Capitol Rotunda. Researching it deeper, i discovered this was one of many attempts to physically remove washingtons body during the 19th century. Also, i was also curious about whaps happening exactly at the gravesite. And i found some pretty fascinating stories. The tomb served as an intersection for historical tourism, recent fascinations, Popular Culture, religious inspiration, all things that were transformed by the political democracy. And experiences illuminate how the democratic ill pulse transcended the president , as more americans sought to know, touch, and even possess pieces of washingtons past. Different individuals and groups interacted with washingtons final resting place, mount vernon, threeday visits that citizens, politicians, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and enslaved storytellers reimagined the collective memory of washington, democratizing the first president and creating this popularly held belief he was indeed the property of the nation. When the ordinance talks about the process, we have to talk about washingtons demise. On december 14th, 1989, washington came down with what appeared to be a winter cold, it accelerated quickly and studies now believe he probably suffered from acute he glot itis, essentially the swelling of the large nifl. Whether it was bacterial or viral in nature, were not really sure. But essentially this is the time when accelerated his declining health. Washington passed away between 10 00 and 11 00 at night. On december 18th he was privately intured at mount vurnen. Six days later on christmas eve, 1799, president john adams asked for marthas consent to move her husbands body in the future to the capital. What we did see then is essentially the apotheosis of washington. There was a mourning period up until his birthday, february 22, 1800. Gerald kaler has done a great study detailing essentially all of the different fun cheryl processions. He counted over 400 instances. This was an outpouring of human grief that the American Country had never seen before. Now at mount vernon itself, letters of condolence streamed in, in particular to martha, but none all of these were sympathetic, sorry for your loss, some of them were actually very opportunistic. For example, a number of individuals were writing martha and asking for locks of her deceased husbands hair. Sounds strange to us but was actually pretty common in the 18th and 19th century. There was one man who claimed he had served with George Washington and he asked martha if she could write a pardon on his behalf to the governor of pennsylvania because he had accused of stealing a horse and had not been able to find the real tlehief and only the widowf washington could save him from his unfortunate fate. She did not reply. Now this reservation to move washington to the washington in 1879 opened up about ownership in america. How would we venerate the memory of our past leaders . Would it be through things like education or would it be very public displays of things like statues, monuments or even something that appears as an that athlete cal to the revolution today, Something Like a mausoleum. This was is proposed by henry trudeau, architecturally designed like the decatur house. This was supposed to be 100 by 100 feet, which would have made it one of the tallest structures in the United States at the time. It would have been made out of granite and marble, so very expensive. But this comes to a head between federalists and democratic republicans. Is this for a man or a pharaoh . Would the United States be different from other countries . Obviously, there were comparisons with egypt, ancient rome, ancient greeks. But ult myly this measure is defeated. The public turns against the idea of turning a mausoleum for George Washington. They determined its not what washington wanted. And funding issue, the government doesnt have one for Something Like that. And the federalists really sarng their ship when they proposed only they would be involved with designing the actual mausoleum. But this issue of interring washington in a new place never really goes away. In 1816 the new owner of mount vernon, bush rod washington, Supreme Court justice and nephew of George Washington, hes actually solicited by the General Assembly and they propose moving washingtons body to richmond to be placed underneath a monument that hasnt been built yet. So another attempt but this time by a state government. Congress gets wind of it. They wish for washington as well and they inquire about moving washington again to the capitol. Of course, the capitol has just been burned and theyre rebuilding it and having the conversations. And bush rod declines so thats another attempt to remove him. Free masonry, free masons came along in the 1820s and they proposed raising money to build a new tomb to washington and his ee mapsation ak applicants. They propose putting together money that was raised at the different lodges and even creating a National Lodge and having washington attached to it. Part of what i argue in the 1820s keep in mind free masonry has taken a turn, theres a rise of the Antisemitic Party and more americans becoming suspicious as what they see as the elitist free masons. The free masons are still visiting washingtons grave. Theyre still attributing his memory to their own brotherhood. Theyre saying any criticism against us is just as criticizing washington himself. So theyre a great example of a Societal Organization using sort of washington as a shield to guard against criticism and anything like that. But really its where we see sort of a major transition in how washington is perceived, how hes marketed and how people profit from it, is what this gentleman, john augusta washington iii. Hes actually the last owner of the private estate. He formally vacates the estate in 1860 but before that he really labors to turn it into americas first historic tourism destination. And he invested in several ventures hoping to capitalize on the public fascination over his famous relative. He negotiated the washington and alexandria steamboat companies so they could have direct access to the pier landing at mount vernon. Essentially a constant flow of steamboats would come between the city of alexandria and mount vernon. In fact he authorizes the building of a wooden plank walkway, which you can see in this photograph, and charged it to the company. Probably one of the funnier things i came across in my research was that this land was so valuable, that there was a man named george paige who arrived at mount vernon along the shoreline in 1851 and he was holding up a deed saying he owned part of the shoreline in mount vernon and this threw generals of washington into a fit but essentially he was claiming the land was technically underwater. It didnt go too well for george paige but it does go to show you and george paige also worked for the steamboat packing company. So there were other agents who were operating on terms of bringing people to mount vernon who wanted that access as well. He took a cut of the ticket sales. Here you can see this is actually the advertisement from the thomas collier, and that was the one that went down several times a week, and this is where we start to see the beginnings, maybe of you have been on the spirit of mount vernon today, essentially making the estate more accessible to people. It was relatively more inexpensive. They offered things like confectionary. Sometimes liquors depending on what type of cruise you were going on to, and they also had music. So it became larger and a daylong experience that a lot of people enjoyed in the 19th century. So he was not only investing in this particular company, he was taken a cut of their sales, he started buying stock, and then he actually starting selling wood from the estate. And the idea behind it was to essentially package and sell pieces of washingtons world so that American Consumers could be more directly connected to the man himself. Now this is a particular example. It was made by an english businessman named james crutchette, whos probably more famous for his installation of gas fighting at the capitol but he had this business aside where he was manufacturing washington trinkets made of wood from the estate. Much accustoms to like where we are today, any time you get something thats supposed to be authentic, youre going to need a certificate that goes with it so you can prove to people, this is legitimate. And you can see from the little liggetts of poetry, washingtons face and also a statement from the mayor of washington, d. C. Attesting to the character of the wood in question and also telling you where the wood came from. Now, in the certificate he says its from the same hill where George Washington is buried. And i think thats particularly interesting because this was a place that was considered sacred to many americans. But when i actually went through his farm books and i tried to plot out where exactly he was taking this wood from, it wasnt always from the hill. I think john augusta washington was good at sales. And this is what people wanted to hear. In fact, some of the wood actually came from right along the shoreline. This was a place George Washington had affectionately called hell hole and he called it that because nothing could grow there. For whatever reason, he just whenever he tried, he could not get anything to grow there. Some of the wood came from hellhole. But that is technically part of the hill so were going to let that one slide. Now with the mount vernon, this one is dated 1856, john augusta washington was helping crush it with his business but he was also simultaneously selling things at mount vernon. He was collecting sales that enslaved gardeners were selling in the upper and lower gardens, and he was also collecting any type of revenue when people came in for a time being there was a demure typist on the estate. So there was a number of different ways that were the forerunners to the moderned lay whys Association Taking over and that Organization Also embracing a lot of these strategies, how can we capitalize on people that are drawn to mount vernon . Even though john augusta washington was very involved in the profiting the memory of washington of his great grand uncle, it was the enslaved community mount vernon that were the primary storytellers and keepers of the tomb. These are the people who were the onsite storytellers and interpreters. Many used that platform to write themselves, leave themselves into various washington legends. Some of them used these positions to extract tips from people who maybe werent as knowledgeable about George Washingtons life, and others were able to highlight washingtons treatment and depending on the audience, his freeing of his slaves in his will, which is a very interesting conversation that enslaved people were having with guests. In fact, theres one instance in particular where bush rod washington gets essentially called up by the liberator and they question his character in comparison with his uncles, and they compare it essentially using a slave account of a visit at mount vernon. When using enslaved people to amuse tour guides was not a new idea, which mount vernon left to gardeners and observants to interact with strangers. But they were shocked when they found out the exproclaimed storytellers were not telling what was happening at the state. They were not bound with the same type of etiquette bushrod thought they should. We shoucould see in other sourc this was post civil war. This never really goes away. Africanamericans are very much involved in telling the story of washingtons life in mount vernon beyond civil war. But we can see in other sources, because thats one of the difficult things, trying to track down the voices of the enslaved, is they played a very prominent role not only sharing accounts with people and newspapers and periodicals, but even an example like this. This is a piece of sheet music and, of course, there were many musical scores about washington but this one in particular the image is very striking. If you look close you can see an africanamerican man sitting next to the tomb and ready to sell a number of walking sticks lined up. Washington james became very popular in the 1970. It was something that tied people directly to the estate but also it was a symbol of affluence in the 19th century. So we accounts of enslaved people either selling these walking sticks or marketing these or making a number of them for people while theyre on the esstate. Sometimes they say theyre pedaling these, but apparently this was much more successful, because crushette eveltly goes out of business. And these storytellers keep selling these things up through the civil war. So no matter how you look at it, whether it was their role cutting the wood for crutchettes canes, whether it was their role laying the plank from the wharf to the tombs, or it was them actually selling things onsite and sharing stories, africanamericans were very involved in perpetuating some of these washington legends, but also writing themselves into it, but also challenging some of the thoughts about how washington felt about things like emancipation. One of my particularly favorite stories, because oftentimes they would make comments about whether or not they were given some type of gratutety or tip, there was one instance where a gentleman wasnt able to give anything to a particularly elderly enslaved woman, and she asked for a pinch of tobacco. So it just goes to show you that it wasnt always about money. Sometimes it was just whatever the visitor might have on them. There was an expectation that there would be an exchange for a service. And africanamericans were a vital part of that. Now, we also do border on sometimes things that seem a little bit more