Private study at his mount vernon, virginia estate. Doug bradburn, the estates president and ceo, talks about the artifact there and how washington used the room, and what that tells us about his life and work. This program originally live streamed on Mount VernonsFacebook Page and youtube channel. It is part of a series of Online Events intended to keep visitors connected with mount vernon during its closure to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. Im once again hear from mount vernon. Im doug bradburn, president and ceo of George Washingtons mount vernon. Today, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you inside the mansion, into George Washingtons study. This is what i like to call his man cave. In some ways it is almost the opposite of the place we visited last time. Newook at the room, which was a state room, where George Washington was showing off to the public his ideas of what the Young Country should emulate, also his history. Also, his own emphasis on agriculture. This space is private space. This is the space where George Washington did his business with the estate, conducted private correspondence, the room that he got dressed in every morning. After billy lee was injured, christopher shield we know [inaudible] in the mornings when he was out mount vernon doing correspondence before he got ready to go out and do his field. Didn the place that he allow other people to come in, because he had personal secretaries throughout the years that worked in here, visiting historians who would have been , and othershis room certainly would have been in this room. Private space for George Washington, and this whole side of the house was private as well. What we are going to do today is walk us through this is one of my favorite spots in the mansion, and it is a great place to think about the superiority of this mans mind. He was an incredibly powerful thinking man and a reader that corresponded a lot of what he did was done inside lets figure that guy out a little bit. [inaudible] and the think we are ready to go over here. Washington used the study for business and pleasure. Did he wants to know, use the study for business and pleasure . Yes is the answer, he did. Is where business could be conducted, so the business of managing the great state of mount vernon, 8000 acres at the including adeath, grist mill, thousands of acres rentedt which he to other tenants as well as land beyond that he hoped to sell. He had a huge and slave labor force for the time in virginia, or so, and the management of this place was like running a business. On the other hand, he also used this space for his own reading and leisure, [inaudible] a room filled with mementos of his past life, a painting of his remnants of the war and his papers themselves. It is where he could be himself, where he could be alone, where he could work diligently, do the moreof the estate but also private speculation, rumination, reading, and all the things that you do when you have your own study. Was the study always used for this purpose or to the rooms or did the room serve as Something Else at the time . Washington inherited it after the death of his sisterinlaw and his sisterinlaws childs brother, [inaudible] when he created the new room on the other end of the house, he also created a wing, which was deprived of him. Unlike the new room space, which allowed for a high domed floor room, this has two floors. The study and washingtons bedroom directly above, including up closet and a private staircase. This was a private wing of the house, that had George Washingtons study, and a private jet chamber bedchamber for george and Martha Washington. In a locked from the set of the building, so it is a private space. , andvisitors came to him he offered them room it was like a well search well served tavern. Most of the people would not have had access to this side of the building. [inaudible] is asking a difficult question what is my favorite thing about George Washingtons study . I love the idea of a private space for George Washington. He was such a public figure. This is a place he housed all of his books in that beautiful book press behind me and by his desk he would have had one full [inaudible] this place would have been chock full of stuff. We have a lot of original objects that George Washington had in this room. Many of them are here, including you can see the portrait of Lawrence Washington on the wall. You can see the fan chair directly behind me here, which is a lot of fun we will talk about that. This wouldf have been crammed with space. [inaudible] they do an dies, inventory of all their possessions. They go through room by room, and washingtons inventory has what was in his house. The core records are the ,fficial public legal document the men who created the inventory were assigned by the about it,they lied they could be arrested or held in contempt of court and held for damages. Really good source that we used to understand how this space was used, and it is a treasure trove to understand. We dont have nearly the amount we would have seen on a day that he died. You would have had seven guns alone in this room. 11. D have had he would have had his cloak from his presidency. His revolving chair, which rotated, was in here. Multiple tables, stacks of maps, stacks of prints, books all over and multiple checks. [inaudible] which matt will show off year, and one of my favorite items which i just tweeted about, George Washingtons strongbox, in the corner over there on the window. It is hard to see, it is a small ax and. Out of wh Martha Washington actually brought that into George Washingtons life when she came. George washingtons death, this strongbox held one half of all of his wealth. Wealth in stocks, wealth and jewelry, finen other mementos anm a life worth living, extraordinary life. The room is filled with those things. In addition to that, the box on the wall, the original of John Paul Jones is in here. They were in this space [inaudible] the french minister of finance and louis the 16th helped fund the American Revolution, as well ze on thencredible friec wall behind me. This was done by thurgood right, showing washington in a world crowd, celebrated as [inaudible] he tried to get a commission to create an equestrian George Washington, and also painted George Washington in 1983 in new york. You can see that online as well, this was given to George Washington and attaining on the. All here maybe we can look at some of these specific items in more detail. All the itemsere in the room removed and cleaned, and do any of the books belong to washington . How often do we clean the space or remove items . We have one of the best historical selections expert teams in the world. We make sure that it is cleaned off, the priceless items and heirlooms, to make sure they will last for generations. Sometimes they are required to do special conservation on them. What is most extraordinary is George Washingtons president ial share. It is a chair which rotates, called the uncommon chair, based on a french gondola style chair, 1789 and ork in no, bone, bone wheels that allowed it to turn and slide back and forth. You could roll it across the room. This is the chair washington used as president of the United States. When we did conservation, i think that could beef done with final be done with five later. It is a tremendous chair. It was also at one point in the possession of president Andrew Jackson as well. President s have owned before it came back here. Often we have to do conservation in time, and we are making an exact replica of the chair which will show up in here, and then the original chair will go permanently to our museum gallery, where people can see it. [inaudible] think,the great items, i in your study guides maybe i have understudied it, but i feel what is so crowded about the globe, George Washington is to becomeperson president , and one of the first things he commissions is a globe of the world. London may come but london made, most likely, and that is in our newseum because it is so fragile. That is an interesting story to o. Tried to purchase the globe auctionlic that the washington family held of many of washingtons items in the early 20th century, and he was not able to get it. Jefferson would have seen that globe and [inaudible] already quite out of date by the early 19th century, because the map changed dramatically. Here i go, rambling on again. How often does it get cleaned . We clean once a day and make sure everything is nice and tidy ride here tidy right here. Another question, to the architecture of mount vernon influence the design of the white house . Question. Ting there are some similarities, and they are both emulating classical styles of design that were popular, and size anglo cized, and the think in some ways, George Washington would have loved to build here, if something happened to [inaudible] i could be wrong. When he hired someone to create some boarding houses that he built in washington, d. C. At the time, so we have a pretty good sense of what his style was like. How many objects are in the room what do we got . And how do we know whether arranged or not . We do not have a strong sense of how the room was arranged. We know the mental was there, he had windows that go all the way was there, hentle had windows that go all the way down, and a door that exits to a little hallway between the pantry and the dining room. Because we dont have everything in the room, every aspect was hard choices, where were the walnut tables that he had in addition to the desks that he had in this room . Some of the great items have givens move to carol work, [inaudible] he commissioned his secretary in 1790 6, 1797. It was the secretary he would move back to mount vernon. It has a beautiful rolltop desk with, and as you can see the rolltop, you can have lots of little drawers and little items in there. Washington also had a working desk to keep papers and [inaudible] commissions the sideboard that he puts in the new room on the other side of the house. Know a quill was a will was stored in this desk in the top when he died. The fan chair ok. I do not know if you can get a good view of the fan chair, but it is a winter chair that you sit in and you pump the pedals on the feet, and it makes this piece of fabric, leather in this case, swing back and forth and cool you. [inaudible] with himshington sat more than any other painter, going back all the way to his 1770, 1772 painting. Washington had, this is not the original that he owned, but it is an 18thcentury original fan chair from the philadelphia maker. We have lots of other great items in here. There is a chest here that has George Washingtons initials that have been engraved in a copper plate in it. During the American Revolution, this would have been carried from camp to camp. Also, in our archaeological dig, we have found multiples of these chests with this engraving on it as well. Telescope [inaudible] and of course you have great views out the window here, surveying equipment to this room, some of which is represented here. There is a piece of coral on his desk which he acquired on his trip to the caribbean, an interesting object that washington kept. Booksicularly enjoy the that George Washington owned. Answer,tion i need to which things are original to George Washington, nothing behind me is original. These are 18thcentury books, but they are not the ones that washington actually owned. The georgen of washington president ial library, and you can take a look at those books. Before our time is up, i want to talk about history. Lets take another question. A viewer wants to know if there were two desks in the room, and which desk he used . [inaudible] withi see as a man inredible, varied interests multiple disciplines using a lot of the space in an unusual way. We do not know how he worked in his own environment. There are stories that are told about him writing corresponden stretch thatat a were told by his granddaughter, nelly, and remembered by others. Typically aasnt worker, and the time he was write thehe would letter out, and make a fair copy of that letter. [inaudible] the amount of correspondence had, he clearly spent hours at desks in this room working hard. Know, could you tell me if George Washington had a british or southern accent . Dr. Bradburn what did George Washington sound like is a great question, and there are wonderful scholars of the different dialects of the americas in the 18th century. Likely he would have had some sort of virginia accent, not likely a british accent like you britishagine an elite or Poetry School it. Ould have been a slower drawl i cannot mimic it myself [inaudible] southerners, westerners, you can see those parodied in newspapers at the time, particularly when they are trying to make fun of someone. There is a moment in time when there is a lot of political anger out west, in kentucky, over the alien sedition acts during the washington presidency. They used the spelling to make caricature kentucky accent. Believe in the great state of kentucky and it is sort of rhythmic. A a sort of accent we could recognize as regional dialect today. Washington would have been part of that, but we do not know what he actually sounded like, but im sure it was awesome, and that is all i can tell you right now. What else . Any questions . How much time would president washington have spent in his office . Timee question is how much he would spend in his office it a diff and a typical day. They describe a sort of typical day and a typical day for George Washington is to wake up upstairs in the bedchamber and get prepared for the day. In these would be kept closet behind me, this black door that you can see behind me. Personal he would get andared for the day early he would work on his correspondence for a few hours before he would go out into the estate. Had 8000 acres, there was plenty to do and he would get back to the Mansion House and get changed again before dinner at 3 00. 3 00 dinner sounds early, but not in the 18th century. All of the guests would eat be in a large space on the piazza outside. Spend some time after the dinner in the study before on correspondence rejoining the family and guests. Or the evening conversation pardon me. Thats from talking too much. We get a good sense of this room being regularly used throughout the day. Here andoften retire do more correspondence, some reading which was described as we all read in the bed. The books are in the bedside table when he passed away, including a brandnew went on agriculture. Reading is an important one that i want to get to. What was the most wellknown paper that was written . The most important document here is his last will and testament, which was obviously a private document. It was a very Public Document because George Washington, when he signed with the top of his will, it says George Washington, formerly president of the United States. It does not say George Washington, planter of genia. It is very much in recognition of him as a public figure and that his will would be published and circulated widely, and it is a very important document because of the legacy it revealed of George Washington. He greatest thing he does is freed all of the slaves that he owned personally. Guaranteed in the will they would be freed at the death of Martha Washington. The challenge for washington had frees been is how do you slaves he owned in a way that is not going to separate families . Marthas used them during her life but were not owned by barth and could not be freed by martha. Washington was clear about this before he died but his will ask as a separation in which the 130 slaves he owned at mount vernon and the others he owned on york river were free, not just freed, but were provided for education for those youths under the age of 21, under the majority where they would be trained the same way in the county courts, they were taught a trade which allowed them to make sure they could own a living in their adulthood. The other thing washington would provide for his pensions for these slaves and for the elderly who could no longer work. Some of these were paid by the washington estate. George washington is imagining a future in which these formerly enslaved people would be working in the community and is a crucial document. Inn news of his emancipation his will got out, it was inated in antislavery philadelphia, there is a stunning eulogy to George Washington, celebrating his act saying it was the last act that has made him a figure for all americans to celebrate. It really is worth reading. Recognizednk it is as much as people would have loved for washington to free all the slaves in his lifetime, which he could not figure out how to do. An importantmes arrow in the quiver of the Antislavery Movement for white and black in the north of the United States. Wants this toarly take place, this 18thcentury notion that he could emulate behavior similar to his agricultural forms. He wanted to show how to do it here and that would trickle down in the world.