You chose to be with us. I would like to acknowledge some very important people who are with us this evening. Matts parents, tim and debbie costello, and his wife. Sophia and theodore are at home. Wonderful kids. I would like to also welcome are members of the board of directors who are with us. Ann stock. [applause] and bob mcgee. [applause] and two are en route, Anita Mcbride and gail west. Both will be with us tonight. Steve strong is the national cochair of our white house, National Council on white house history. He and his wife andrea are here with us tonight. This is one of our most important groups here at the White House Historical association. Their support, their encouragement, their inspiration and their wisdom really puts the wind in the sales of so much of what we do. We are grateful to have you with us here tonight, steve. The program tonight, dr. Matt costello, is going to share with us about his brandnew book hot off the presses. This is the first time we are making it available. We are very proud of proud of matt. He has made quite a mark and makes a contribution to the association. Prior to coming here he contribute into the George Washington biography project. He is teaching a course at American University on white house history, the first time this has been done anywhere, to our knowledge. We hope to broaden that beyond American University so classrooms across the country can join virtually and we can expand that impact. It is really a cutting edge, first mover opportunity for us we are proud of. He is working on his next book, which will be published by the White House Historical association instead of Kansas University press which published this one. We are proud to have the opportunity to publish his next book on the renovation of the white house undertaken by president Theodore Roosevelt in the early 20 century. Following his remarks, this podium will be moved away from the stage so everyone 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 youre all invited to join us in the courtyard for refreshments following. Thank you very much for being here. Matt, i will turn it over to you. [applause] good evening and thank you for that wonderful introduction. It is truly a privilege to be here tonight with you all. One of the most gratifying exercises about finishing the book is that you get to write acknowledgments. You get to take time and really think through the people, and the places that made this project possible. And i am 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. In the spirit of sharing something collectively, tonight im going to talk about the property of the nation. The spirit is who owns history . I use washington and his tomb to explore how it unfolded in the 19th century. This project began as an offshoot of research i was doing around 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 in 1832. Evers of congress were debating and then voted in favor of removing George Washingtons body from mount vernon, and in teaming it in the then just below the crypt and the capitol rotunda. As i dug deeper, pun intended, i discovered this was one of many attempts to physically remove washingtons body during the 19th century. Actually i was curious about what was happening exactly at the gravesite. I found some fascinating stories. The tomb served as an intersection for historical tourism, race and class relations, Popular Culture, religious expression, things that were transformed by pluto transformed by the advent of political democracy. How the democratic impulse transcended the present. The president. Different individuals interacted with washingtons final resting place and Mount Vernons and it was through these visits that citizens, writers, entrepreneurs and enslaved storytellers reimagined the collective memory of washington, democratizing the first president and creating this popularly held belief that he was, indeed, the property of the nation. But in order to talk about the memory making process, unfortunately we have to start with washingtons demise. On december 14, 1799, washington came down with what appeared to be a winter cold. It accelerated quickly. Studies now believe he probably suffered from acute epiglotitis, the swelling of the larynx. Whether was bacterial or viral, we are not sure. But the medical treatments of the time only accelerated his to cleaning health. Washington passed away between 10 00 and 11 00 at night on december 18, he was privately interred at mount vernon. Six days later, on christmas eve, 1799, president john adams asked for marthas consent to move her husbands body in the future to the capitol. We then see the apotheosis of washington. There was a national morning. Up until his birthday, february 22, 1800. And gerald kaylor has done a great study telling the different funeral processions. He counted 400 different instances. This was an outpouring of National Grief the Young Country had never seen. At mount vernon itself, letters of condolence streamed in, in particular to martha. Not all of these were some pathetic, sorry for your loss. Some were very opportunistic. So, for example, a number of individuals writing martha to ask for locks of her deceased husbands hair, which sounds strange to us, it was pretty common in the 18th century and 19th century. One man claimed he had served with George Washington and asked martha if she could write a pardon on his behalf to the governor of pennsylvania because he had been accused of steering a horse. They had not been able to find the real thief and only the widow of washington could save him from his unfortunate fate. She did not reply. Now, with this resolution to move washington in the future in 1799, this opened up a new question about hero worship in early america. How would we venerate the memory of our past leaders . Would it be things like education or would it be very public displays of things like statues, monuments, or even something that appears anthetical to the revolution, Something Like a mausoleum, designed by the architect to designed the cater house. Now, this pyramid was supposed to be 100 by 100 feet, which would have made it one of the tallest structures in the United States at that time. It would have been made out of granite and marble, so obviously very expensive. But this issue of hero worship comes to a head between these two groups. Obviously there were comparisons with ancient rome and ancient greek. Ultimately, this measure is defeated. Public opinion turned against this idea of a great mausoleum for washington. They argued its not what washington would have wanted. Of course, there was also a funding issue. The government doesnt have money for Something Like that. And the federalists really sunk their ship when they proposed that they only they would be involved in designing the mausoleum. This issue never really goes away. In 1816, the new owner of mount vernon, a Supreme Court justice, hes the nephew of George Washington, hes solicited by the virginia General Assembly. They propose moving washingtons body to richmond to be placed underneath a monument that hasnt been built yet. So again, another attempt, but this time by a state government. Congress gets wind of it. They actually write to him as well and they inquire of moving washington again to the capitol. Of course, the capitols been burned and theyre rebuilding it. But they are having these conversations and bushrod declines. That is another attempt to move him. Freemasonry and the freemasons come along in the 1820s and they propose raising money to essentially build a new tomb in honor of George Washington and his masonic accomplishments. They propose putting together money that was raised with the different lodges and even creating a National Lodge and having washington attached to it. Part of what i argue is that in the 1820s, you have to keep in mind that freemasonry has sort of taken a turn. Theres the rise of the antimasonic party. More and more americans are becoming suspicious of the elitist freemasons. The freemasons are still visiting his grave. Theyre attributing his memory to their own brotherhood. They say any criticism against us is just as ludicrous as criticizing washington himself. So they are a great example of 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 and how he is marketed and how people profit from it is from this gentleman, John Augustin washington iii. Hes the last private owner of the mount vernon estate. He agrees to a contract in 1858. He vacates the estate in 1860. Before then, he labors to turn mount vernon into americas first historic tourism destination. Now, he invested in several ventures hoping to capitalize on the public fascination with his famous relative. He negotiated the washington and alexandria steamboat companies so that they could have direct access to the peer landing in mount vernon so a constant flow of steamboats would come between the city alexandria and mount vernon. He authorizes the wooden plank walkway and charged it to the company. One of the funnier things i came across in my research is this land was so valuable, there was a man who arrived along the shoreline in 1851 and he was holding up a deed saying that he owned part of the shoreline of mount vernon. And this threw John Augustin washington into a fit. But essentially the land he was , claiming was technically underwater. So it didnt go well for george page. But it does go to show you and george page also worked for the baltimore steam company. 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 their ticket sales. You can actually see this is actually the advertisement. This went down several times a week. And this is where we start to see the beginnings of maybe some of you have been in the spirit of mount vernon today, making the the estate more accessible and affordable to people, it was relatively inexpensive they started offering things like concessionary. Sometimes they would have different types of liquors depending on the crews you were going to and they had music. So it became this experience that a lot of americans enjoyed in 19th century. So he was not only investing in this particular company, he was taking a cut of their sales. He started buying stock. Then he started 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 with the man himself. Now, this is a particular example it was made by an english businessman named james crutchette. Probably most famous for his installation of gas lighting at the capitol, but he had this business on the side where he was manufacturing washington made from wood from the estate. And like today, any time you get something thats supposed to authentic, you know, youre going to need a certificate that goes with it so you can prove to people, no, this is legitimate. You can see from the little you get some poetry, washingtons face. But also, essentially a statement from the mayor of washington, d. C. , attesting to the character of the man in question and also telling you exactly where the wood came from. Now, in the certificate, it says its from the same hill where George Washington is buried. 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 Augustin washington was good at sales. This is what people wanted to hear. Some of it came from right along the shoreline. This was a place that George Washington had called hell hole and he called it that because nothing could grow there. Reason, whatever he tried, he could not get anything to grow there. Well some of the wood came from , hell hole. But it was technically part of the hill. So were going to let that one slide. Now John Augustin washington, was helping crush it with his business but he was simultaneously selling things at mount vernon. He was collecting sales 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 typist on the estate. So there was a number of different ways that were kind of the forerunners to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association taking over and that organization embracing a lot of these strategies. How can we capitalize on people that are drawn to mount vernon . Even though john agustin theington was involved in profiteering his great uncle, it was the enslaved community that were the primary storytellers and keepers of the tomb. Now these are the people who are the onsite storytellers and interpreters. Many would use that to write themselves into various washington legends. Some of them used these positions to extract tips from people who may be werent as knowledgeable about George Washingtons wife. And others were able to highlight washingtons treatment and, depending on the audience, his freeing of his slaves in his will, which is an interesting conversation that enslaved people were having with his guests. There is one instance where Bushrod Washington gets essentially called out by the liberator for selling slaves and they question his character in comparison with his uncles and they compare it between essentially using a slave account of a visit at mount vernon. Now, using enslaved people as tour guides was not a new idea. Bushrod washington left it to his overseers, his gardeners, and his slaves to interact with strangers and interested patrons. But he was shocked when he found out that his enslaved storytellers were telling them things about things that were happening on the estate. They were not bound to the same rules of etiquette that bushrod thought they should. But we can see in other sources and heres an image, this is post civil war. This never really goes away. African americans are very much involved in telling the story of washingtons life at mount vernon beyond the civil war. But we can see in other sources because thats one of the , difficult things is trying to track down the voices of the enslaved, that they played a 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 striking. If you look closely, you can see theres an africanamerican man sitting next to the tomb and hes ready to sell. He has a number of walking sticks. Washington keynes washington canes became very popular, they were something that tied them to washington. But it was a simple of affluence in the 19th century. There were many accounts of enslaved people selling these walking sticks or marketing these walking sticks or making a number of them for people while theyre on the estate. Sometimes they say theyre peddling these trinkets. But apparently, this was more successful because eventually they go out of business. These enslaved 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 the canes or laying the plank from the wharf to the tombs, or it was them selling things on site and sharing stories, African Americans 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 gratuity or tip, there was one incidence where a gentleman wasnt able to give anything to a particularly elderly enslaved woman and she asked for a pinch of tobacco. So i mean, 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. Africanamericans were a vital part of that. Now, we also do border on sometimes things that seem a little bit more unorthodox or a little bit strange. Starting from the 1830s on ward, we see this troupe of the last servant of washington. And that phrase gets repeated a lot. 1830s. 1840s. By my count, i found at least five last servants. But when you unpack that, it tells you a little bit more about why does that claim have meaning in the 19th century . Because really, from the 1830s onward, the founding generation is mostly gone. And americans are looking to the next generation of political leaders and contemplating how will the country survive without that leadership . And really, to claim that association, that relationship, it did carry some type of social weight. So we see this time and time again. Some of my particular favorites, there was a man named john carey who said he was 113 years old. He was actually seeking a pension from congress in 1843. And he claimed that he had served washington in the french and indian war and the american revolution, so he deserves essentially twice t