Matts parents, tim and debbie because cello, who are tim and debbie costello, and his wife. Sophia and theodore are at home. Wonderful kids. I would like to also welcome are welcome the members of our board of directors who are with us tonight. We have 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 , 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 castillo 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 is one of her historians here at the association. He has been with us now how long has it been . Three years on november 1 and he has made quite a mark and makes a contribution to the association. Prior to coming here he contributed to the George Washington bibliography project. He is a fellow at mount vernon and is currently doing two things i am particularly proud of. 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 that we are very 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 20th 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 in 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 subject of the book, about the property of the nation. I am getting at is what im getting at is who owns history . I use washington and his tomb to explore how it unfolded in the 19th century. Now, 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. Members of congress were debating and then voted in favor of removing George Washingtons body for mount vernon and into tombing it ind en the then just for the crypt in 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 the advent of political democracy. These illuminate how the democratic impulse transcended the present. The president. More americans sought to know, touch, and even have pieces of washingtons past. Different individuals interacted with washingtons final resting place at mount vernon 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 it was bacterial or viral in nature, we are really not sure but the medical , treatments of the time only accelerated his to decliningated his 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. Rning was a national mou period up until his birthday, february 22, 1800. And gerald kaylor has done a great study telling the different funeral processions. You counted instances. Over 400 different this was an outpouring of National Grief the Young Country had never seen before. At mount vernon itself, letters of condolence streamed in, in particular to martha. Not all of these were some dish were sympathetic were sympathetic. 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, but 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 stealing 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, this opened up a new question about hero worship in early america. How will we venerate our past through education, or public displays, statues, monuments, or something antithetical to the revolution, appear a middle appear middle pyramidal mazza liam . One of theosed to be tallest structures in the United States at the time. It would be made of granite and marble, very expensive. This issue of hero worship comes is this for a man or a pharaoh . With the United States be different from other countries . Will the United States be different from other countries . Obviously, theyre working parents there were comparisons with egypt, with rome, but they come down against a grand mazza liam for masouleum for washington. And the federalists kind of sunk their ship. Interringssue of washington in a new place never goes away. In 1816, the new owner of mount vernon, a Supreme Court justice who was the nephew of George Washington is solicited by the virginia General Assembly, and they propose moving washingtons body to richmond to lay underneath a monument that has not been built yet. Another attempt, this time by a state government. Congress gets wind of it and they inquire about moving washington again to the capito l. Has just been burned, but they are having these conversations. He declines. Freemasonry and freemasons come along in the 1820s and propose raising money to essentially build a new tomb in honor of George Washington and his masonic accomplishments. Of lodges propose putting together money and creating a National Lodge and having washington attached to it. What i argue is that in the 1820s keep in mind that freemasonry has taken a turn, theres the rise of the antimasonic party, and americans are becoming suspicious of what they see as elitist freemasons. They are still visiting washingtons grave, still attributing his memories to their own brotherhood, and saying criticism against us is criticizing washington himself. Aey are a great example of Societal Organization using washington as a shield to guard against criticism and anything like that. Really, it is where we see sort of a major transition in how washington is perceived, how he is marketed, and how people profit from it, this gentlemen. He is the last private owner of the mount vernon estate. He agrees to a contract in 1858. He formally vacates the estate he1860, but before then, labors to turn mount vernon into americas first historic tourism destination. Invested in several ventures hoping to capitalize on the public fascination with the famous relative. He negotiated the washington and alexandria steamboat companies so they could have direct access to the peer landing at mount vernon, essentially a constant flow of steamboats would come between alexandria and mount vernon. He even 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 page who arrived at mount vernon along the shoreline and was holding up a deed saying that he owned part of the shoreline of mount vernon. This through John Washington into a fit, but essentially the land he was claiming was technically underwater. It did not go too well for george page, but it does go to show you and george page also worked for the baltimore steam packet company. There were other companies operating, bringing people to mount vernon, who wanted that access as well. He took a cut of their ticket sales. You can see this is actually the advertisement for the thomas collier, the one that went down several times a week. This is where we see the making the estate more accessible and more affordable to people. It was relatively inexpensive. They started offering things like confectionery. Sometimes they had liquor, depending on what type of cruise , and they also had music. It became part of this larger experience americans enjoyed in the 19th century. He was not only investing in this particular company. He was taking a cut of their sales. He started buying stock and then he actually started selling woods on the estate. The idea behind it was to essentially package and sell pieces of washingtons world that American Consumers could be more directly connected to the man himself. This is a particular example. It was made by an english businessman named james cratchit, probably most famous for his installation of gas lighting at the capitol, but he also had this business on the side where he was manufacturing washington trinkets made from wood from the estate. Much like we are accustomed to today, when you ever whenever you get something that is supposed to be authentic, you get a certificate that goes with it so you can prove to people that it is legitimate. You get some poetry, washingtons face, but also a statement from the mayor of washington, d. C. Attesting to the character of the man in question and where the wood came from. In the certificate, he says it is from the same hill where George Washington is buried. That is particularly interesting because this was a place that was considered sacred to many americans, but when i actually went through his farm books and tried to plot out where he was taking this wood from, it was not always from the hill. I think John Augustine washington was good at sales. This is what people wanted to hear. In fact, some of the wood came from right along the shoreline. This was a place that George Washington had efficiently affectionately called hellhole because he could not get anything to grow there. That is technically part of the hill, so we will let that one slide. M,w, with the mount vernon ge this one dated november, 1856, was alsota washington selling things at mount vernon. And he wasing also collecting any type of revenue when people came in. For a time being, there was a daguerreotypist on the estate. Were amber of ways, they forerunner to the modern Association Taking over, and also that Association Taking over the strategies. Augustineh John Washington was profiting on the memory of washington, it was the enslaved community at mount vernon who were the primary storytellers and keepers of the tomb. These were the people who were onsite interpreters. They use that opportunity to right themselves and weave themselves into various washington legends. Some used these to extract tips from people who are maybe not as knowledgeable about George Washingtons life. Others were able to highlight washingtons treatment and, depending on the audience, his freeing of his sleeves in his slaves in his will, which was a very interesting conversation. Where as a situation washington gets called out by the liberator for not offering to slaves, and compare it essentially a slave account of a visit at mount vernon. Using slaves as tour guides was not a new idea. Washington left it to his sleeves to interact with strangers and interested patrons, but was shocked when he found out that his enslaved storytellers were telling him things about what was happening on telling them things about what was happening on the estate. They were not bound by the same rules of etiquette that they thought they should. Here this is postcivil war. This never goes away. Africanamericans are very much involved in telling the stories of washingtons life at mount vernon beyond the civil war. Sources,e in other because that is one of the difficult things, trying to track down the voices of the enslaved, as they is they played a prominent role in not only sharing accounts in newspapers and periodicals, but also in examples like this. There were many musical scores about washingtons tomb, but the image is very striking, because you can see there is an africanamerican man next to the tomb. He is a number of walking sticks lined up. Canesgton keynes became very popular in the 19th century. It tied people to the estate and was a symbol of affluence in the 19th century. There are many accounts of enslaved people either selling or marketing these walking sticks were making them for people sticks or making them for people. Apparently, this was much more utchetsful, because goes out of business and these enslaved storytellers keep selling them through the civil war. No matter how you look at it, whether they are cutting the wood for the keynes, there ore laying planks, selling things on site and americans es, africanamericans were involved in perpetuating these washington legends, but also challenging thoughts about how washington thought about things like emancipation. One of my particularly favorite theyes, because oftentimes would make comments about whether or not they were given some type of gratuity or tip, there was one instance where a gentleman was not able to give anything to a particularly elderly enslaved woman, and she asked for a pinch of tobacco. It just goes to show you that it was not always about money. Sometimes it was just whatever the visitor might have on them. There was an expectation that there would be in exchange for service, and africanamericans were a vital part of that. We also border on things that seem a little bit more unorthodox, a little bit strange. Really, starting from the 1830s therd, we see this trope of last servant of George Washington. That phrase gets repeated a lot. And by my count i found at least five last servants. It tells you more about why does that claim have meaning in the 19th century. 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. It is a claim the claim that association did carry some type of social weight. We see this time and time again. Some of my particular favorites. There was a man named john kerry who said he was 113 years old. He was seeking a pension from congress in 1843, and claimed he served washington in the french and indian war and the american revolution, so he deserves twice the pension. It does not go anywhere, but it is interesting that there are making there are people making that claim. It was moved to committee and then it got tabled, so it was believable to an extent. This continues postcivil war. Nameds a picture of a man jim mitchell in 1870. You can see, even though the civil war has ended, slavery has been abolished, that africanamericans are still taking up these roles, but they are doing it now on behalf of the Mount Vernon Association at mount vernon. You can see behind him walking sticks. They would have been the primary storytellers, but also selling items from the estate. That we haveime congress and the virginia General Assembly arguing and bickering about where washington should be buried, we have enslaved storytellers at mount vernon delivering different types of the washington experience. And then we also had this group of writers and poets and artists who are sharing different bits and pieces of washington lower, either through poetry , throughn lore poetry, biography, and visual artwork. They played a role in this process because most americans will not get to mount vernon in the 19th century. They will rely on things like visuals to fill in the gaps in what they know about washington. Grandson,s adopted