Books Abut Geaorge Washingtons Family for Kids Online

During his lifetime, George Washington amassed a library consisting of over 900 books, plus dozens of pamphlets and other publications, for a full of more than 1,200 titles. ¹ Washington's library included books on agriculture, the military, history, politics, philosophy, and travel, as well as literature, plays, reference works, and books in foreign languages, including French, Dutch, and Latin. Although Washington had a reputation among his contemporaries as being unread, the care put into his library and its size counter this impression.

During Washington's Lifetime
Throughout his life, Washington's library grew in various ways, including through purchases that he made and via gifts of books past their authors, particularly subsequently Washington became known worldwide in the 1780s and 1790s. Washington kept electric current with the catalogs of volume dealers in Philadelphia and New York, and was particularly interested in collecting and promoting titles by American authors later the Revolutionary War.

In 1771, Washington had a bookplate designed for him and ordered between 400 and 500 of them. At this point, Washington did not ain that many books, suggesting that he intended to continue increasing the size of his library; an inventory from 1764 listed 325 titles, though not all were Washington's books. Washington signed many books in his library in the upper right corner of the championship page, but not all of his books take his signature or bookplate.

In 1783, just before his retirement as commander-in-chief of the Continental Ground forces, Washington had his manor manager compile a list of all of the books at Mount Vernon. Despite Washington's wide-ranging collection, this list did non include a Bible. In fact, he owned very few books about religion, and those that he did own probably were given to him every bit gifts by their authors.

Washington's contemporaries did not perceive him as an avid reader. John Adams described Washington equally "too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation," and Thomas Jefferson concurred. ^two However, it is articulate that Washington was a practical reader. For example, he wrote to his subordinate officers during a lull in the French and Indian State of war that: "As nosotros now take no opportunities to improve from example; allow usa read, for this desirable end. In that location is Blands and other Treatises which will requite the wished-for data." ⁱⁱⁱ Humphrey Bland's Treatise of Military machine Bailiwick, published in London in 1727 and purchased by Washington in 1756, remained in Washington'southward library until his death. While Washington owned works on war machine matters, politics and related subjects made upward the majority of Washington'southward collection, with books ranging from Plato and Cicero to contemporary political philosophers such equally John Locke and Thomas Paine.

Washington also utilized pamphlets to keep up with electric current issues, including the transatlantic debate over slavery, too as arguments over the ratification of the United states of america Constitution. Washington owned thirty-six volumes of pamphlets jump together, including selections of political tracts and a book of six antislavery pamphlets. Later on the pamphlets were cut to equal sizes, the volumes were all bound in the same leather, with a ruby characterization and seven aureate bands on each spine. The workmanship was not ornate, but it was high-quality.

Although Washington did not annotate his books as oftentimes equally some of his contemporaries, surviving books from his library practice feature annotations. The virtually all-encompassing margin notes in Washington's paw are in James Monroe's work, A View of the Carry of the Executive, which criticized Washington's presidential foreign policy.

Following Washington'due south Death
In his will, George Washington left his "library of Books and Pamphlets of every kind" along with all of his personal papers to his nephew, Bushrod Washington. ⁴ In 1829, when Bushrod Washington died, George Washington's original library and papers passed to Bushrod's 2 nephews, George Corbin Washington and John Augustine Washington II.

In 1834, George Corbin Washington sold the presidential papers and many military-focused books to the US government: they became part of the Library of Congress. In 1847, George Corbin Washington sold 359 of Washington's books to Henry Stevens, a prominent rare book dealer and American agent for the British Museum. When Stevens proposed to sell the Washington drove to the British Museum, the Library of Congress did not brand an endeavor to secure it. Popular, patriotic clamor helped stir the Boston Archives to mountain a collection drive to go along George Washington's books on American soil. Later repeated efforts to garner the necessary funds, the bulldoze raised just $3,250. ⁵

Stevens ultimately sold the drove to the Athanaeum for the amount raised, though it was essentially less than the original asking toll of $7,500. As a result, Stevens claimed to concord back 5 books, two of which he sold to James Lenox for $350 and the other three that he gave to the British Museum, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the Imperial Library in Berlin. The actual fate of these books is uncertain, since in 1961 neither the Bodleian nor the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek had whatever tape of a gift of a book from Washington'southward library. The British Museum does still own a book from the library given past Stevens.

The other half of the original library, inherited by John Augustine Washington 2, passed to his son, John Augustine Washington III in 1832. Upon selling Mountain Vernon to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1858, John Augustine Washington III removed the books from the firm. His heirs sold the collection at auction in 1876, scattering it to various private collectors and institutions.

Today
The volumes from Washington's original library remain scattered. The books purchased from Stevens continue to reside at the Boston Athenaeum, where they are kept in a replica of Washington'south book-press in his study at Mountain Vernon. Other volumes are in various public institutions, including the Library of Congress, several university libraries, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, while still other volumes are in private easily or in unknown locations. A major goal of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon is to recreate Washington's library; the library currently has 103 volumes, representing 62 titles, from Washington'due south original library, too as copies of many of the other books that Washington owned and books endemic past other members of the Washington family unit, including Martha Washington.

Robin Pokorski
George Washington University

Notes:
ane. Paul K. Longmore, The Invention of George Washington (Charlottesville: Academy Press of Virginia, 1999); Amanda C. Isaac, Take Note!: George Washington the Reader (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 2013).

2. Quoted Longmore, The Invention of George Washington, 213.

iii. "Address, 8 Jan 1756," Founders Online, National Archives. Source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. two, 14 August 1755?–?xv April 1756, ed. Westward. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Printing of Virginia, 1983, 256–8.

4. "George Washington'due south Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799,"Founders Online, National Archives. Source:The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. four, twenty Apr 1799?–?xiii December 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 479–511.

5. Michael Wentworth, "George Washington's Library," in Stanley East. Cushing,The George Washington Library Collection (Boston: The Boston Archives, 1997), 18.

Bibliography:

Clark, Ellen McCallister. "George Washington'due south Study." The Mag Antiques 135 (1989): 490-495.

Cushing, Stanley E. The George Washington Library Collection. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1997.

Furstenburg, François. "Atlantic Slavery, Atlantic Freedom: George Washington, Slavery, and Transatlantic Abolitionist Networks." William and Mary Quarterly 68 (2011): 249-286.

Griffin, Appleton P. C. A Catalogue of the Washington Collection in the Boston Athenaeum. Cambridge, MA: The Boston Athenaeum, 1897.

Isaac, Amanda C. Take Note!: George Washington the Reader. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 2013.

Longmore, Paul K. The Invention of George Washington. Charlottesville: Academy Printing of Virginia, 1999.

Links:
The books in George Washington's library

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Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washingtons-library/

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