Archive for April, 2009

As we celebrate Earth Day today, we would just like to take a second to recognize George Washington as America’s First Environmentalist. Unlike another famous Founding Father who wrote a lot about his gardening practices (we’re looking at you, TJ), Washington’s contributions to farming are often overlooked because he was too busy leading an army and then a country to really write extensive tomes on them. But, we will have you know that:

• Washington was the first American composter. Who knew, right?! His “repository for dung” was the first of its kind in America.
• The Obamas could certainly learn a lot about gardening from a visit to Mount Vernon (hint, hint). The Washingtons had a pleasure garden, kitchen garden, orchard, plant nursery, and even an experimental garden where exotic plants and seeds were tested to see if they would survive the Virginia climate.
• Washington introduced the concept of crop rotation to American farmers. After watching tobacco ravage the soil of Virginia plantations, Washington employed many land conservation measures, such as switching his main crops to corn and wheat, planting green cover crops in the winter, and using organic fertilizers.
• And as a random fact, Washington introduced the mule to America. Just some cocktail party triva for you as a special treat.

Image by L. Toshio Kishiyama

On April 19, 1775, seven hundred British troops marched out from Boston to seize any colonial weapons they found. When they reached Lexington, 75 American minutemen were waiting on the village green. Both sides were ordered not to shoot, but suddenly a shot rang out. No one is sure to this day who fired it. The surprised British ranks let loose a volley of shots and within seconds eight dead and ten wounded minutemen lay on Lexington Green. The British continued up to Concord, where another small battle ensued. They then decided to return to Boston but the road back became a nightmare for the redcoats as they were ambushed by Americans fighting guerilla style all the way back. At the end of the day, 250 British soldiers had been killed or wounded, and 90 colonists were lost. The struggle for independence had begun.

Continue reading The Shot Heard ‘Round The World »

The phrase “modern-day blacksmith” is used to describe smiths that operate today, but in the case of Mount Vernon, we seem to have recently hired a “modern-day-colonial” blacksmith. The newest craftsman at Mount Vernon, Eric Zieg, grew up in Fairfax, Virginia and has been smithing for over twelve years in some of the finest shops in Virginia, as well as his own shop since 2001, where he makes everything from nuts, bolts and nails, to ornate railings, gates and spirals staircases. Eric now operates the newly opened, reconstructed blacksmith shop, bringing active blacksmithing to Mount Vernon for the first time in over a century. After years of research and archaeology, the shop was reconstructed on its original site, near the Mansion itself. The blacksmith was critical to the operation of a large plantation like Mount Vernon. Tools and plows required repair, and horses were also shoed at the shop. Through historical research, we know that Washington hired a Dutch immigrant, Domenicus Gubner, as blacksmith in 1770. Part of his duties were to train enslaved workers in the art of blacksmithing. After Gubner left Mount Vernon in 1773, two of his enslaved apprentices, Nat and George, worked as Washington’s blacksmiths for the remainder of his life

If you have seen Eric working at the new blacksmith shop, leave a comment and let us know what you think!

A new project at the University of Virginia, the Civility Project, is encouraging young people to review George Washington’s “Rules of Civility” and create standards of social behavior for Americans of the 21st century. Students of all ages can read the “Rules” (available through the Papers of George Washington) and submit their own rule of civility. Miss Manners herself (otherwise known as Judith Martin) is even an adviser to the project.

The Mount Vernon Education Dept. provides several lessons that use these “Rules” to introduce students to the personal rules of decorum by which George Washington lived. The “110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation” that George Washington hand‐copied sometime before the age of sixteen- and that is sometimes sold today as George Washington’s “etiquette book”- was a school curriculum staple of a sort that was common in his day, and copying it may well have been nothing more than a way of practicing penmanship. Regardless, the “Rules” provide a window into the manners and mores of 18th century America and offer a wonderful opportunity for students to compare them to the rules by which we live today. The elementary lesson plan, Going By the Rules (by Teachers’ Institute alumnist Carol Scott), and the middle school lesson plan, Manners & Mores of Washington’s America (by alumnist Rene Lape) are great resources for using the “Rules” in the classroom.