Archive for November, 2011

Every year former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier makes a gingerbread replica of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, but this year he had some special helpers.

The entire fourth grade from nearby Fort Belvoir Elementary School applied STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math — to make some extremely accurate replicas of the estate’s outbuildings.

Chef Mesnier’s Mansion plus the students’ buildings can be seen on display at Mount Vernon’s Reynolds Center throughout the holiday season.

For the second year in a row the turkey pardoned by President Barack Obama (and the spare standby turkey) came to Mount Vernon after its White House pardoning ceremony to live out the rest of his days.

Check out this year’s bird, Liberty, as President Obama excuses him from the dinner table and as he arrives to fanfare at his new home at Mount Vernon. Liberty will be on display through January 6 and then retire to the estate’s behind-the-scenes farm facility where he will join his buddy, Peace, the alternate turkey, who headed to the farm facility today.

On October 3, 1789, George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation by a U.S. president, setting aside Thursday, November 26 as a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” While it was the first nationally celebrated Thanksgiving, such proclamations were a long-held tradition in North America, where local and colonial governments routinely set aside days for the public to give thanks to God, often to celebrate a positive outcome, be it a harvest or overcoming disease, drought or bad weather.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress established several days of thanksgiving, and truth be told, it was Congress who passed the resolution requesting the President to issue the 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Washington’s proclamation was not for an annual or regular celebration, but was a one-time event to commemorate the nascent country’s many successes, from overcoming the Revolutionary War to adopting the Constitution and peaceably establishing a new government.

Washington spread the word from New York City, then the nation’s capital, by mailing the proclamation to the governors of the states. It was also widely published in newspapers, such as the Pennsylvania Gazette and Daily Advertiser, which printed the proclamation on October 9, 1789. An issue of this paper is in Mount Vernon’s collection today.

Washington would not proclaim another day of thanksgiving for another five years, and it wouldn’t be until James Madison that another president declared such a day. Washington’s example that our nation should pause to give thanks and be grateful was not lost on future presidents, however. Other leaders to add Thanksgiving to their pedigree include Abraham Lincoln, who in 1863 set aside the last Thursday of November to be the holiday and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed into law that Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November, thereby creating the federal holiday we now enjoy.

Today people fete Thanksgiving with stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, but back in Washington’s day there was just one simple ingredient to make the day complete: giving thanks.

Associate Curator Laura Simo and Special Collections Librarian Michele Lee contributed to this report.

Object Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights household belongings used by the Washingtons. Check out Mount Vernon’s eMuseum to explore more Washington belongings.

Gift of an anonymous donor, 2000 [RM-1023; News-5651]

Anyone who’s ever taken a touristy camel ride on vacation in a desert country or met up with a dromedary in a petting zoo might be under the impression that these long-necked animals are ornery creatures who’d just as soon spit at you as nuzzle.

But Aladdin the camel (who yes, does have a historical basis for residing at Mount Vernon through the holiday season – read on), is perhaps the friendliest animal ever to grace the estate. Overly eager to nudge, nibble the hand of or lick anyone who comes to pet him, it doesn’t take a stretch of imagination to conceive that people make Aladdin really happy. And considering the number of visitors who will pass through the estate during the holiday season, he should be in dromedary heaven.

We can’t know whether the camel that George Washington paid 18 shillings to have stop by the estate in 1787 was of such an agreeable disposition. Although records indicate that Washington was a fan of exotic animals, having paid to see a variety of creatures throughout his life, little is known of the camel’s visit since the only record that we have of it is a cryptic, December 29 entry in Washington’s ledger, which reads, “By the man who brot. a Camel from Alexa. for a show … 0.18.0.”

Unlike the 18th-century camel, Aladdin will be at Mount Vernon for a while. Catch him on the estate’s 12-acre field until January 6.