George Washington: American Icon

George Washington, political leader, military general, statesman, Founding Father, planter, denture wearer, cherry-tree chopper, first president of the United States is perhaps the first multi-hyphenate celebrity. Washington was also a prolific slaveholder who, at the time of his death in 1799, owned 317 men, women, and children. Drawn from the Addison’s collection of Washingtoniana, this exhibition, presented in the Museum Learning Center as a complement to Men of Steel, Women of Wonder​, explores the complex and often contradictory image of George Washington in American culture.