Happy Birthday George Washington
“A good moral character is the first essential in a man.” ~~George Washington
George WASHINGTON (1732 – 1799) was born on February 22, 1732, at “Popes Creek”, a home that his father had built in the 1720s in Westmoreland County, Virginia. In 1770, “Popes Creek” was renamed “Wakefield”, and on Christmas Day of 1779, Washington’s birthplace burned to the ground, leaving only the crushed oyster shell foundation remaining. George Washington was raised there and in Fairfax and King George Counties, Virginia.
This life size display of General Washington as Commander in Chief is from the new museum center at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
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Count the Layers
Beautiful Rusty Iridescence
Captured upon the skin of the old red caboose at Haymarket, Virginia, these beauteous iridescences can be created only by the undisturbed oxidation of iron underneath of the painter’s finished handiwork. How many coats of vermilion have been flaked away thusly by such acts of nature during the lifetime of the old caboose? It is a constant struggle between man, the elements and time.
Count the layers,
Count the years,
Count the struggles,
Count the tears.
Say goodbye when counting ends;
Say goodbye.
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The Dove of Peace
Flying High o’er the Home of the Great American Warrior, General George Washington, Mount Vernon, Virginia
As a young career soldier, George Washington claimed that he “loved the sound of whistling bullets.” Thirty years and many battles later, the same George Washington placed a dove of peace symbol on his home’s cupola.
The original Dove of Peace weathervane was made by Philadelphian Joseph Rakestraw in the summer of 1787, soon after George Washington ordered it, and was immediately sent to Mount Vernon. The actual vane was in the shape of a dove of peace, its copper body framed or bound with iron strips. In the beak of the dove was an olive branch fashioned from a sheet of iron. The bird measured forty inches long with a wing span of thirty-five inches. Washington wrote to his nephew George Augustine Washington, 12 August 1787, that “The bill of the bird is to be black and olive branch in the mouth of it is to be green.”
Mount Vernon later stopped maintaining Washington’s color scheme, covering the body of the bird with gold leaf to deter further corrosion to its original copper and iron construction. Today, the original Dove of Peace is displayed in Mount Vernon’s new museum, while a replica has been installed upon the mansion’s cupola.
From whence came this “Dove of Peace” carrying an olive branch?
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Memorial Continental Hall
The North Portico
1776 D Street, Washington DC,
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), founded in 1890, and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education. As one of the most inclusive genealogical societies in the country, DAR boasts 170,000 members in 3,000 chapters across the United States and internationally. Any woman 18 years or older—regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background—who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, is eligible for membership. The DAR National Headquarters complex occupies an entire city block near the White House and includes three adjoining buildings. Two of the buildings are Registered National Historic Landmarks: DAR Memorial Continental Hall houses one of the nation’s premier genealogical libraries and one of the foremost collections of pre-industrial American decorative arts; DAR Constitution Hall is Washington’s largest concert hall. (from http://www.dar.org, 2005 and Fairfax County Chapter NSDAR)
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