The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon is a DC treasure

The political pyrotechnics in Washington this summer have been so blinding as to blot out everything else happening in the national capital. The inside job that forced President Joe Biden out of his re-election campaign and the meteoric rise of Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee, all in the shadow of Donald Trump’s return to the national stage, have fascinated Washington like nothing since the Watergate scandal, exactly fifty years ago. 

Yet even as Washingtonians focus on blood sport of politics, it is too easy to forget that the city is filled with far more edifying activities than the gladiatorial clashes in the political arena. In few other cities is there the cornucopia of educational, inspirational or simply fascinating events, many of them gratis for interested participants. To paraphrase Dr. Johnson, when a man is tired of Washington, he is tired of life. For those interested in opportunities for “self-improvement,” as my favorite American doctor, Benjamin Franklin, would have called it, there is a nearly endless supply of treasures in the National Capital Region.

Especially as we edge towards the 250th anniversary of American independence, it makes sense to start at the beginning, with George Washington and his Mount Vernon. While most schoolchildren have visited Mount Vernon at one point or another, and parents may have taken their children to the massive museum with its twenty-three galleries, residents of the DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia) may be less aware of the packed schedule of events and activities at the estate. From family days and fireworks to colonial-era bread baking and music demonstrations, there are ongoing activities that are an “only in DC” experience for those lucky enough to hop in the car for a short drive down the Potomac.

But for my money, the real treasure at Mount Vernon is the George Washington Presidential Library. The library was founded only in 2013, thanks to the beneficence of Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. Housed in a beautifully designed building, it hosts visiting research fellows and a leadership institute and holds extensive material on the Washingtons. Unlike the libraries of presidents from Herbert Hoover on, however, it is not part of the National Archives system.

The founding director of the library, Douglas Bradburn, is a former chair of the History Department at Binghamton University, State University of New York, who since 2018 has been the Director of Mount Vernon itself. This July, Lindsay Chervinsky, an expert on early Republic history and the author of well-regarded books on Washington and John Adams, took over the reins of the library from Patrick Spero.

Located just across Mount Vernon Memorial Highway from the main estate, the library offers some of the most interesting conferences and brown bag events in the city, not only on the first president and the Revolutionary era, but on presidential and first lady history, General Washington’s map collection, material culture and American history more broadly. Of particular note is the Ford Evening Book Talk, sponsored by Ford Motor Company Fund, which brings the authors of new works of history to Mount Vernon, and is free. You may well see Supreme Court justices, politicians and famous authors in the audience, given the caliber of the talks. Many of the talks are also streamed live and archived on the library’s website.

The George Washington Presidential Library is an exemplar of how to do public history in an era where Americans seem more at each other’s throats than every before. “We aim to share the best scholarship on the Early Republic, but also host a public forum on the biggest, trickiest issues facing our country today,” says Chervinsky, the new Library director.  In its activities, the Library embodies the prudence and moderation of its namesake. It is a treasure that Washingtonians should not only be proud of but take advantage of. And, if you cap off the day with a dram of whiskey produced in George Washington’s own distillery, all the better.