An extensive 45,000-square-foot library near George Washington’s Mount Vernon home will provide scholars with unprecedented access to a collection of thousands of his books and letters and serve as a "think tank" for the nation’s first president, Mount Vernon officials said Thursday.
The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington will open Sept. 27, the officials said at a National Press Club event, complete with reading rooms that will offer scholars a rare glimpse of the books and manuscripts containing Washington’s own handwriting.
Mount Vernon raised about $105 million for the library in a recently concluded capital campaign that garnered donations from more than 7,000 individuals, foundations, and corporations. The site, managed by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association since 1858, does not accept government funding.
"There’s really a latent interest in Washington among the rank-and-file American," Curt Viebranz, president of Mount Vernon, told the Washington Free Beacon.
The library has already announced its inaugural class of seven fellows who will study at the site. Ranging from doctoral candidates to more seasoned scholars, the fellows will live at a 7,300-square-foot residence on the library grounds through next year.
Viebranz told the Free Beacon that the goal of the library is to generate new research on the oft-biographied president and avoid "turning over the same rocks."
"We don’t want this to sort of be a bunch of folks sitting in the stacks hunched over," he said.
"We really want to figure out a way to make it personal to the American people."
An accompanying public exhibit featuring more than 40 Washington books, letters and objects will seek to dispel the notion that he lacked "intellectual attainments," according to a press release.
Although Washington never received a formal college education, he was well-read on subjects such as agriculture and military discipline. The exhibit contains his copy of French ambassador James Monroe’s A View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the United States, a scathing critique of the Washington administration’s pro-British diplomatic bent.
Washington remained silent publicly on the criticism of his diplomacy but wrote copious notes in the margins of the book. When Monroe mentions his acceptance of the ambassadorial role, Washington includes an aside: "After several attempts had failed to obtain a more eligible character."
Increased access to Washington’s writings will also benefit today’s leaders, the officials said.
"This long-overdue initiative will maintain Washington’s importance and relevance in a fast-changing world, when his standards of leadership are needed more than ever," the release stated.