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N.W. View of the Mansion of George Washington, Mount Vernon
This lithograph depicts the estate in disrepair under the ownership of George Washington's great-grandnephew John Augustine Washington III. The formally dressed visitors illustrate the plantation's popularity as a destination, whose deterioration sparked public criticism from many concerned citizens. The black many was likely one of many enslaved people who labored for George Washington's descendants on the property even forty years after he freed his own slaves.
P. Haas, Washington, DC, lithograph, 1841 |