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First in the Homes of His Countrymen - George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination (Hardcover)
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First in the Homes of His Countrymen - George Washington's Mount Vernon in the American Imagination (Hardcover)
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Over the past two hundred years, Americans have reproduced George
Washington's Mount Vernon plantation house more often, and in a
greater variety of media, than any of their country's other
historic buildings. In this highly original new book, Lydia Mattice
Brandt chronicles America's obsession with the first president's
iconic home through advertising, prints, paintings, popular
literature, and the full-scale replication of its architecture.
Even before Washington's 1799 death, his house was an important
symbol for the new nation. His countrymen used it to idealize the
past as well as to evoke contemporary--and even divisive--political
and social ideals. In the wake of the mid-nineteenth century's
revival craze, Mount Vernon became an obvious choice for architects
and patrons looking to reference the past through buildings in
residential neighborhoods, at world's fairs, and along the
commercial strip. The singularity of the building's trademark
piazza and its connection to Washington made it immediately
recognizable and easy to replicate. As a myriad of Americans
imitated the building's architecture, the Mount Vernon Ladies'
Association carefully interpreted and preserved its fabric.
Purchasing the house in 1859 amid intense scrutiny, the
organization safeguarded Washington's home and ensured its
accessibility as the nation's leading historic house museum.
Tension between popular images of Mount Vernon and the
organization's ""official"" narrative for the house over the past
150 years demonstrates the close and ever-shifting relationship
between historic preservation and popular architecture.In existence
for roughly as long as the United States itself, Mount Vernon's
image has remained strikingly relevant to many competing
conceptions of our country's historical and architectural identity.
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