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Archive for June 2013 (19 posts)

George Washington’s Boyhood Home 1738-1754 – Pic of the Week

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Plaque J-61 by Virginia Department of Historic Resources (all photos by the author)

 

Plaque by National Park Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, designating George Washington Boyhood Home Site a National Historic Landmark, 2000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I cannot tell a lie.”—George Washington

As we approach the birthday of our country, I figured I would invite you to take a little detour to Fredericksburg, Virginia, the childhood home of George Washington (1732-1799).

One would think that the childhood home of the man who came to be the father of this country would be a prominent historical landmark heralding one more piece in the larger puzzle of American history.  The reality is that its landmark status is quite recent, and it was not until February 16, 2000 that the Secretary of the Interior designated this site a historical landmark. 

Archaelogical dig of George Washington’s boyhood home

As it states in the “Preservation Efforts, 1926-1998” section of the National Historic Landmark Nomination:

Ferry Farm, like Washington’s Birthplace and several other nationally significant historic sites, attracted the interest of historic preservationists in the 1920s. Spurred by the colonial revival, the emergence of the automobile as a stimulus to historical tourism, and the impending 1932 bicentennial of Washington’s birth, a national group—the Citizens of George Washington’s Boyhood Home [modern-day George Washington Foundation]—was founded in 1926 to acquire the site for the benefit of the public.

According to the George Washington Foundation it was on “July 2, 2008, that archaeologists working at the site of George Washington’s childhood home […] located and excavated the remains of the long-sought house where Washington was raised.”

The site situated in Ferry Farm, Stafford County, Virginia, rather than featuring a neoclassical piece of Americana—like the present Georgian-style structure that is prominently the face of the place—is simply an archaeological site.  As this region was also the scene of many civil war battles, excavators must always be aware of the likely contamination of the site by artifacts of later eras.

Still, it is to this site that the tales of George Washington’s boyhood are tethered.  In fact, a short walk from the archaelogical dig will allow visitors an overlook of the Rappahannock River where a tale places him throwing a silver dollar (which was really a piece of slate) across the river.  (For other “Facts & Falsehoods about George Washington,” the Mount Vernon portal provides a list of some of the most known tales.)

If you would like to read more about the fascinating history of this site and to learn more about the emergence of its preservation, the National Historic Landmark Nomination, a 47-page document, covers the history of the site, its ownership, and lots of biographical nuances about the Washington–Ball family. (The National Historic Landmark program is regulated by the Historic Sites Act of 1935.)

The True Portraiture of Judge Littleton – Pic of the Week

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At a recent public event, I presented a display of books from the Law Library’s Rare Book Collection including this unusually printed 1591 edition of Littleton’s Tenures.  One of the attractive features of the book is that it contains two very nice engravings that were bound into it ahead of the title page.  The engravings, […]

A Tribute to Dwight D. Opperman, Legal Publishing Pioneer and Friend of the Law Library of Congress

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Dwight D. Opperman died last Thursday at his home in Bel Air, Calif., after a short illness. He was 89. Mr. Opperman and his wife, Julie Chrystyn Opperman, have been good friends and generous benefactors of the Law Library of Congress. He is well known for his work as the former head of West Publishing Company. Mr. Opperman is […]

Laws of the Russian Federation – Global Legal Collection Highlights

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The following is a guest post by Peter Roudik, Director of  Global Legal Research at the Law Library of Congress.  Peter has previously contributed various posts to In Custodia Legis, including on the Pittsburgh Agreement, the ASIL Annual Meeting, Russia’s immigration policies and the U.S. Trade Act, and the Treaty on the Creation of the […]

The Italian Legislative Procedure

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This is a guest post by Dante Figueroa, Antonio Casu (Direttore della Biblioteca, Camera dei Deputati), and Vito Cozzoli (Consigliere Capo dell’Avvocatura, Camera dei Deputati).  This is the second post in a series describing the main aspects of the Italian legislature.  The first post discussed the development of the modern Italian government. The Italian Republican Constitution – […]

Blog Team Meeting – Pic of the Week

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Have you ever wondered how the In Custodia Legis sausage is made?  Well, you are in luck.  Every month the blog team meets to develop what we call the “editorial calendar.”  The majority of the meeting is usually spent on handing out assignments to bloggers to generate content, including by looking at upcoming events and […]