Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0395Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of brick archway with an iron gate across it, an obelisk and a tree are beside the pathway leading to the archway. Above the image "50" is printed, below the image "32252 Where the Father of His Country Sleeps - Tomb of Washington, Mount Vernon, Va." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
32252
TOMB OF MARTHA AND GEORGE WASHINGTON, MOUNT VERNON, VA.
In viewing the Mansion House from the S. lawn we saw the kitchen at the left of our position. From the W. end of this structure a pleasant lane leads S. past several of the old plantation buildings, the oldest being the Brick Stable, built in 1733. The lane conducts us by intersecting paths, eastward to the Old Tomb and westward to the new one. The former, which is excavated into the hillside, was the first place of interment of General and Mrs. Washington's remains. But by 1831 it had so far fallen into decay that the surviving relatives built the New Tomb, upon which we are now looking. In his will Washington had expressed a desire that a new tomb should be built and though his wish was very tardily executed, the structure was placed where he desired it to be, "at the foot of the vineyard close." It is overgrown with ivy now, and arched by trees, a number of which have been planted by great National societies, and some even by foreign princes and emperors, as tributes to Washington's memory. Int he ground before the Tomb and in the vault behind it are buried a number of Washington's relatives. Within the grating of the Tomb itself we see two plain marble sarcophagi. One of these is inscribed, "Martha, Consort of Washington." The other bears the sculptured image of an eagle, surmounting the American shield against a draped United States flag. Beneath is the single word, "Washington."
The very spirit of the Republic herself, among whose halls and temples we have long been wandering, seems to hover perpetually over this quiet spot, in blessing and med(unreadable)tion. Day after day, year after year, before its simpl sepulcher, as before a shrine, pass silent thousands. For it contains the mortal chrysalis from which first sprang the immortal grandeur of our National existence.
Copyright Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection