What-To-Do Wednesday - Virtual Visit: George Washington's Mount Vernon

If you want to get your dose of culture while being stuck inside, many museums and other attractions offer a variety of virtual exhibits. This is an especially great time to explore museums and attractions that are outside of your area and maybe even outside of your country that you ordinarily would not be able to get to because of time and/or money constraints. We will doing so as well and  we will be sharing one or more of our virtual visits in today's and future What-To-Do Wednesday posts.

What: George Washington's Mount Vernon

Physical Location: 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway
                                Mount Vernon, VA

Mount Vernon was the plantation of our nation's first president, George Washington. The home was owned by the Washington family since the time of George Washington's great grandfather. It was saved from destruction  and restored though the efforts of  the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, who own it and maintain it to this day. In 1960, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

A virtual tour of Mount Vernon includes:

A walk through every inch of the home which including numerous bedrooms, the dining room, two parlors and more.

A walk through various buildings on the grounds, the gristmill, the blacksmith shop, the slave's quarters and more.

 A walk around the grounds including the gardens, the bowling green, the Potomac Wharf and more.

Views and descriptions of numerous objects within the home and throughout the grounds including furniture, dishes, bedding, various tools and more. Some of these items are replicas; some are original.

Views and descriptions of numerous works of art owned by the family and displayed in their home including prints depicting important people and events in American history, maritime prints and various family portraits.

An abundance of videos to watch including: videos  that provide background information regarding various rooms in the house or other areas of the estate, videos that demonstrate how to work a loom, or play a harpsichord, or work a gristmill or more, videos that providing historical reenactments of events or people, and more.

Various anecdotes about George Washington and/or Mount Vernon.

A look at the Fred W. Smith Library for the study of George Washington which was opened in 2013 and is located on the grounds of Mount Vernon.

The virtual tour of Mount Vernon is quite extensive. If you want to read every bit of information provided and watch every video available, it could take you several hours to get through the whole thing.

For more information or to take a virtual tour of Mount Vernon yourself, visit https://virtualtour.mountvernon.org.

Tune in tomorrow for Theater Thursday.

photo credit: krossbow Teach 'em how to say goodbye  George Washington's going home via photopin (license)