Item of the Day: Isaac Weld’s Account of New York City in 1796

[In 1796 New York City's harbors were among the busiest in the world. Between 1795 and 1800, due in part to the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, exports to Great Britain trebled and imports, especially Caribbean sugar, doubled. During the trade boom of the late 18th century, the municipal government expanded Manhattan's southern tip through [...]

Item of the Day: Funeral Oration for George Washington by Major-General Henry Lee (1800)

Full Title: Eulogies and Orations on the Life and Death of General George Washington First President of the United States of America. Printed in Boston by Manning and Loring. 1800.
[George Washington died on December 14, 1799. From every corner, eulogies poured forth waxing eloquently on Washington's leadership, virtue, and honor. One of the most famous [...]

Item of the Day: Even More Weld’s Travels (1800)

Full Title: Travels Through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797.
Etching: A north-west prospect of Nassau Hall with front view of the President’s House in New Jersey, 1764. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
[En route to New York and Canada, Isaac [...]

Item of the Day: Etching of Mount Vernon by Isaac Weld, Junior (1798)

Full Title: Travels Through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797.
Plan of MOUNT VERNON, Seat of General Washington.
By Isaac Weld, Junior.
Published December 18, 1798 by J. Stockdale, Picadilly.

Item of the Day: More Weld’s Travels (1800)

[After George Washington became a national icon and the first president,travelers and well-wishers felt at ease dropping into his Mount Vernon home whenever they pleased. Upon arrival, visitors were fed and offered accommodations for one or more nights, in part owing to the difficulty it took to find the place as well as a paucity [...]

Item of the Day: Weld’s Travels (1800)

Full Title: Travels through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, 1797. By Isaac Weld, Junior. Printed in London for John Stockdale, 1800.
[At age 21, Isaac Weld was already a man of the world. An Irishman to the manor born, Weld arrived in Philadelphia [...]

Item of the Day: George Washington’s Last Will and Testament (1799)

[Some say that Washington had a premonition about his own demise. Some claim he had a prescient dream that propelled him to write a new will. Whatever his motivation, in July 1799 Washington penned a will without advice or counsel from any other person. The twenty-nine page document he produced is a reflection of Washington's [...]

Item of the Day: Condorcet’s Human Mind (1796)

Full Title:

Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind: Being a Posthumous Work of The Late M. De Condorcet. Translated from the French.
Written by the Marquis de Condorcet. Printed in Dublin for John Chambers, No. 5, Abbey-Street, 1796.
From the Introduction:
MAN is born with the faculty of receiving sensations. In those which [...]

Item of the Day: George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

Full Title: A Letter to the People of America, from General Washington, on His Resignation of the Office of President of the United States. Printed in London by Cooper and Graham, 1796.
[Washington attempted to retire after one term in 1792. With James Madison he even drafted a farewell "Valedictory Address." Instead of delivering it, however, [...]