"This coin is the Holy Grail of all dollars," says Laura Sperber, president of Legend Rare Coin Auctions.

The World’s Most Expensive Coin Is Up for Sale

Expected to fetch upward of $10 million, the 1794 Flowing Hair dollar was one of the first coins struck by the newly created U.S. Mint

The Washington Family, painted by Edward Savage in New York City while Washington was the nation's president. The children in the portrait are Martha Custis Washington's grandchildren, to whom George was a father figure.

The Father of the Nation, George Washington Was Also a Doting Dad to His Family

Though he had no biological children, the first president acted as a father figure to Martha’s descendants

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Virtual Travel

Explore Washington, D.C. From Home With This Free, Smithsonian Scholar-Led Tour

Narrated by Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Richard Kurin, the 24-part video series blends history with modern mainstays

"Washington and His Cabinet" lithograph by Currier & Ives

The President’s Cabinet Was an Invention of America’s First President

A new book explores how George Washington shaped the group of advisors as an institution to meet his own needs

Washington, who tended to favor surprisingly silly names for his animals—his dogs answered to Sweetlips, Drunkard and Madame Moose—went literal when it came to the mule, who he called Royal Gift.

George Washington Saw a Future for America: Mules

A newly minted celebrity to the world, the future president used his position to procure his preferred beast of burden from the king of Spain

The Landsdowne portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

A New Book About George Washington Breaks All the Rules on How to Write About George Washington

Alexis Coe’s cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches

An unknown thief stole the historic rifle in a brazen 1971 heist.

Cool Finds

Revolutionary War Rifle Stolen 50 Years Ago Recovered at Barn Sale

The long rifle, made by master gunsmith Johann Christian Oerter, will go on view at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

By regulation, British officers wore a red coat. Washington later outfitted his troops in blue regimental coats faced with scarlet.

Secrets of American History

When Young George Washington Started a War

A just-discovered eyewitness account provides startling new evidence about who fired the shot that sparked the French and Indian War

In the corner of one side of the document, Washington wrote "Genealogy of the Washington Family in Virginia"

This Long-Ignored Document, Written by George Washington, Lays Bare the Legal Power of Genealogy

In Washington’s Virginia, family was a crucial determinant of social and economic status, and freedom

This detail of The Apotheosis of Washington, a fresco painted in the 19th century by Constantino Brumidi in the eye of the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building, depicts George Washington rising to the heavens, flanked by the Roman goddesses of liberty (left) and victory (right).

Why No One Can Agree on What George Washington Thought About the Relationship Between Church and State

The first president wanted to unite citizens of all religions without alienating Catholics, freethinkers and Jews

Found: Stolen Alexander Hamilton Letter

In the letter, Hamilton warns the Marquis de Lafayette about the ‘menace’ of a British fleet

Winnie-the-Pooh dolls owned by A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin

Get Excited: The New York Public Library Is Launching Its First Permanent Exhibition

Come 2020, new gallery will feature a rotating trove of artifacts drawn from NYPL’s 46 million-strong collection of treasures

George Washington, (Porthole type) by Rembrandt Peale, c. 1853

George Washington and I Go Way Back—Or So Goes the Tale of My Family’s Cane

An heirloom is charged with both sentiment and purely speculative history

George Washington takes command of the Continental army.

The Plot to Kill George Washington

In The First Conspiracy, thriller writer Brad Meltzer uncovers a real-life story too good to turn into fiction

Two high schoolers from Akron, Ohio, stumbled upon the tool while sifting through sediment during a dig at the estate

Cool Finds

Students Unearth 6,000-Year-Old Stone Axe at Mount Vernon

The tool, which was likely used for cutting or carving wood rather than as a weapon, was crafted during 4000 B.C.

General George Washington observes the evacuation of Boston, Massachusetts, by the British forces under Sir General William Howe. Engraving by Frederick T. Stuart, c1867.

Bermuda

The Raid on Bermuda That Saved the American Revolution

How colonial allies in the Caribbean pulled off a heist to equip George Washington’s Continental Army with gunpowder

Hemp harvest at Mount Vernon

Trending Today

Hemp Makes a Return to George Washington’s Farm

The first crop of industrial hemp grown in centuries was recently harvested at Mount Vernon

What’s the Difference Between Moths and Butterflies and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Charles Syphax was among the slaves taken to George Washington Parke Custis’ plantation in Arlington, Virginia. He ran the dining room at the huge mansion known as Arlington House (above), which still stands on the grounds of the cemetery.

How the African-American Syphax Family Traces Its Lineage to Martha Washington

Resources at the African American History Museum deliver a wealth of opportunity for genealogical research

Parson Weems’ Fable by Grant Wood, depicting Parson Weems and his famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree.

Some Stories About George Washington Are Just Too Good to Be True

But there’s a kernel of truth to many of them because Washington was a legend in his own time

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