This Presidents’ Day, Get To Know George Washington
The Papers of George Washington Project Uses Photo Scanning To Preserve And Share Washington’s Letters, Speeches
For most of us, Presidents’ Day (or George Washington’s Birthday, as it is officially known) isn’t a huge holiday. Sure, it’s a great time for bargain-hunters to find 50%-off sales and reduced prices on everything from TV’s to cars, but George Washington’s Birthday usually doesn’t stir up the kind of large-scale family trips and grand celebrations that are common on holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and even Veterans’ Day. Still, many Americans, especially history buffs and die-hard patriots, consider Presidents’ Day to be a holiday worthy of full-scale celebration.
Originally implemented by the United States Congress in 1880, George Washington’s Birthday was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen. Currently celebrated nationwide on the third Monday of February (that’s the 15th, this year) George Washington’s Birthday gives all Americans the chance to honor the accomplishments of our nation’s first president, who has been known for over 200 years as the “Father” of the United States. Military personnel and veterans also have a chance to pay tribute to the man who created the Purple Heart, which was the first military badge of merit for the common soldier.
In order to preserve and commemorate the life and career of our nation’s “Father,” a grant-funded project in Virginia called The Papers of George Washington has been working since 1968 to publish a comprehensive edition of George Washington’s letters and other personal and professional documents. Established at the University of Virginia, under the joint auspices of the University and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, The Papers of George Washington aims to publish a complete edition of Washington’s correspondence, consisting of approximately ninety volumes. The project hopes to make the material “available not only to scholars but to all Americans interested in the founding of their nation.”
As part of the project, letters written to Washington, as well as letters and documents written by him, are now being digitized using photo scanning equipment, and then typed into a searchable format for indexing and cross-referencing. Photo scanning technology allows the original documents, which ordinarily are available for viewing only to scholars and historians, to be viewed by anyone, anywhere. So take some time this Presidents’ Day and get to know George Washington a little bit better. Read the Farewell Address that he gave shortly before leaving office or take a look at his letters, his portraits, or his home. As it turns out, he wasn’t just our first president; he was also a pretty interesting guy!
