“No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this. It lyes [sic] in a high, dry country 300 miles by water from the Sea and…on one of the finest Rivers in the world.”  -George Washington to Arthur Young, 1793

Built on a promontory overlooking the Potomac River, Mount Vernon was the home of the United States’ first president, George Washington. Over time, Washington himself expanded on the home and the residence was the backdrop against which some of the most dramatic moments in the formation of the nation played out. It was also a working farm and the location of George Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill. Today, Mount Vernon is every bit as bustling as it was in the 18th century and, just as it was then, it is so much more than a mansion.

While the 21-room Mansion is the centerpiece of the estate, showcasing what life would have been like at one of the largest and most esteemed residences in colonial America, the Mansion is only part of the experience. There are 500 acres for visitors to explore that include gardens, the fully restored gristmill and distillery, and the farm where visitors can see cows, chickens, and sheep, heritage breeds that would have been raised when Washington lived. The historic area offers many ways to experience the past, from interacting with costumed interpreters and watching live demonstrations to stepping inside a replica slave cabin or one of more than a dozen historic outbuildings where enslaved people and tradespeople engaged in work such as tool and textile making.

Because so much of the estate is outdoors—and you can buy a ticket just to explore the estate without entering the Mansion—it is a relaxing place to spend an afternoon simply strolling and absorbing the historic atmosphere. The estate is dog friendly, too.

When you visit, will you take advantage of the adventure map and take the kids for a scavenger hunt across the estate? Or perhaps visit the interactive museum and education center to trace Washington’s life through exhibits, a 4D Revolutionary War film and the Be Washington Interactive Theater? Maybe you want to enjoy a specialty tour, like the National Treasure: Book of Secrets or Hamilton the Musical tours?

Because there is so much to see and do, the best place to start your visit is the Mount Vernon website, mountvernon.org, which offers suggested itineraries depending on how much time you have to enjoy the estate and is the place to purchase tickets in advance. The website is full of useful tools and information including details on the many events hosted by Mount Vernon. Consider timing your visit to coincide with one of the following upcoming events:

August 6: Purple Heart commemoration day

September 10: The Patriot Run

September 17-18: Colonial Market & Fair

October 7-9: Fall Wine Festival & Sunset Tour

October 22-23: Fall Harvest Family Days

October 29: Trick or Treating at Mt. Vernon

November 11: Mt. Vernon Salutes Veterans

November 25-26: Mount Vernon by Candlelight

Complete your visit with a delicious meal at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant (or grab a quick bite at the Food Court), and select from exclusive Mount Vernon wares such artisan woodworking crafts, jewelry, and reproductions from the museum collection, at the estate shop.

The entire estate is made possible by private contributions and there’s no better way to ensure the legacy continues than by becoming a member. Membership in Mount Vernon offers many perks including discounts at shops and restaurants, free estate admission and Mansion tours, and discounts to selected events, programs, and lectures.

Mount Vernon is within easy driving distance of Baltimore but allows you to travel back centuries in time to experience from many perspectives what life was like at the most preeminent home in colonial America. To begin your journey into history, visit mountvernon.org.

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The monument’s cornerstone—laid July 4, 1815—included a hollowed out well containing artifacts and was spotted by Wilk this winter as the base of the monument was excavated to make room for a septic system. Earlier, this past fall, Wilk found a 1915 time capsule behind a 100-year-old dedication plaque from the monument’s centennial celebration.

“No, didn’t know it was there,” Wilk said as conservators from The Walters Art Museum carefully extracted artifacts from the time capsule Tuesday morning for the first time. “We unbolted that plaque and then I took a cellphone picture in the dark to see what was behind it.”

Highlights found in the 1915 metal time capsule, which had been soldered shut, include an early photograph of the Declaration of Independence, Baltimore newspapers of the time, including a German language paper, the city’s official municipal journal, and numerous artifacts commemorating the 100^th anniversaries of the monument, the Battle of Baltimore and the Star-Spangled Banner, including a colorized photo of a “human flag” and a portrait of Francis Scott Key.

The highlights found in 1815 cornerstone well, which had first been opened in February, but had not been fully displayed until today, include three glass jars stuffed with coins and newspapers from the period—which, because they were written on linen paper, have survived relatively intact. Other items are related more directly to Washington, including a portrait and published copy of his presidential farewell address.

Lance Humphries, chair of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, noted the two distinct themes in the time capsules.

The 1915 capsule, which included more than 50 items, is largely focused on the commemorating the centennial of the War of 1812 (which ended in 1815), the decisive 1814 Battle of Baltimore and subsequent Defenders Day celebrations, as well as Key’s penning of the Star-Spangled Banner.

The 1815 capsule is much more focused on the country’s newfound independence and the leader of Continental Army during the American Revolution who became the first president of the United States. Baltimore’s monument was the first erected to George Washington in the U.S.

“The artifacts contained in the cornerstone are incredible finds and reveal much about what the Washington Monument represented to those who erected it 200 years ago,” said Humphries.

“They laid a copy of the July 3, 1815 Federal Gazette [one of Baltimore’s newspapers in 1815], which had a copy of the Declaration of Independence on its front page that day, across the three jars they’d placed inside the cornerstone,” Humphries said. “When you pull that out, you literally feel what they were thinking when they placed those items in that cornerstone. I think it’s revealing, too, that the word ‘Memory’ is engraved a bit deeper than all the rest of the words in the inscription on the original dedication plaque.”

*The Mount Vernon Place Conservancy will host a free, all-day fair commemorating the $5.5 million restoration and bicentennial of the Washington Monument this July 4.

* Also in July, artifacts from the two time capsules will go on display at the Maryland Historical Society.

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But until recently, researchers didn’t believe that Native Americans and the early colonialists were as enamored with the blue crab—the crustacean that has since come to be identified with Chesapeake Bay culture. Largely because so few blue crab shells had been found among the region’s archaeological digs.

Now that’s changed, according to a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science this month. The reason crabs haven’t been previously identified as the part of the region’s diet centuries ago, according to researchers, is simply that blue crab shells are so fragile that they have escaped detection. They break easily into tiny pieces, decomposing, and what remains of their carapace “just doesn’t preserve well over time,” lead author Torben Rick, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, said in Smithsonian Science.

Reviewing museum and archaeological collections, however, new research and experiments have identified blue crabs from 93 Chesapeake Bay sites, dating from at least 3,200 years ago through the 20th century, according to the study’s abstract.

“They are found at a wide variety of site types, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate (see below), a series of plantations and manors in Maryland, a 17th century Native American site, and a 19th-20th century African American domestic site,” Rick and co-author Matt Ogburn, a crab ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, wrote in their paper. “These crab remains range in age from the early 17th century to the 20th century, suggesting continuous consumption of crabs from prehistoric times and across all major cultural or ethnic groups (Native American, Euro American, African American).

The study also reported that crabs overall appear to have been both more common and larger back in the day, in part because of intensive harvesting today.

No word, yet, if the first president had his own mallet, favorite seasoning, and preferred beer for the Mount Vernon feasts. And technically, we should note, no one has actually nailed down for certain if old George partook in the crab feasts discovered on his estate, but then again, why would he bother with the wooden teeth if wasn’t going to enjoy them?

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