Our First Commander in Chief

If you’re interested in George Washington, read on–you’ll be amazed. If you’re not, read on anyway, it’ll give you something to do for the next 15 minutes.

-Places to visit (other than the overdone Mount Vernon and Washington Monument) include his Barbados house and his birthplace. There are also a few pretty sweet statues, but this one by Houdon is probably the most famous. And if you really want some places to go, here’s an exhaustive list of places named after our first president.

-What did people back in Washington’s day do to combat body odor? Well, we know that if nothing else Washington was baptized.

-Mount Vernon apparently had a pretty sweet distillery, and some folks recently tried to recreate Washington’s recipe for peach brandy.

-I don’t know what to say about this pictorial blog post other than, “it’s interesting.”

-Need a speaker for your next dinner party? Well then Carl Closs is your man.

- Among other “exciting” Mount Vernon news, this blog talks about some of the cool stuff that George Washington owned–including items like a rummer and his teeth.

-How do we know that Washington was a great president? Bobblehead!

-General Washington’s net worth apparently stacks up pretty well with that of the presidents who came after him (except for Kennedy I guess…good Lord he had a lot of money).

So, you think you know all about George? Well, Goldberg (yes, the one from WWE) wants to challenge you to some trivia. If you didn’t get that right, don’t feel bad. Just watch the National Geographic special The Real George Washington…or maybe not. I really don’t know, ’cause I didn’t actually watch the whole video.

-There are tons of teaching lesson plans geared toward students of all ages. Here’s one for high school students about using primary sources, another for middle school students that involves writing songs about George Washington, and even coloring pages for the young’uns.

-Finally, if you’re going to read a book about him you should really read His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis.

UPDATE: Thanks to Chris for commenting and adding this article comparing George Washington and Jay-Z. Brilliant!

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