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George Washington unmasked

There’s the George Washington made famous in the Gilbert Stuart portrait found in many elementary schools and, in engraved fashion, on the $1 bill: a severe man whose severity is accentuated by thin, taut lips.

And then, there’s the real Washington: an entrepreneur who developed the nation’s largest distillery; a deeply religious man who wrote in a letter to a synagogue that the new country would give “to bigotry no sanction”; a slave owner who believed slavery would tear apart the country; and a dental patient whose ill-fitting, hinged dentures were most likely the cause of his stern look in the Stuart portrait.

That’s the Washington portrayed in “Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mount Vernon.” The exhibition — now on display in Raleigh, N.C., and visiting seven other states before returning home to Mount Vernon in 2013 — opens with the Stuart portrait, then moves to dispel the misconceptions created by that famous painting.

While the only surviving complete set of Washington’s dentures — made not of wood but of bone, tusk and ivory — is likely to draw the most attention, the real stars are three life-size wax figures of the first president showing him at the age of 19, when he was a surveyor; at 45 at Valley Forge, sitting on his blue roan horse, Blueskin; and taking the oath office at 57 on the balcony of Federal Hall.

Perhaps President Obama took his cue from Washington when he ordered his inaugural suit from a U.S. company: The last figure of Washington shows him wearing a plain, brown suit from cloth made at a mill in Hartford, Conn.

“He certainly knew how his inauguration would be seen around the globe,” said Carol Cadou, vice president of collections and senior curator at Mount Vernon, noting that the ambassador from the Netherlands commented on the magnitude of Washington’s suit choice.

After resigning his commission and returning home, he and wife Martha were overwhelmed with guests, hosting more than 670 overnight guests in one year.

Visitors may have led to Washington’s death on Dec. 14, 1799, Cadou said. Washington had been riding his lands, and when he returned home, guests had arrived. He didn’t change out of his wet clothes, and 24 hours later, he was unable to get out of bed.

His death brought on a period of national mourning that included mock funerals in all major cities.

“Washington becomes now this very revered and this very beloved hero,” Cadou said. “I think we just can’t imagine a figure that would endear this much attention, this much national sentiment.” Ë

— The Associated Press