Don't Miss the "Young Virginian" Exhibit at Mount Vernon

Originally published March 15, 2010

The last of the Blizzard of 2010 has been washed away by several days of rain and we have had some almighty flooding here in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Several main roads are closed, so I had to take the long way around to get up to Long Branch last night to hear Jim Rees, curator of Mount Vernon, speak about George Washington. His engaging presentation covered diverse facets of Washington's life as well as updates on the fabulous new additions to the Mount Vernon estate. Mr. Rees' talk was accompanied by a slide show of beautiful paintings and illustrations of Washington, both familiar and obscure.

Descendants of Edward Corder Sr. will want to make a special effort to visit Mount Vernon to see the new visitor's center and museum. This is top-shelf stuff, I'll tell you, but in addition to being a delight to explore in general terms, the museum contains an exhibit of particular interest to our family. 

In The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation Gallery one will find the "Young Virginian" exhibit which includes a life-size model of Washington as a 19-year-old surveyor. From their web site: "Forest sounds and moving animals set the stage for 18th-century western Virginia, where visitors see Washington’s original surveying tools and learn how to conduct a survey themselves." Notice that the exhibit contains Washington's original surveying tools! Are these the same measuring chains our ancestor carried with John Lonem when laying out the town of Little Washington? We know that Edward was with Washington on at least 11 surveys, so it seems probable that he would have carried these very chains at some point (since he is unlikely to have owned his own). 

This new exhibit lets us look on the face of Washington as Edward Corder saw him, and since we can't look on the face of Edward, this will just have to be the next best thing.