Publications and Printed Material of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association was founded in 1854 by Ann Pamela Cunningham. The purpose of the Association was to purchase Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, in order to restore the property and open the grounds to visitors and admirers who desired to see Washington's house and tomb. Ann Pamela Cunningham became interested in the preservation of Mount Vernon when her mother, traveling down the Potomac River in 1853, viewed the house in its neglected and dilapidated state and wrote to her daughter of its condition. Both women thought it shameful to allow the first President's home to fall into ruin. A determined Ann Pamela Cunningham assembled twenty-two like-minded women together to raise money to purchase the property, pay off all debt, and return the gardens and grounds to the condition in which they were left by Washington himself. John Augustine Washington III, George Washington's great-grandnephew and the owner of Mount Vernon at the time, delayed several years in selling the home to the Ladies' Association. He preferred a sale to the State of Virginia or the federal government, both of which declined purchase. In 1858 he finally agreed to sell Mount Vernon to Ann Pamela Cunningham and the MVLA for $200,000.

Today the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association is remembered as the first organization dedicated to historic preservation in the United States. The Association remains loyal to its original goals, the restoration and care of George Washington's Mount Vernon, while also opening the estate to visitors 365 days a year. Members of the MVLA continue under the structure designed by the first Ladies' who joined, operating as the Executive Board with one Regent and Vice Regents from different states. The estate now consists of not only the Mansion and tomb of Washington, but restored gardens, outbuildings, a Pioneer Farm, Gristmill, Distillery, museum and orientation center, National Library for the Study of George Washington, gift shops, food pavilion, and a restaurant.