CC0 · no rights reserved
Member of the Washington Family
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Family lore holds that this brooch pin features the portrait of an illegitimate son of George Washington, fathered when Washington was eighteen years old. Washington lent financial support to neighbors and members of his extended family at Mount Vernon, making it difficult to determine how accurate that legend is. One theory is that this is the likeness of Corbin Washington (1765-1799), who married Hannah Lee, a daughter of Richard Henry Lee, in whose family this miniature descended.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineMember of the Washington Family. ca. 1795. James Peale, born Chestertown, MD 1749-died Philadelphia, PA 1831. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund. CC0.
