Washington's Library at Athenaeum

George Washington's personal library is now on exhibition in the Boston Athenaeum. Within a four-by-five-foot case rest the majority of the original volumes that composed the personal library of our first president. The volumes, much thumbed by re-reading and battered by being carried in the pocket, are in the same order in which they stood at Mount Vernon.

It is interesting to note that the majority of the books touch either upon war and military tactics or upon agricultural problems. One is a work that appeared in 1775 on the Prussian evaluations as used by Frederick the Great, and which was purchased directly after its publication. In fact, he appears to have purchased all the best works on military art shortly after they appeared.

The number of works on government also show where his interests lay.