‘Founding Fortunes’ and George Washingon Family Furniture On View at Tudor Place

On five wooded acres above Georgetown, Tudor Place has long been a careful keeper of complicated American stories. (It’s first inhabitant, Martha Parke Custis Peter (“Patty”) was the granddaughter of Martha Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington.)

This season, as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the historic house museum turns a fresh eye to a foundational moment: the 1802 estate sale of Martha Washington.

Tudor Place’s latest exhibition, Founding Fortunes: The Estate Sale of Martha Washington, revisits that widely studied auction with newly surfaced archival research and a sharper interpretive lens.

After Martha Washington’s death, her belongings (furniture, ceramics, textiles, and household goods) were publicly sold. Among the buyers were her granddaughter, Martha Custis Peter, and her husband, Thomas Peter, whose purchases would become part of Tudor Place’s permanent collection.

Today, more than 60 objects with Washington family or Mount Vernon provenance anchor the show — some on view for the first time, others returning after decades out of sight. But this is more than a display of distinguished antiques. The exhibition probes how possessions projected power in the early republic, revealing how global trade, social status, and enslaved labor were tightly intertwined.

Why does that matter now? As America250 invites celebration, Tudor Place’s Founding Fortunes reminds visitors that the nation’s founding era was shaped not only by lofty ideals but by consumer choices, inherited wealth, and systems of inequity. It complicates the comforting narrative of who participated in early American prosperity and who made it possible.

For history lovers, it’s a rare opportunity to see objects with direct ties to the Washington family in an intimate, domestic setting. For a broader public marking a semiquincentennial, it’s a timely prompt: to consider what we choose to preserve, what we choose to praise, and how material culture continues to tell America’s evolving story.

Timed entry tickets are required. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, and members of the military. Children age 5 and under are free. 1644 31st St. NW, Washington, DC. Tudor Place is open Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm, and Sunday, Noon to 4pm.