George Washington coach panel and label, Washington, D.C.

Washington, Martha

President George Washington’s state coach featured four side panels representing the seasons. This panel, encased in an oak frame, depicts “Spring.” Washington used the coach to travel between the capital and Mount Vernon and on two presidential tours, to the northern and southern states, in 1789 and 1791. Mrs. Mary Dunlap of Georgetown presented the panel to John Varden at the National Institute for the Promotion of Science. The Smithsonian accessioned the panel, along with the rest of the Patent Office’s historical relic collections, in 1883.