Husband Samuel Powell two of George Washingtons very closest friends and we figure with this being the year of the woman. Why not . Talk about a superpowerful woman that really helped shape the founding of the the republic so i myself am a all scholar and i have been working on the project that ive been doing for about three years and i will have a chapter coming out in an edited volume thats going to be published by the university of virginia, press in january 2022. So i very much look forward to sharing that with you all in the future and im going to go ahead and pass it over to my colleague and dear friend kayla anthony. Um, and i will pass over to you. Thank you so much, sam and thank you to mount vernon for asking me to participate today. Im excited to also share elizabeths story. I think youll all enjoy it very much. Im the executive director for the Philadelphia Society for the preservation of landmarks and we are an 89 year old nonprofit that stewarts for Historic House museums the pal house where i am today, so i am the ballroom at the palouse. This is the home the ancestry home of san juan Elizabeth Powell. We also have the health visit house, which is just around the corner from here in society hill in philadelphia. We have grumble corp, which is in germantown and historic waynesboro, which is out in paoli and our mission is to not only preserve our core historic sites, but also to provide related cultural educational and historical programming. I thought it might be interesting to talk maybe a little bit about how we came about because our organization as i mentioned is 89 years old. Id be 90 next year exciting and were founded in 1931. Named francis Anne Worcester so much like mount vernon. We were we were founded by a very strong matriarch and the organization was born essentially to save the pal house from demolition. It was slated to be knocked down for a taxi cab parking lot and francis ann and her her colleagues and friends rally together and managed to raise about 30,000 at the height of the Great Depression to save not only the pau house but the house that was next door originally and from there long. Well advocacy turned into longtime stewardship and we started to acquire more and more properties. So thats thats who we are and were excited to be were excited for sams research. We feel like this is going to be really helpful in further interpreting elizabeth story in particular. So, thank you again for having me here. Absolutely. So i think kayla i think i want you to to kind of introduce Samuel Powell and then ill go into a Little Information on Elizabeth Powell. So i know you want to talk about a really lovely portrait of samuel that that we have or that you have. So go ahead and let you explain good old sam. So this is daniel pal. So this is this is the man whos house. We interpret here in philadelphia samuel was he was born actually in 1738 into a wealthy. Philadelphia family is a grandfather was a carpenter and a mass quite a bit of wealth, which he inherited in his early 20s. He also well his biggest claim today. I suppose was the fact that he was the last mayor of philadelphia under the British Crown and the first mayor of philadelphia in the new republic. He also had his hand in a number of different organizations in philadelphia. He was a member of the Library Company in philadelphia the American Philosophical Society the hand in Hand Fire Company and the society for promoting agriculture, which if youre well familiar with washington, you can imagine that was a horse an interesting topic between the two of them. Sam will talk about later. Samuel powell also served as the pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania State senate as well as the speaker and so he was just he was a really well politically connected individual in philadelphia and ill turn it back over to sand to talk a little bit about elizabeth. Sure, so im happy to talk about elizabeth. This is actually i want to briefly mention this this is a new portrait that weve recently acquired. Thanks to an anonymous donor of elizabeth willing powell from circa 1793. So this was kind of at the height of her social scene, which caleb will talk about more of how the powells had a just their home being the social epicenter. This was a portrait that we think was done by joseph right who actually died from the yellow fever epidemic just like Samuel Powell did so this portrait was never finished, but i think it really has an amazing kind of it really shows her presence and who she was as a person. So let me tell you a little bit about who she was prior to knowing George Washington. So elizabeth was born in 1742 in philadelphia to two very wealthy families. So her father was and her mother was a member of the shipping family and some of you may recognize the name shippin if youve ever watched turn peggy ship and arnold she was actually elizabeths second cousin, so theres definitely a connection there, but she grew up very wealthy. She was likely educated by her mother but she and her sisters had a lot of fun in philadelphia during the french and indian war when soldiers were quartered in philadelphia, they went to assemblies they went fishing and she and her sisters two of them were actually called the three goddesses. So i like to think that they were very much the schuyler sisters of philadelphia just a few years earlier. So elizabeth, of course married samuel on august 7th 1769, and then they purchased a house on third street, which i know kayla is going to tell us more about so that is where i am today actually, so this is the ball house. Its on a 422 south 3rd street in philadelphia. Please come visit us we are open for tours currently earthly through sundays 11 to 3 pm with horse on the hour. Wed love to see you there if you can get away or if youre around the philadelphia area. Its its great to have tour tours still happening right now giving the current circumstances with covid, but this is the palouse. This is where sam and elizabeth moved into and it was originally built in 1768 by charles stedman. He was also a merchant and he unfortunately went bankrupt and shortly thereafter samuel purchased the house this place really became though the epicenter of social life in philadelphia. Thats a socially elite gathered here frequently as well as political el ite, so while it is an important place to not only host just family members and various friends of the pals. It was also a place where they hosted a number of intellectual salons of the time period so this was the room that im in actually the ballroom is where we like to sort of imagine that it happened we go. So this this is where elizabeth would be been hosting her salons and the marquita leon noted in his travel journal that she was one of the most european styled salons was the ones were the ones that elizabeth was hosting here. And this was a way to engage in different different civic conversations and intellectual conversations on different topics as far as novels and politics and elizabeth later in her life comments on how she she hosted many of the Constitutional Convention delegates here and that was a very all frequently topic at her house. So its interesting to think about how a woman in the 18th century could. Use what was a ported to her such as a salon in order to influence politics that were going on not in philadelphia, but nationally so thats thats one of her kind of things to fame here in philadelphia. Are these salons and shes well sought after and sam you can talk about this a little bit more if youd like. Shes certainly people are coming to philadelphia to see her and maybe more so her her than even samuel. Yeah. So one thing like i mentioned that the Constitutional Convention delegates were coming to visit here for the salons. They were of course. Friends and Business Associates with with the pals, but maybe perhaps some of the most important ones that youve heard of of course were and this is a number of all the Founding Fathers you would have heard of but Benjamin Franklin was a guest here john adams and Abigail Adams the marquisita Lafayette Marquis again to shuttle you of course and our beloved george and Martha Washington who did end up becoming very Close Friends with the pals. And they actually lived and weve kind of believe that they probably first they might have known each other earlier, but they probably started to developing a friendship around the 1780s when washington lived next door to the powerhouse. Um sandwich you like to talk a little bit more about the washingtons relationship with the past. Absolutely kayla. Thank you. So as kayla said they lived next door. The washingtons lived next door to the powells in 1781 to 1782 and this image is actually from 1,800. It is a a engraving of a the third street and its done by an artist named William Birch and the powell house itself is in just in the background and the house that the washingtons rented was right next door to that. And so they were there for just a few months but during those few months i think is really when they started to develop a Close Friendship and kaylas right. Everyone was going through the hell house at that point. And of course if youre washington fan, you know, who the marquita lou is. Hes one of washingtons best friends. So im sure they often discussed the powells merits together, but yes, so they at that point they were washington is about about finished with the war. So hes kind of going back into the social scene. He didnt often get to spend a lot of time in city centers. So he was a bit behind on the cultural trends and i think that the powells at least during my research from what ive found the powells were very much at first kind of leading washington and martha into society and during that 1780s even after the washingtons left philadelphia the two of them, washington and elizabeth and washington and samuel really started to develop their friendship elizabeth and washington would trade publications back and forth. So again that highlights just how well read she was and how educated she was and so they they actually washington sent her a copy of visions of columbus and then one of just not to lose publications and a whole host of others and then of course samuel in washington had their agricultural connection and they samuel sent washington some seeds and washington actually notes that his his diaries that the seeds are growing well and theyre from mr. Powell and philadelphia. So they very much had a fun friendship. It definitely was advantageous for both of them, but they really they did connect on a very personal level. So thats been definitely a fun thing to discover, but what i do want to talk about is when the washingtons came to mount vernon so they are the washingtons. Im sorry when the poles, you know burden to see the washingtons. So just after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the washingtons went back to mount vernon and the powells made to go visit. Elizabeths sister mary willingbird down at westover plantation. So if any of you are familiar with revolutionary war history, you may recognize the name william byrd the third he actually committed suicide in 1777 and mary bird was left to manage this large plantation. So elizabeth and her sister were close so they were making their trip down to visit her, but then they ended up stopping at mount vernon for four days and samuel on the trip down kept a really amazing travel journal. That is very cool to kind of trace how a couple would have traveled through, maryland and delaware and through virginia. They stay against these tavern which is pretty cool, but then they arrive at mount vernon and samuel goes into great detail about seeing the house itself, and its actually one of the best documentations we have of the house. Its in 1787 new room is being completed the bond mansell has been installed. So samuel even comments on that fun on the mantle in room and he says that he thought that it would be prettier without the columns. So thats kind of funny, but then the the other thing that he says is when theyre standing out on the piazza. He says that its probably the most charming seat. Hes ever seen in america. So thats a very cool quote that we often use and i think very fitting for samuel whos traveled so much to be so intrigued by the house itself, but this image actually is one of our very special things that we have in our collection. This is what we call the powell coach. Theres a whole story behind this so i wont go into great detail, but its one of the the only surviving coaches from this period its a wonderful shape and its just a really neat image and they didnt own this this coach yet when they came to mount vernon, but i thought it was kind of cool that to imagine it pulling up to the mansion and and them out and seeing the house for the so so with that after the left and went on to westover, they came back through once more and then of course washington had his two years before he was elected president of the United States and then when the temporary seat of the government was moved to philadelphia the powells and the washington became they they got to be in the same place again. So in in that time the the pals in the washingtons again hung out and they did things like go to the circus and they also went to plays so they were very much kind of a respite for entertainment for for the washingtons, but they also discussed politics, of course samuel was speaker of the state senate at that point, so washington and him were very much interacting but elizabeth was very much a political advisor to him as well. And i do want to Start Talking about a very important letter that we have in our collection and i know the images a little small you can see this on our website if you go to our digital collections scanned all eight pages of it. So as people know washington was hesitant to run a second term hed been in politics for 40 years at that point 40 plus years at that point. He very much wanted to go back to mount vernon and retire under his own vine and his own fig tree and so he spoke with elizabeth about that and and his cabinet that he wanted to step down. However, he had multiple conversations with elizabeth about it and at this letter she actually wrote this in response to their final conversation, which was the night before the month long election process began. So this letter is incredibly powerful. Eight pages long. Its full of reasons. Why why washington should and continue on and serve a second term. Shes upset that he would still like have this desire to step down even though it was the night before the election was beginning. It would be detrimental to society and its just its a great letter and i actually have found some very neat things in my research that im gonna debut today on this video. Um, so two things that i found is that this letter has edits from her husband samuel and thats thats unique to this letter at least from what ive found within her many many letters that are located here at the Historical Society of pennsylvania all over so that to me shows how important elizabeths opinion was to george that even though samuel read over. Letter they still decided to keep it in her hand because her hand and her ideas would carry the most weight as far as convincing him will run and then the other thing i found is that they the she used a political treatise and borrowed some quotes from this from this book and she crafted her own arguments within that book so or within with those with those sentiments from the book and she used that for her letter, so she was very much taking inspiration from this book and actually Abigail Adams did something very similar with the remember the ladies letter from 1776. So this this letter is awesome. And while we have it in our collection, it was not written at mount vernon. Its very much written at the pal house. So kayla all stop talking and ill let you talk more about how you interpret elizabeth and use this letter. Yes, so this letter is very important to the narrative of our story as well. So i think that and sam did a great job of recapping it, but its its really this amazing example of you know, the only example of a woman making these comments to the president of the United States and the only example of you know, not had that member so its kind of incredible that you know, Elizabeth Powell was interested with this information is confidential information and we you know it also the way she crafts this letter is extremely eloquent. Its a well thought out argument argument and its really indicative of her her intellect and obviously the Mutual Respect that washington had for her and and she even kind of points out and sam you can probably quote this better than i can but she kind of like is it not a selfish decision to go back to mount vernon and exactly its for the fate of saving the country, you know the new country it may not survive without you and really . Its just interesting as she wasnt a woman who . She didnt have formal education. Of course. This is the 18th century, but she was extremely well read. He didnt travel as the marketing statue of points out and his in his journal, but she was, you know, extremely intellectual because she immersed herself in Civic Education and she periodicals and newspapers and novels and books and its really i feel like this is the epicenter of like all of her intellect is really seen in this letter, which its absolutely done. Obviously, you know, we cant say that shes the only reason that washington made this decision, but i certainly think that it influenced him without a doubt and i think you mentioned it sam. But again, im not