The Dunlap Family. The Artist Showing a Picture from "Hamlet" to His Parents 



by William Dunlap, about 1788 

 {Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.) 



Figure 26. — The bordered floor covering seen here extends from wall to wall. It has a soft 

 gray-green background covered with red and white blossoms and dark-green leaves. 



on November 20, 1 796, the President requested the 

 following information from William Pearce, his 

 plantation manager at Mount Vernon : "Let me know 

 the size of the blue Parlour, that is the length and 

 breadth of it, and how far it is from the hearth on 

 each side to the sides of the Room that the size of 

 the hearth may be taken out, the Carpet as it now is 

 with the [mutilated]. The dimensions of the 4 sides 

 must be sent also." '-"^ 



'-' Letter from George Washington, Philadelphia, to William 

 Pearce, Mount Vernon, Nov. 20, 1796. In The Writings 0} 

 George Washington, op. cit. (footnote 55), vol. 35, p. 287. 



Early in the following year Washington once more 

 turned his attention to floor coverings for the blue 

 parlor. Returning to Mount \'ernon after serving 

 his country as President for two terms, Washington 

 wrote the following from the "Head of the Elk" Ri\er, 

 Maryland, on March 10, 1 797, to his secretary, Tobias 

 Lear, who was still in Philadelphia: ''[If] you have 

 means to accomplish it, let me request you to provide 

 for me as usual new Carpeting as will cover the floor 

 of my blue Parlour. That it may accord with the fur- 

 niture it ought to have a good deal of blue in it; and if 

 Wilton is not much dearer than Scotch Carpeting, I 



PAPER 59: FLOOR COVERINGS IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



55 



