(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Letter to John Lowell

correspondent George Washington (Westmoreland, Virginia, 1732 - 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia)

Date30 September 1789

Place MadeUnited States, North America

MediumInk on paper

ClassificationsManuscripts

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC1982.1.1

eMuseum ID722918

EmbARK ObjectID28631

Previous NumberARC.001917

TMS Source ID12222

Last Updated8/9/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.

BibliographyNotesAnthony Amore, "Forge Washington," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 29 June 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/forge-washington

MarksNotesInscribed in ink (verso): For Cha R. Lowell / This invaluable / document / from his loving father / August 1860 (?)

Inscribed in ink (verso): Octo. 11th 1865 Received of / Char. R. Lowell by / John Lowell Gardner Jun-/ its former possessor

ProvenanceNotes

Letter from President George Washington (1732-1799) to John Lowell (1743-1802) about his commission as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Probably by inheritance to John Lowell's daughter Rebecca Russell Gardner (1779-1853) in 1802.

Probably by inheritance to Rebecca Russell Gardner's brother Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. (1782-1861) in 1853.

Gift from Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. to his son Charles R. Lowell, Jr. (1807-1870) in 1860.

Gift from Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. to Isabella Stewart Gardner's husband, John Lowell Gardner, Jr. (1837-1898) in1865.

By inheritance to John Lowell Gardner, Jr.'s nephew, John Lowell Gardner II (1867-1938) in1898. Physically delivered by Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1901.

By inheritance to John Lowell Gardner, II's grand-nephew, John Lowell Gardner (1923-2021) in 1938.

Gift from John Lowell Gardner to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1982. (with ARC.007218)