Death of Washington. Dec. 14. A. D. 1799

New York: Nathaniel Currier, 1846. Good + overall. Hand colored lithograph depicting the first president of the United States on his deathbed, with family members and slaves in mourning. The figures are each identified below the border, and they include, from left to right: "Grandchildren", "Lady Washington", Physician", "Quaker an intimate friend of Washington", and 2 slaves, one a kneeling woman weeping into her apron & the other a man in blue jacket, standing at the end of the bed, both identified as "Domestics".

Mount Vernon identifies the people with Washington at his deathbed as "Dr. Craik and Tobias Lear, housemaids Caroline, Molly, and Charlotte, and his valet Christopher Sheels who stood in the room throughout the day". Sheels, the slave who stands at the right in the blue jacket, had attempted to escape with his fiancee from Mt. Vernon just three months earlier; a note about the escape plan was discovered by Washington and the escape thwarted.

Lith & Pub. by N. Currier 2 Spruce Street, N. Y. printed across bottom. Evenly toned, slightly chipped lower corners (not affecting image), crease at upper right. Image, 13 x 8 1/2 on paper 14 x 10"