Abstract: Letters from Coit to his wife Nancy, his eldest son Robert, and Charles Bulkeley, all of New London, Conn., chiefly written in Philadelphia, Penn., while Coit was serving in Congress as a Federalist representative from Connecticut,…

In1790, Congress voted to move the nation’s capital from New York City to a temporary location in Philadelphia. Senator Robert Morris, a wealthy financier, offered his home to the Washingtons to serve as the residence for the chief executive…

This 1861 painting by noted American portraitist Daniel Huntington was titled The Republican Court. (When it was published as a mass-marketed engraving, the title was changed to Lady Washingtonn’s Reception.) The painting is an idealized…