ONE GOOD FACT

February 17, 2025

During the American Revolution, George Washington held the rank of lieutenant general. Two hundred years later, in 1976, a law was passed promoting him to general of the armies of the United States so that he would forever be of higher rank than any other U.S. military personnel.

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Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.

BRITANNICA.COM

Did George Washington Really Say, “I Can’t Tell a Lie”?

The story behind the legend of George Washington and the cherry tree.

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