Inaugural Suit

George Washington likely wore this modest woolen suit at his first inauguration on April 30, 1789. The brown coat and breeches were made of cloth woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory in Connecticut. By wearing a suit of domestically-made cloth when most textiles were imported from abroad, Washington demonstrated his faith in American industry. “It will not be a great while,” Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette a few months before the inauguration, “before it will be unfashionable for a gentleman to appear in any other dress.”

Gift of John Murray Forbes, with appreciation to William D. McGregor, 1877 [W-574/A-B]