GEORGE WASHINGTON'S HAIR COLOR DEBATED
Hartford, Connecticut (JFK+50) On February 28, 1922, the Evening Star reports that George S. Godard, Connecticut state librarian, has learned that George Washington's hair "was hazel brown and his eyes were light grayish blue."
This information came from a volume at the state library entitled "Recollections and Private Memoirs" by the adopted son of the first POTUS George Washington Parke Custis*.
The Star says that the authority "appears to have been" a favorite nephew of the Father of Our Country, Major Lawrence Lewis**.
Mr. Godard researched this information upon learning of the claim by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart*** of Harvard University that George Washington's hair was red.
According to Carla Killough McClafferty, Mount Vernon commissioned experts to study locks of George Washington's hair at various ages of his life. According to the experts, the First President's hair was reddish-brown at age 19, "not really red, not really brown," but chestnut.
*George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857) was born in Rosaryville, MD & attended Princeton University & St. John's College. GWPC inherited his father's plantation overlooking the Potomac River in Arlington, VA., his daughter married Robert E. Lee.
**Major Lawrence Lewis (1769-1839) born in Fredericksburg, VA was George Washington's nephew. LL given 2000 acres next to Mt. Vernon (Woodlawn Plantation). He was the last living executor of GW's will.
***Albert Bushnell Hart (1854-1943) was born in Clark, PA & educated at Harvard University, 1880. ABH earned his PhD at University of Freiburg 1883 & was on the Harvard faculty 43 years. ABH was called 'the grand old man of American history' by Samuel Eliot Morrison.
SOURCES
"George Washington's Hair," by Carla Killough McClafferty, April 10, 1921, www.nonfictionminute.org/
"Major Lawrence Lewis," Geni, www.geni.com/
"Washington Described," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., February 28, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
