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Biography · Chapter 03, 1760–1789

The Hartford Broadcloth

George Washington's inauguration suit as policy statement.

George Washington takes the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall, April 30, 1789, wearing brown broadcloth woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory.
George Washington takes the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall, April 30, 1789, wearing brown broadcloth woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory.Amos Doolittle, "Federal Hall, N.Y. 1789-First Capitol of the United States," hand-colored engraving, 1790. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (ppmsca.15703). Public domain.

On April 30, 1789, Washington took the oath of office in New York wearing a suit of brown broadcloth woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory, a mill founded in 1788 by Jeremiah Wadsworth and other Connecticut investors to prove American capacity for fine cloth. Henry Knox helped secure the fabric, and the suit is believed to have been tailored by the New York tailor Cavan Boa. Its gilt buttons bore an eagle device. Washington had written in advance of his wish to wear American cloth, and the choice was widely noticed: it signaled that the new federal government meant to encourage domestic manufactures rather than remain a satellite market for British goods. The mill itself struggled from the start and closed in 1795, its machinery sold at auction—the symbolism was perfect, the industrial reality not yet ready.

Sources

  1. ScholarshipWashington's Inauguration in New York. George Washington's Mount Vernon.
  2. ScholarshipRecreating Washington's Inaugural Suit. George Washington's Mount Vernon.
  3. ScholarshipJeremiah Wadsworth. ConnecticutHistory.org.
  4. ScholarshipTextile Society of America Symposium Proceedings paper on the Hartford Woolen Manufactory. University of Nebraska-Lincoln DigitalCommons.

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