George Washington is universally considered to be our most accomplished president, the perfect merger of military hero, effective administrator, and great leader. In honor of the 200th anniversary of his death, and in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition, this beautiful volume presents the many manifestations of Washington the national icon, for his image is the one we have continually turned to during virtually every period of our history for both inspiration and marketing clout.

It is also an image that has resisted fundamental revision over the course of two centuries because of the force of Washington's character, the clarity of his political purposes, and the intensity of his charisma.

Here are fine art portraits, both paintings and sculpture, ranging from a number for which Washington actually sat to postmodern images of our own time that gleefully deconstruct the icon. Here are objects of mass distribution on which our first president appears, from glass flasks, tableware, a porcelain vase, and a jacquard coverlet, to calendar illustrations, prints for framing, and the ubiquitous dollar bill.

Spanning more than two centuries, these items tell us as much about the changes in American society as they do about the man portrayed.