What would George Washington look like if he were a modern-day politician? That question occurred to George Aquilla Hardy, a musician, 14 months into the pandemic. There he was at 23, stuck in his childhood bedroom in Dorset, England, instead of playing music festivals. Because he had nowhere to be and he was sick of “looking at the same four walls,” Mr. Hardy said, he decided to try to answer his question with Photoshop. This is the result, which he posted on Reddit on May 2: Image
Since then he — and others — have posted and reposted it thousands of times on just about every social media platform. Many of the comments are silly. But Mr. Hardy’s creation — which he mocked up in about three hours — has also sparked genuine interest in the question that he started with: What would the first president of the United States look like if he were living in the era of online suit ordering and Instagram campaign ads?
It’s unlikely that a man who took so much pride in what he wore would have deigned to be seen in such an unremarkable suit, said Alexis Coe, a political historian and author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington.”
“He was quite fancy,” she said. “I don’t think he would look as slick as Mitt Romney, but you would be able to recognize that it was well tailored. If he couldn’t wear Prada, he would probably have it custom made.”
Dean Malissa, who has been described as the “world’s greatest George Washington impersonator,” agreed that the first president “was a bit of a fashion plate.” He also tended to dress more formally than his peers. “When men of his day took their coats off when it was blistering hot, he kept his on,” said Mr. Malissa, a longtime portrayer of Washington at Mount Vernon.
Mr. Hardy does not know who designed the coat his George Washington is wearing, just that it was worn by Representative Roger Williams of Texas. He picked Mr. Williams as a base image for his Photoshop creation after searching online for “U.S. politician” and scrolling for a bit, he said. He then combined this image with photos of Glenn Close and Michael Douglas because an article on celebrities that look like historical figures made a compelling case to him that they had a bit of Washington in them.
Ms. Coe, the political historian, said that she did not see any of the 6-foot-2-inch Washington, known to carry himself like an athlete, in the narrow shoulders. Nor does she imagine that a man who put so much effort into his hair would be photographed looking like Mr. Hardy’s creation. (No, George Washington did not wear a wig, contrary to what many assume.)
A portrait of President Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1805, six years after the first president’s death. That’s not a wig.Credit...White House Collection/White House Historical Association
What is accurate, she said, assuming that time travel did not somehow fix this for him, is the tight-lipped smile. The founding father had terrible teeth. He wore dentures cobbled together from ivory from walruses and hippopotamuses as well as slaves’ teeth procured by dentists who specialized in such things, she said. But even with the dentures in, he was self-conscious about opening his mouth.
As it turns out, Mr. Hardy was not the only person who has directed pandemic malaise into creating a modern close-lipped rendition of the man who presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Magdalene Visaggio, a comic book writer, posted this in January:
“I always had a hard time imagining George Washington as a person who was walking around and saying things,” she said as to why she made it, using a mobile phone face-swapping tool and a photo of President Biden.
Her primary objection to Mr. Hardy’s image was that Washington was only 67 when he died, but in the Reddit portrait “he looks super old.”
She also noted that although creating photos of people who died before photography existed is satisfying work, it’s difficult to get right. Recently, she has begun applying the lessons of her own modern Washington to creating a photo of Julius Caesar.
A bust of Julius Caesar, who was assassinated more than 1,800 years before the invention of photography, and Magdalene Visaggio’s interpretation of what he might look like in a photo.Credit...Magdalene Visaggio
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. “As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent,” he wrote James Madison, “it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles.”
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, “we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn.” Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies–he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.
Learn more about George Washington’s spouse, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington.