What do a hat, saxophone and candle stand have in common? They tell America's story

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com.

**Lisa Kathleen Graddy** (0:16)
WBUR Podcasts, Boston. It's a talisman almost, of faith in the United States and its survival.

**Ashley Locke** (0:27)
A seemingly ordinary object helps tell the story of America's first president as we mark the country's 250th birthday.
It's Thursday, July 2nd, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston. I'm Ashley Locke. Today on the show, we remember Ethel Payne, who's known as the first lady of the black press, and what the late John Coltrane leaves behind beyond his unforgettable jazz.

**Krystal Klingenberg** (1:05)
He's a larger figure in kind of the spirit of American innovation and creativity, and an American original in that way.

**Ashley Locke** (1:12)
But first, if you spend any time studying American history, you know that George Washington could have stayed in office longer than two terms. Many expected he would. Instead, he chose to step aside, and he wrote the words explaining that decision by candlelight, beside a simple brass stand that's now part of the Smithsonian's collection. Today, we're looking at how that object illuminates an extraordinary moment in American history, George Washington's Farewell Address.
Scott Tong learns more about the candle stand with Lisa Kathleen Graddy, a curator at the National Museum of American History.

**Lisa Kathleen Graddy** (1:49)
It raises and lowers. It has two holders for candles, and they can move in and out depending on where you want to position them. Then the whole piece moves up and down with a brass reflector. Of course, this is the only light, so the brass reflector will help magnify the light of the candles as you sit in the room.

**Scott Tong** (2:13)
Now, a lot of us have been in museums everywhere carrying what seemed to be basic candle holders, and yet this is important. Why preserve this as a defining object in American history, American presidential history?

**Lisa Kathleen Graddy** (2:26)
I like to say that museums are filled with the things you write with and write on, and in this case, write by. It's a marvelous piece. When you think it helps us, it's the physical object that helps us remember the Farewell Address and George Washington's thoughts and commitment to his new country as he was leaving the presidency.

**Scott Tong** (2:51)
And just, I mean, I'm sure your team has done the fact check. We know, indeed, this is the one George Washington used.

**Lisa Kathleen Graddy** (2:57)
According to his family, and that's another thing I think that is wonderful about it. After the centennial in 1876, America becomes much more interested in history again. It happens around the time of these anniversaries. And so shortly after the centennial celebration, George Washington's descendants, well, Nellie, the family of his favorite granddaughter, Nellie Lewis, who was married to his favorite nephew, contact the Smithsonian. Well, they contact the federal government.
And they say that they're worried that as the family, as years go on and pieces that they have belonging to George and Martha Washington are beginning to scatter in bequests amongst the family. And they're afraid that they'll scatter to the winds. And they wonder, isn't it amazing? And so they wonder if the government would be interested in it.
And Congress sends Ellis Spears, who's the chief commissioner of the Patent Office, to look at the collection and make an assessment. Spears goes and he looks at it and he comes back and says, yeah, we want it.

**Scott Tong** (4:04)
We want it.
It goes to the Patent Office where it is for several years, of course now at the Smithsonian. This Farewell Address, George Washington, I gather wrestled with it for years, got drafting help from James Madison and later Alexander Hamilton. I mean, I kind of tried to speed through it. He writes about keeping the union together, avoiding an overgrown military, and the importance of checks in the exercise of political power. There's a lot of big ideas in this. What does that labored writing process, you think, reveals about George Washington?

**Lisa Kathleen Graddy** (4:39)
I think it shows how concerned he was that the countries stay together.
It's such a new country in 1796 still. And he hadn't stepped down after his first term he wanted to because everyone was afraid that without him, without the indispensable man, the country wouldn't stay together. And so he stays another term. And he basically the Farewell Address, in true father of his country fashion, George Washington is able to say, you're grown up, I think you're on the right path. You can keep, you can do this. But here are my words of advice to you to keep on the course that you've set.