Washington, George, 1732-1799 [Thanksgiving Broadside] By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation [New York: Childs and Swain (?), 1789]

Image of George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation from 1789

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation, a gift from Dr. Marshall B. Coyne (LHD ‘90), was presented as Lauinger Library’s official two millionth volume at a ceremony on May 4, 1994. The broadside, one of only seven recorded copies and printed in the same year as Georgetown’s founding, proclaims the first national day of Thanksgiving ever celebrated in the United States of America. To honor the acquisition, the Library held an event which was headlined by Mario Vargas Llosa, Distinguished Writer in Residence at the School of Languages and Linguistics, who spoke on “The Paradise of Books.”

 

Booth Family Center for Special Collections

Gift of Marshall B. Coyne (LHD ‘90)