Mount Airy Mill, Richmond County, Virginia.
Dateca. 1829
Printer
Pendleton's Lithography
MediumLithograph on wove paper
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/4 × 13 1/2in. (23.5 × 34.3cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2010-85
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Pendleton's Lithography Boston./ MOUNT AIRY MILL, RICHMOND COUNTY, VIRGINIA."Label TextThis companion print to the view of Mount Airy depicts the mill and millpond of the late Col. John Tayloe III’s (1770-1828) Richmond County residence. After his father died in 1779, Tayloe received control over the estate at eight years old. Both the structure and the pond lay a short distance to the north of the house. While the pond survives today, the mill house has disappeared. Together, the view of the house and grounds represent the only known prints of Mount Airy and one of only a few known lithographs of southern domestic residences, the other being Monticello and Mount Vernon.
The Tayloes, both father and son, were some of the richest men in Virginia. Col. John Tayloe II (1721-1779) established this wealth by diversifying production, cultivating corn, wheat, and tobacco, along with operating ironworks, shipbuilding, hotels, and other endeavors. After his father died in 1779, Tayloe III received control over the estate at eight years old. The Tayloes built their wealth by enslaving over a hundred people at one time at Mount Airy. Between 1808 and 1865, 875 people were enslaved by the Tayloes on Mount Airy plantation. Predominantly, these enslaved people produced tobacco and kept hogs. An enslaved woman named Winney Grimshaw, born in Mount Airy in 1826, was sent to William Henry Tayloe’s, Tayloe III’s son and inheritor of Mount Airy, plantation in Alabama as a punishment after her father escaped to Canada.
ProvenanceBefore 2010, Cohen & Taliaferro LLC (New York, NY); 2010-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).
1826
