Saving Mount Vernon and Everything the Light Touches

We explore two women responsible for preserving George Washington’s Mount Vernon: the "Southern Matron" Ann Pamela Cunningham, who dedicated her life to saving the mansion from ruin in the 1850s, and the eccentric Congressperson Frances Payne Bolton who used her wealth and power to save Mount Vernon's pristine view from becoming an industrial wasteland in the 1950s. It's a story of perseverance, partnership, and different kinds of power—economic, political, and even psychic.

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