George W

With all the hoopla attendant to the impending Inaugural events, I decided recently to take up a biography of George W. After all, I really didn't know much about him and how he ascended to the Presidency. I was curious as to where he grew up, who his parents were, and what influences played a large part in his Presidential makeup.

"Who his parents were?" you ask, dear reader, "everyone knows his parents are George and Barbara Bush and that he grew up in Midland, Texas!" Ah, but then that would assume we were talking about George Walker Bush...and not about George Washington!

I recently toured the Gilbert Stuart portrait collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Perhaps you have seen one of his portraits? Anyway, all of the varieties of studies and portraits that Stuart made of GW piqued my interest in this most enigmatic of our Presidents. From time to time, I may share some of what I learn on these pages.