Museum Open

The New-York Historical Society will be open on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27 from 10am to 6pm

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George Washington's First Inauguration (1789)

New York City was the nation’s first capitol and the site of the first presidential inauguration. Standing near a mural of Federal Hall’s frontage on Wall Street, families enter the time and place of George Washington’s first swearing-in.

Kids and adults admire a painting showing the beautiful wrought-iron balustrade where Washintgon stood in full view of the crowds below. Then kids recite the dramatically to-the-point oath of office that the U.S. Constitution requires of all incoming presidents.