A new installation at Mount Vernon showcases one of the most impressive Neoclassical interiors in federal America: George Washington's "New Room," long known as the banquet hall or large dining room. Decorated with delicate Adamesque plaster ornament in the 1780s, this large room was almost completely refurnished in 1797, when the Washingtons returned from the presidency. Fitted out as a saloon and picture gallery, its display of Philadelphia federal furniture, French accessories, English porcelains, American landscape paintings and historical and Neoclassical prints vividly expressed Washington's vision for the new Republic. This lecture traces Washington's creation of the room and highlights discoveries made during the recent renovation.