Story of George Washington and King George III Told Through Original Documents

A new exhibition at the Library of Congress seeks to reveal the real George Washington and King George III of Britain behind the myths.

George III and Washington never met but The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution brings them together for the first time through their letters, ledgers, diaries, maps, and drawings.

On view through March 21, 2026 (a companion exhibition will open at the Science Museum in London in 2026), The Two Georges in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., is part of the Library’s 'America 250' celebration, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence in 1776. 

The exhibition explores the two men's shared British beginnings, the American Revolution, their roles as president and king, and the distinctive way that each understood the wielding of power. More than 100 items are on view and additional ones will be rotated into the exhibition at the halfway mark. It features objects and images from the Library of Congress, the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Royal Collection, the Science Museum Group, the Maine Historical Society, the Museums at Washington & Lee University and George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Highlights of the exhibition include:  

• In 1778, Washington set up a spy network around New York City, then occupied by the British. A spy ring code book shows how the spies were identified and how they used this code to report on the movements of British ships and troops. One page shows Washington identified as '711'
• Washington’s commission to command the Continental Army, signed by John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, and Charles Thomson, secretary, June 19, 1775 
• Washington helped lead an effort in 1769 to protest taxes being imposed on Americans by boycotting British imported goods. Washington signed a “nonimportation” agreement as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and he wrote out a pledge for his constituents to sign.
• King George III expressed his determination to crush the rebellion in a speech to Parliament in 1775. Editions of this broadside were published in New York and Philadelphia
• After the American Revolution, George III considered abdicating and wrote a note, which he never sent, as the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War was being finalized
• Washington’s copy of the Declaration of Independence
• Washington’s notes on the draft Constitution when he served as president of the Constitutional Convention, which met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to draft a federal constitution