We hope everyone has cleaned their grills, stocked up on charcoal, and scoped out an ideal location to take in tomorrow’s fireworks. The 4th of July wouldn’t be complete, however, without remembering George Washington, our nation’s first president and the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

In honor of this special day, we want to share with you a picture taken during World War II of two students from Harvard’s special military training service, with Charles Willson Peale’s George Washington (1784), a painting that was recently treated in our conservation lab.

We wish you all a celebratory 4th.