Mount Vernon, in Mount Vernon, Virginia, US, was the home of George and Martha Washington. Atop its cupola is a unique 1778 weathervane, designed by Washington himself. Copies of this iconic decoration are sold by Mount Vernon's gift shop (albeit brass, rather than the original's gold leaf).
George Washington (Mount Vernon) specified that it
"should like to have a bird...with an olive branch in its Mouth. The bird need not be large (for I do not expect that it will traverse with the wind and therefore may receive the real shape of a bird, with spread wings)."
What is the significance of a bird with an olive branch 🕊️ in its mouth? Genesis 8:11 KJV explains "...the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off." The dove's return marked the end of the Genesis flood. Perhaps Washington was signaling a parallel between the end of that crisis, and a hope that the end of the Revolutionary War would result in peace for the United States later in 1783.
For the rest of the story, see this:
Picture ©️2014 by Karen Smith-Will