The information in brackets (indicating morning temperatures for the days in January) appears as marginal notes on one diary page and one almanac page.

New Year’s Day having fallen on Sunday this year, the New Year’s celebration was postponed until today.

After the Revolution there was a continuing demand in the United States for canvas, or duck, for sails. James Davenport (d. 1797) installed in 1794 at the old Globe Mills on the Germantown Road water-powered machinery of his own invention for “spinning and weaving flax, hemp and tow” (NEEDLES description begins Samuel H. Needles. “The Governor’s Mill, and the Globe Mills, Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 8 (1884): 279–99, 377-90. description ends , 298). His patent, procured in 1794 for “weaving and beating sail duck,” was the first one issued in the United States for any kind of textile machine (21st Cong., 2d sess., House Doc., No. 50, P. 140; BAGNALL description begins William R. Bagnall. The Textile Industries of the United States including Sketches and Notices of Cotton, Woolen, Silk, and Linen Manufactures in the Colonial Period. Cambridge, Mass., 1893. description ends , 222). The work was done by a few boys, one of whom could in a 10– to 12–hour day weave 15–20 yards of sailcloth or spin 292,000 feet of flax or hempen thread. According to a later newspaper advertisement, GW, accompanied by several members of Congress and others, was visiting the manufactory by invitation. After the death of James Davenport later in the year the machinery was sold and the business broken up (BISHOP description begins J. Leander Bishop. A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860. 3 vols. 1868. Reprint. New York, 1966. description ends , 2:71–72).

Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828) had recently returned to America after a long stay in England and Ireland, first as a student and then as a successful painter of portraits. He painted three portraits of GW from life between 1794 and 1796. From each of these life-portraits he made numerous copies to answer the great demand from both Americans and foreigners for likenesses of the first president. In the summer of 1796 Stuart had moved his studio from Philadelphia to a stone barn in Germantown.

went: GW has inadvertently written “Wind” in the MS. The New Theatre on Chestnut Street above Sixth Street had opened in 1794, and was said to be the finest theater in America at this time. It was copied after the theater at Bath, Eng., and seated 2,000 people. A stock company had been formed by Hugh Reinagle and Thomas Wignall, and they spent money lavishly to procure costumes and scenery and to obtain a supply of good actors, many from England (SCHARF [1] description begins J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. History of Philadelphia. 1609–1884. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1884. description ends , 2:970–71). The Child of Nature was a comedy in four acts, and The Lock and Key, a comic opera in two acts. The latter had been a resounding success in London, where it had played at Covent Garden Theatre for about 130 nights (Gaz. of the U.S. [Philadelphia], 5 and 9 Jan. 1797). The performance this evening was by request, and a local newspaper proclaimed that “the President of the United States, and Family, will honor the Theatre with their company” (Claypoole’s Adv. [Philadelphia], 9 Jan. 1797; Gaz. of the U.S. [Philadelphia], 9 Jan. 1797).

The absence of the French minister, Pierre Auguste Adet, from GW’s dinner party was undoubtedly a reflection of the strained relations existing between France and the United States at this time.

cowpers tavern: probably the ferry house erected by Samuel Cooper (1744–1812) in 1770 at Cooper’s Point in what is now Camden, N.J. Samuel’s son William was running the ferry by this time. There were actually several ferries within a short distance of each other, all owned by the Cooper family and all crossing the Delaware to Philadelphia (N.J. Documents, 542). December 1796 had produced unusually cold weather, and the Delaware River at Philadelphia was completely frozen over for several weeks. Jacob Hiltzheimer recorded on 8 Jan. that “from Race Street wharf I walked on the ice to Cooper’s Ferry and back; saw thousands of people horses and sleighs, and booths on the ice” (HILTZHEIMER description begins Jacob Cox Parsons, ed. Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia. 1765–1798. Philadelphia, 1893. description ends , 237).

went to the pantheon: The following advertisement appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper on 23 Jan.: “Pantheon, and Ricketts’s Amphitheatre. Mr. Ricketts takes the liberty of announcing to his friends and the public, that to-morrow evening there will be a variety of performances, at the Pantheon by desire of the president of the United States” (Gaz. of the U.S. [Philadelphia], 23 Jan. 1797). Ricketts’s Amphitheatre, or Circus, was devoted principally to equestrian performances and slack and tightrope walking. John Bill Ricketts, a Scotsman, had come to Philadelphia in 1792 and had shortly afterwards built his large, circular amphitheater at the corner of Chestnut and Sixth streets. Ricketts and his son were the two main equestrians, performing dangerous feats of riding and acrobatics on horseback. The amphitheater burned in 1799, and Ricketts, bankrupt, returned to England (SCHARF [1] description begins J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. History of Philadelphia. 1609–1884. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1884. description ends , 2:952–53).