This postcard is one of a set of five paintings by Ruth Perkins Safford. Although the printed text on the postcard identifies this room as the "Great Room," evidence has shown that it was used as the dining room while the Lewises occupied the house.
The hand-written note on the postcard reads: "This plaster decoration was planned by Geo Washington to give his nieces and nephews a lesson. The Fox & the grapes story is shown plus the 3 big things in a child's life - a home, a flag, and a church. Made by French artist of rice and plaster. Rice was powdered."
Note: The overmantel actually portrays Aesop's fable of the Fox and the Crow. There is no rice powder in the plaster material and there is no definitive evidence that the artist who created the piece, the so-called "Stucco Man," was French.