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The skin-tight trousers from the 1700s are key to the University of Pittsburgh professor's mission to help design three life-size models of George Washington: as a surveyor at age 19, commander of the Continental Army at 45 and president at 57.

George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia commissioned Schwartz last summer to do the work as a way of humanizing an American hero, who was born 273 years ago tomorrow.

Last week, Schwartz hit a snag in the project when the national curator of the American Museum of Natural History in New York denied immediate access to clothes Washington wore around age 30. Studying the garb would reveal a lot about the eventual president's physique, Schwartz explained, because britches and waistcoats worn in the 1760s were form-fitting.

Schwartz said the clothes will not be accessible until April because of rehabilitation work at the museum.

"It's too bad, because I wanted to be done by the end of April. At least they didn't say no," Schwartz said.

For much of his life, Schwartz, a professor of physical anthropology at Pitt, regarded Washington as a grumpy-looking old guy with powdered hair. But his viewpoint has changed since he began digging deeper into the first president's story.

"This guy is fascinating. There's so much we ... as a nation don't know," said Schwartz, 57, of Squirrel Hill.

Schwartz's project is part of an $85 million expansion of Washington's Virginia estate that includes a new museum and education center. The models will be displayed in the new Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, scheduled to open in 2006.

The "flesh" on the three Washingtons will be wax, and they will have real hair. The bodies will be made of a plaster and plastic mixture.

Schwartz's models also will be used as the basis of a statue of 21-year-old Washington at the Fort Pitt Museum at the Point. Washington was 21 in the fall of 1753, when he traveled through the region on a mission to persuade the French to withdraw from the upper Allegheny Valley. The statue will be sculpted by Chas Fagan, a former Pittsburgher now living in North Carolina.

Mount Vernon's board decided against exhuming Washington's body, a move that would have revealed information about his bone structure. So Schwartz and his team have to "de-age" Washington.

By August, Schwartz hopes to turn over his forms and images to StudioEIS, a 3-D design and fabrication studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., that will paint, apply hair and clothe the different figures of Washington in outfits designed by Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

The first model will include a surveyor's scope, the second will be on horseback and the third will depict Washington being sworn in as president. They will cost a total of about $250,000.

Mount Vernon Executive Director James Rees said his goal is to make Washington seem "real and human."

"People think they know more about Abe Lincoln because there are more pictures and images of him. We have none of Washington," Rees said.

"Most people think Washington was boring. But he was the best horseback rider, always had a line of women waiting to dance with him and had the largest whiskey distillery in America," he said. "He was fascinating."

Recreating Washington at 19 is the most challenging, Schwartz said, because little is known about his younger years.

As a young man, Washington had red hair he often powdered and wore in the style of a wig. He had blue eyes and a farmer's ruddy complexion. He stood 6 feet 3 inches, a head taller than most men of the time.

"I don't know how handsome he was, but if you put the whole package together, he was eye-catching," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said his life is totally consumed by his study of Washington, sucking up any information dealing with his life and daily habits. His sources include various experts, books and articles.

As a result, Schwartz can spout off a historical time line of Washington's life as if he were talking about his own.

"I don't think I'll ever escape George Washington," he said with a laugh.

"It's wonderful to watch Jeff get more and more excited about Washington," Rees said. "The more you know, the more you admire (Washington's) selflessness and total dedication to his country."

Becoming a Washington expert has interrupted Schwartz's own daily habits. Instead of teaching two classes this semester, he has time for only one. Most of the finer cuisine he prefers to prepare is replaced by quick meals eaten at his paper-stacked desk.

"It's trying. I'm tired of living in hotels," Schwartz said while sitting in his cluttered and book-lined Oakland office. His voice mail warns callers that he'll be "out of town a lot these days."

He spends much of his time at the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling at Arizona State University. The PRISM team is making the software program to make the foot-tall statues that will form the basis for the life-size mannequins.

When Schwartz's life was George-less, he enjoyed playing banjo every night and working out with his wife of 29 years, Lynn Emanuel, an English professor at Pitt and accomplished poet.

Schwartz has written four books and more than 100 published articles on topics in evolutionary and developmental biology, primate systematics, and human and comparative skeletal anatomy.

Schwartz has no regrets about assuming the Washington project, and said he wouldn't mind taking on a similar challenge focused on other giants of American history, such as Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

But before he would start on another time-consuming venture, Schwartz has a plan: "I'll take my wife out for a nice meal, wait a while and then say, 'Guess what, dear?'"

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