Visitors to the Heinz History Center will have a chance to glimpse George Washington at three pivotal moments in his life -- and to get a gander at his famous false teeth.

Life-size "forensic figures" showing Washington at ages 19, 45 and 57 are part of a new exhibition of 100 artifacts, books and paintings linked to the first president.

Among the items on display will be the only remaining full pair of Washington's false teeth. His sinister-looking choppers, fashioned from lead, brass and steel, are studded with ivory, human and cow teeth.

"Discover the Real George Washington: New Views From Mount Vernon" begins a nine-city national tour Friday at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

"Washington is one historical figure who many Americans think they know," said Anne Madarasz, the history center's museum division director. "This exhibit looks to get behind the face of the president to show who he was as a person."

It also is designed to show off some of the historical treasures and new exhibits that can be seen at Mount Vernon, Washington's Virginia home. The 500-acre estate near Alexandria was the site of a more than $100 million renovation and expansion project completed in 2006.

"We know some people won't get to Mount Vernon," Ms. Madarasz said. "So the exhibit will bring some of Mount Vernon here."

Pittsburgh's history center is an appropriate opening venue for the exhibit, said James Rees, Mount Vernon's executive director.

When Washington was in his early 20s, he learned critical lessons about leadership from his experiences in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Mr. Rees said. The mistakes he made at Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity, both in Fayette County, made him a better commander during the American Revolution.

Among the first items visitors entering the exhibit will see is an iconic image of Washington: a 1798 portrait of a white-haired George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Washington looks very much like his familiar image on a $1 bill.

Not far away, however, is a very different view of Washington. A 6-foot, 2-inch "forensic figure" shows the young Virginian as a 19-year-old frontier surveyor. Since no images exist of the young Washington, the face of the life-size model was created with the help of a life mask, later portraits, clothing, dentures and computer modeling.

University of Pittsburgh anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz led the multidisciplinary undertaking to approximate what Washington looked like as a young man.

Nearby display cases contain a brass surveyor's compass owned by Washington and a mathematics reference book signed by the future president in 1750.

Around the corner are reproductions of the Washington family pews from Pohick Church. Visitors can sit in the pews to watch a short movie about Washington's views on religion. A display case contains his family Bible.

The film on faith is one of eight videos made with the help of the History Channel that deal with different aspects of Washington's life.

Another life-size example of the results of research by Dr. Schwartz's team shows Washington at age 45 astride Blueskin, one of his favorite horses. Experts examined the waistcoat and breeches from the Smithsonian Institution -- parts of a general's uniform that Washington wore -- to determine the dimensions of his chest and limbs when he was commander of the Continental Army.

Artifacts in that room include a cannon from Fort Ticonderoga in New York. After American forces under Ethan Allen captured the fortress in 1775, they transported its heavy guns to Massachusetts, where Washington's newly formed army used them to force the British to abandon Boston.

As visitors walk through the exhibit, they will be asked to consider "defining moments" in Washington's life. Those moments include his decisions to walk away from military and political power, Mount Vernon's Sabrina M. Hiedemann said. She is overseeing installation of the Washington exhibit at the history center.

"He could have been king of America," said Andrew Masich, president of the history center. "Instead, he decided, 'I want to go home and be the best farmer I can be.' "

Parts of the exhibit describe Washington's life at Mount Vernon and his entrepreneurial bent. There are models of the estate's grist mill and treading barn. The 16-sided treading barn provided an innovative way to use running horses to thresh wheat, the process for separating grain from straw.

"He was always looking for more efficient ways to do things," Ms. Hiedemann said of Washington. He switched from tobacco, which quickly exhausted farmland, to wheat, and he used commercial fishing and whiskey making to raise farm revenues. His hope was that the scientific methods he developed at Mount Vernon's five farms could be adopted by others, making the new country more productive and richer, she said.

Washington, like many of America's founders, was a slaveholder. The display makes clear he was aware of the irony in claiming that "all men are created equal" in a nation where about 20 percent of the population was held in bondage.

"There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it," Washington said of slavery in 1783.

Still, at the time of his death in 1799, 316 enslaved men, women and children lived at Mount Vernon. He freed his own slaves in his will, but he could not change the status of his wife, Martha's, "dower" slaves, which were passed on to her grandchildren.

The exhibit includes a census of slaves on Washington's farms and brief biographies of five of them. Tools and household items -- buttons, buckles, a pipe and marbles found near one of the slave quarters -- are part of the display.

Washington's uncomfortable-looking teeth traveled to Pittsburgh in 2000 as part of an exhibit organized by the Virginia Historical Society. "The sight of them is enough to scare any candy-eating kid straight," joked Mr. Masich.

"They are both uneasy in the mouth and bulge my lips out in such a manner as to make them appear considerably swelled," Washington wrote of his dentures in a 1797 letter. The new display also will include information on 18th-century tooth care, including examples of dental tools.

The final "forensic model" shows Washington, age 57, taking the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City. An interactive exhibit in that room lets younger visitors place their hands on a Bible and repeat those same words.

Other areas of the exhibit explain Martha Washington's influence on her husband, ask questions about presidential "firsts" and explore Washington's death and his transformation into an American icon.

Washington had been famous for much of his life, Mr. Masich said. At 21 he became America's "first action hero."

"His journal was published in several languages, and people read it like a novel -- the adventures of this red-haired, tall, lanky, athletic Virginian," he said

"This is a man who made mistakes -- he unintentionally touched off a first world war -- and he had failures -- he had to surrender at Fort Necessity," Mr. Masich said. "There is so much more to this guy than initially meets the eye."

Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.