Library of Congress Acquires Letters by Two Former First Ladies: Martha Washington Letter Is First in Her Own Hand in the Collection
The Library of Congress announced on October 21 that it has recently acquired two letters written by former first ladies Martha Washington and Mary Todd Lincoln. The letters provide researchers and the public with a rare glimpse into the private lives of two remarkable women who stood beside formidable men: America's first president and its Civil War commander-in-chief. Kevin Butterfield, acting chief of the Manuscript Division, said the world's richest and most expansive collection of materials related to American history is constantly growing, sometimes one letter at a time, and that the two documents help tell fascinating stories that could not be told before.
In the Martha Washington letter, written on September 29, 1760, to Margaret Bolan Green, Washington describes the recovery of her four-year-old daughter "Patsy" (Martha Parke Custis) from a recent illness that included "fitts & fevours." The widowed Martha Dandridge Custis married George Washington in 1759, and together they parented two surviving children from Martha's first marriage, Patsy and John "Jacky" Parke Custis. Patsy would later die at age 17 from her continued illness, and Martha Washington outlived all four of her children.
The Library noted that the letter was written after George Washington was commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War but before he became the first president of the newly formed United States, and provides rare documentation of Martha's daily life and personal history, as few of her letters survive. The Library's George Washington Papers contain 11 letters written by Mrs. Washington, but none in her own hand; the new acquisition is the first item in her own handwriting in the Manuscript Division's collections. The letter was purchased through the James Madison Council's Edwin L. Cox Legacy Trust, a permanent endowment supporting acquisitions of Americana materials for the Library.
The Mary Todd Lincoln letter was written on February 15, 1865, a mere two months before the assassination of her husband, to Mrs. Caroline R. Wright, wife of the former governor of Indiana. In it, Lincoln mentions a "beautiful wreath of hair," which historians believe to be the "Hairy Eagle," a framed woven figure of an eagle sitting on a globe, made entirely of hair contributed by notable politicians and several of their wives, including President Lincoln and the first lady. Mrs. Wright commissioned the piece to raise money to help sick and wounded Civil War soldiers and intended it as a gift to the Lincolns. Mrs. Lincoln's stationery carries a thin black mourning band around the edge of the first page, likely acknowledging the death of the Lincolns' son William three years earlier. She also enclosed a notice of "our last dinner" and mentioned that painting in the Executive Mansion would deprive them of visitors on March 1, suggesting a stay at Willard's, possibly in reference to President Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4. The letter joins the Mary Todd Lincoln Correspondence collection, now available online at the Library's website.
The Library's Manuscript Division also holds a rich body of collections related to former first ladies, including the Dolley Madison Papers, the Lucretia Garfield Papers and the Edith Wilson Papers, as well as materials embedded within the division's 23 collections of presidential papers.
(Source: Library of Congress)
Source: Library of Congress
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Martha Washington 肖像（Gilbert Stuart 绘，未完成肖像，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons）
