changing and how it was improving. well, speaking as person who works in sarah's bedroom. up on the fourth floor, i received a call once from curtis, her grandson who said, i can't you have he spoke in this plummy in ce did. i can't believe you have the pleasure occupying the room where we used to roll in of sunday morning and jump on mama's bed. now that's an image one doesn't expect. but as you say, she's the one they turn to for the affection felt. so the cycles continue tumbling as we head up, have a drink and buy books in the very room sarah first opened up once divided between number 47 and 49. this is the this is the room where it happened, the great opening, the great combination. please join me in thanking charlotte gray adam. of course, looking at the.

thanks to all of you for being here tonight on this beautiful spring evening. as i was walking over here, i felt like i could hear my students voices. could we have class outside of. so i was a little surprised, actually, at the idea of a reception before a talk. but i have to say i'm a fan because it leaves you really relaxed and kind of sociable. and i'm also a huge fan of the library company. i'm delighted to be here. i want to thank the library company and in particular, thank davida tenenbaum, deutsche program in women's history for this invitation and my affection for the library company dates to the late 1990s.

when i first researched here as a graduate student, i'm really going to date myself here. and then later i was a fellow and lived at the cassatt house. and it's just a wonderful place to work. and i don't have to tell you that the collections are superb job, as you know. but it's really the people who make the place even more special and absolutely important, essential to all sorts of projects. in early american history, including women's history. and of course, this is a women's history month talk i will have. i confess, i often feel a little ambivalent about women's history month because every month is women's history month. right. but also for some of the reasons that i think may come through tonight, there is what is sometimes still an emphasis on exceptional individuals and their contribution is i think it's a focus that definitely has its place. we know that women's accomplishments, especially in certain areas, have long been overlooked. we all need inspiration from the

past, but sometimes it can be hard to get beyond the few to the many, and also to consider not only the broad range of experiences in the past, but ideas about womanhood over time and how those ideas and that category changed. so tonight i'm going to talk about as the title of the talk suggests, the 19th century uses and importance of mary ball. washington best known in fact, perhaps only usually only known as george washington's mother in history and public memory, including in commemoration. the title of the talk and of my forthcoming book. it will be out with oxford in september is is intended to evoke something of a disconnect. right. the mother of washington, a woman who lived a long life across the 18th century, in 19th century america. yes. and so the the image and from this interest slide and it was in the the the opening slide for the library company as well.

this is from the 1880s. i used to promote tonight's event. i'll talk a little bit about it speaks to the cultural work of this woman in history long after her long life and to some extent to the history of women's history. so, mary ball, washington might have been just another, you know, affluent woman of the 18th century living and dying in relative obscurity. had it not been for her son. there were other facets to her, of course, but mary and i use first names here, not in an old fashioned or kind of diminutive sense, but because of george and of so many washingtons in this project became known to some degree during her life, and certainly in death, chiefly as a mother, the mother of washington. the phrase was first coined in 1826 by george washington park custis. step grandson of george washington and self-appointed keeper of the washington legacy custis. his essay, which appeared in two

parts in the national gazette, a paper published right here in philadelphia, depicts mary as an ideal mother. and his essay put forth stories and an image of her that would endure some of the features of it to this very day. although lacking formal education, she had raised an exemplary citizen son not just any son, but one who became the father of his country. she was a republican mother. par excellence. custis rice, a virginia plantation owner, and enslaver looked back to find this ideal. and mary. but he was not content to champion her imprint alone. custis in other sort, the creation of a monument to mary, something physical and permanent that would memorialize the mother of washington and lodged the maternal ideals that she embodied in the public memory of the nation's founding. the monument, custer's vision took more than 60 years to complete, but there was one. and the mother of washington

figure that inspired it flourished a canon of stories about mary that often, but not always, featured george and underpinned the mother of washington figure. the monument and the figure memorialized overlap sometimes in surprising and even kind of paradoxical ways in books, in images and on the landscape memorials rising. mary foregrounded a particular vision and version of motherhood in the public memory of the nation's founding, as some women in the 19th century framed their engagement with the state in maternal terms. other men and women used the mother of washington and the virtues that she embodied to to link those to the nation's origins. so then, as now, groups use the past to construct american motherhood and motherhood, to engage with the founding past. so mary washington, of course, was not the only remembered woman of the revolution during the 19th century, even as the

18th century ended, writers were celebrating the heroism of female patriots. by the 1840s, you have elizabeth, frieze, eliot putting together her volume, biographical sketches, women of the american revolution. she opened the volume with mary drawing largely from justice's account of her george's wife, martha, also a mother, of course, received her share of praise in the 19th century, sometimes right alongside mary. but mary's memory i show presented some distinct of possibilities as the mother of washington. mary was the mother, mother of the father and never remarried. after george's father, augustine died, she could represent the maternal virtues attributed to the founding era, but was also unique and would exceptional. like her son, ideal motherhood and stories of american greatness, of which mary and george were examples reinforce one another. she was the only american woman honored with a monument in the antebellum period and the only

one of the revolutionary era memorialized in that form in that 19th century. for some americans, the public memory of the mother at not just any mother, but of the father of this country established the centrality of ideal motherhood to the founding past. this was a past that americans were hotly contesting during the 19th century. now, of course, who and what is memorialized and in what ways says a lot about the moment in which that occurs, and the people doing the memorializing and commemoration, we know, also depends on forgetting, on erasures, on silences, as does writing about the past, both of kinds of historical engagement. history, writing and commemoration really grew burgeoned in the 19th century. understanding the creation of mary washington's public memory requires reconstructing what was brought forward about her and creating the mother of washington figure by whom and why, as well as recover in what was not alongside her maternal

virtues or memorials, highlighted her as a virginian of virginia. matrons like her son all americans could claim her and virginia might therefore stand in for the nation. mary was also an enslaver, which powerfully informed her life and her family legacy. but fluctuated in her public memory. a fraught public and political issue in the antebellum period. slavery and slave holding haunt and i say lurk behind the mother of washington figure there imply in some stories, but they don't become explicit really until the late 19th century when mary, the mother of washington, evolves into a kind of plantation mistress figure. so on the one hand, the mother of washington in is a story of change, because over time, the figure acquires layers of meaning. she evolves from a doting and somewhat anxious mother in mason locke weems, really her first kind of public iteration, almost to command thing and spartan

custis uses that term for her, yet piously christian to a well-born anglo-saxon beauty, as we'll see tonight, to an intelligent mother from with old south bona fides and habits. although most of these qualities were present from the inception of her her public memory, they become prominent features at certain moments. and this trajectory parallels a shift in her chief memorialize from elite white men of the 18th thirties invested in this spartan spartan. yet pious, saintly mary to elite white women of the 1890s who celebrate their figurative for mother. so in its in a revolving figure whose primary supporters champions change but it's also a story of continuity and of created continuity framed as historical and foundation. and i think that it's a perspective that looking across the kind of long 19th century

and i sometimes call this a biography that begins in death, seeing the antebellum and post bellum periods as linked through revolutionary memory provides from the 1820s to the nineties, historians, memorials and preservation and is championed mary firm yet christian and loving well-born and yet wholly domestic and private. refreshingly simple as an ideal example from the founding past, they did so amidst and against claims to motherhood. republican motherhood, moral motherhood, bound up in the political issues that divided the country, namely slavery, women's rights. mary's exemplary mothering. her son george, the undeniable proof like who could dispute that? wright showed that her version of american motherhood was foundational to the past, important to the present, and critical for its future. such a mother son, firmly believed, deserved a monument. okay, so to learn a little bit more about the monument's inception, its creation in the

early 1830s this is in fredericksburg, virginia, at the site of her. then unmarked grave. and also the development of this ever more saintly mary mother of washington figure. you'll have to read the book. yes, you have to. you have to buy and read the book. but tonight, i'll be skipping ahead a little bit to the toward the end of the story. so a little beyond early america, but still but still pre 1800. amy, suffice it to say, the antebellum period, though, was a high time for mary's public memory, if not always for her monument. it had its pilgrims. built wrongly. okay, it has its pilgrims, as you see here. this is from bed, some lost and then some lost things. pictorial field book of the year of the american revolution. so a couple visiting this kind of half complete structure, paying reverence, homage, maybe taking a piece of it as a

souvenir. but it languished incomplete, like the one to her son, george, in the capitol in washington for reasons that were practical and financial. but also, i suggest cultural. so this is what was intended. right. so you can see like an echo of that. and what was in what was actually built. and this it got george up top. you got two eagles. it's pretty it's pretty elaborate, right? and this is what it looked like 40 years later. right. there's this structure decaying, used for taj at practice, covered in graffiti by the 1850s. i mean, benson losing is absolutely beside himself about this. you can imagine survived the civil war battles that literally raged around it in the mid 1870s. so about this moment and it may have been taken this photograph

for this purpose, congress commissioned a report on the structure and considered allocating funds toward its completion. and it was connected to two fund the unfinished washington monument, which could widely considered a national embarrassment, especially as the nation approached the centennial. all right, an anniversary of the birth. in the end, they did not appropriate this funds. but into the 1880s, the project had its support tours in congress. so perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the completion, the dedication of the washington monument combined with increasing interest in mary's ancestry and the appearance of two portraits, ostensible portraits that helped to renew attention to the mother of washington and ultimately to her monument, the focus on mary's lineage intensified into the 1880s as documentation of her line grew due to efforts mainly of the ball family. they wanted to make sure they weren't getting left out of the of the founding founding story. but it was not the first time

that attention had been paid to the mother of washington's family. previous authors had suggested that it, along with her appearance, labor, hide her marriage to a guest in which resulted, of course, in the generation of george as early as 1808. mason, locke, weems emphasized her fortune and noted that she descended from one of the very best families in virginia. curtis's 1826 essay states that she was descended from the very respectable family of balls who settled in an english colonies. so he's kind of setting up a first family of virginia. back story there. other authors repeated the description of ball's highly respectable, always noting it's reputable english origins. most of george's biographers. and so we get some pictures of mary in the mid mid-19th century through the biographers of george, like james for paulding and jared sparks didn't really pay much attention to her lineage. they wouldn't, but they did always note her comely appearance, repeating an enduring phrase that williams had coined the belle of the

northern neck. now, aside from custis wright, who might have remembered her dimly from his boyhood, had no one who rode him out, mary had seen her. so they always included qualifying language. she was said to be or described to me by those who knew her as a beauty and a belle. elizabeth elliott declared in 1848, no portrait of her is in existence, lacking images of mary in life who really knew what she looked like. wright although had long been important that george washington's mother was beautiful or a belle mid-19th century images such as this one and this is one of several captured only in aged mary with her son. they were clearly not taken for life and nor were they purported to be the discovery of two portraits of mary in the late 19th century provided the first look at the real mother of washington, the stories that the portraits creation, their disappearance, rediscovery, serve to make mary ever more

elite and genteel in addition to their provenance. the images establish her wealth and her essential englishness. she was not only well-born, well-dressed, but a belle in whom the features and characteristics of her son could be discerned. this was important for its moment in the 1880s, accompanying the portraits in elaborate backstories was attention to mary's ancestry by authors using her lineage and place in the nation's family tree to link individual filial and collective superiority. the country's grandmother, therefore its father's natural line was a good english stock. the stories and images together assured readers for white americans fascinated with ancestry. mary ball, washington. like the washingtons in general, there was a fair amount of attention to also the washington family. the washington line symbolized the nation's anglo-saxon heritage present from its origins. the national lineage flowed from marian mary's feminine fecundity evident in the paintings. so this one appeared in the 1877 book memorials of washington and

of mary. his mother, and of martha, his wife. you often get that kind of twinning. the 19th century of mary and martha, i call it the middleton portrait. due to the claim that a british captain cum artist middleton, had no first name painted it at some point in it, mary is a sweet faced young woman making good on these bell descriptions. she's a beauty by conventional standards of the day. in this book, the author claims that mary was spoken of as the handsomest woman of her time, really embellishing this reputation as belle of the northern neck. lord lyndhurst, english politician. but born in boston, the son of artist john singleton. copley so an interesting kind of anglo american connection there, said that it captured, quote, the grandest and most lovely woman i ever looked upon, but the most glowing assessment came from her son, quote, styled in sober truth, as this is in all caps, the most beautiful woman he had ever beheld.

it was an apocryphal george quote that stuck. and you can still find this floating around there like george washington said, his mother was the most beautiful woman he ever, ever saw. so the only fabricated evidence in lots of ways about famous americans like ulysses grant, who had beheld the portrait and most brazenly inserted an entire paragraph into a letter of george's, is one that does exist. a letter to charles carter about something with his his son about it. and in that paragraph kind of tells the whole story of the portrait, which is a very kind of a twisty one. so, mary, you know, look at this. i mean, it's such a so clearly a 19th century image. she looks downward and somewhat beyond rather than directly at the viewer or the painter as as would have been typical for truly an early 18th century portrait. her golden hair is pulled back at it flows a bit much. she wears a pleasant if pensive, expression, perhaps because she

was our son at the time of its execution. oh, yes, she was pregnant with george, claimed, and the author who came into the world. four months after. what a happy coincidence that this should be the case for the only portrait for which she ever sat there is perhaps no clear way example of the way in which this image so interpreted paraded is about her generation of george, her motherhood. she carries washington, the father of the country and this the seeds of the nation within her. indeed linking procreation ancestor and appearance lord lyndhurst again averred that i love this every liniment of washington's countenance is seen and traced in that of his mother. this is not so evident to me in this portrait, compared to what we the images we have, george. but people see, i think what they was should see. and of course it was all it was all untrue, all the humbug. now, the ball family, the dedication of the washington monument and the portraits may have put the mother of

washington back in the public eye, but no one was rushing to complete her decaying memorial. but that was about to change. on march first, 1889 appeared this advertisement showed that the grave site of mary washington would be for sale at public auction. this became a local drama with national implications, a glide past. some of the details here. but in short, george sheppard was a prominent developer, a businessman in fredericksburg, sold a parcel of what had been the kenmore, the lewes plantation and broken up over time, on which the monument sat to these two real estate agents. colbert and currently they turned around and put it up for sale like this. shepherd probably knew they would do so. they certainly claimed he did. he claimed otherwise that the monument was not never part of the transaction. he was shocked. shocked. the document of the sale is

vague, probably intentionally, and the matter landed in court locally. george sheppard was known as the winder up. if that tells you anything. so, you know, he probably knew something, but he might not have realized exactly how the men would go about it. the notice was clearly intended to generate outrage and incite action, and it worked, frankly. and one of the things i want to highlight about this here is the to be sold at grave of mary, a public auction to the ladies attending the inaugural edition of president elect harrison's. so to the ladies and this is a refrain really that dates to the inception of the monument that that women certain women of the nation should be the one to memorialize was mary. so this was clearly a publicity stunt and you know it had its intended effect beginning with attention in the press. the washington post, for one,

was very clear in its condemnations, having received this notice and a check for his publications, it refused both. it called the plan a sacrilege against the most revered woman who ever lived on the continent. superlatives about decency demanded that public spirit should save from the auctioneer the grave of good mary washington, so that it and her remains would not be turned into relics for sale in march. so this very month, an appropriations bill was pending in the house. but by may, congress had again failed to provide funds and the lost mood in frederickson, shepherd and the real estate agents stymied any sale at auction or otherwise. so if the grave were going to be rescued, it would have to be, as the post put it, through the patriot act cooperation on the part of women of the nation. it seemed an opportune time, given the centennial of george's inauguration. several months later, francis guericke of fredericksburg, the wife of a local judge and daughter of one of the founding

members of the town's ladies memorial association, the tenders of confederate graves published a lengthy appeal in the post. it praised mary, calling for a memorial worthy of her name and virtues, creation of an association of women to carry it out, given that congress had failed in the same issue of the post, i'm not short item. it appeared a letter from mh of clifton, virginia. its author, margaret hetzel, proposed that the paper encourage every woman who was able to give $1 to the cause of completing the monument. the post would then act as treasurer for the fund and run a regular column to promote the cause and list out its donors, she wrote. how better can the mothers and daughters of this country honor the memory of washington? who said all that i am i owe to my mother? she concluded, reproduced in which the now also famous apocrypha quote that originated in slightly different form with origen, with elizabeth eliot hetzel enclosed $1 the post declared the mary washington monument fund open and itself

contributed $200. so and it wasn't just just women in the coming weeks, the paper published a regular column listing names and sums never so many contributions or huge amounts, but a growing group of women and others kind of sum some newspaperman to the column began to feature. i want to call attention to this other late 19th century ostensible portrait of mary washington owned by samuel morse, inventor of telegraph fame and authenticated it as far as possible. i was much more careful about it in terms of documents and reasoning than the james walter by historian benson lawson together the washington post and the women of virginia were heeding a longstanding call that women should be the ones to memorialize the mother of washington as elite women of fredericksburg, organized in an outgrowth of their lady's memorial association into the

mary washington monument association of fredericksburg, a group of well-connected women in washington were also mobilizing. on february 22nd, 1890, george's birthday, a group of women incorporated the national mary washington memorial association. so the founders of this organization and others who joined had some things in common that made honoring mary an attractive cause. and given the iteration at this point of the mother of washington and figure first they were elite or at least consider themselves to be as a mainly as a consequence of birth their lineages and matrilineal dated to the revolution through powerful men such as benjamin franklin through the baseline. i should note a cousin of george washington's and richard bland lee, brother of light horse, harry lee and second the women's family lines animate it their interest in history and its uses a especially the revolutionary past much like the daughters of the american revolution day are

with whom the national monument association cooperated. their cause was historic preservation. but for the women of the dar lineage really almost equaled history to some extent. they established the connection between their own family histories and that of the nation, lodging the former within the ladder and making themselves and estonians of the past. they promoted nationalism and post spell immunity alongside a heroic and exclusive history of the united states that they worked to preserve. although founded in part because they weren't allowed to join the sons of the american revolution right to recover women's revolutionary heroism, celebrate, inform others, and investing in domestic house museums, they often did end up championing men's bravery as well in particular, the djr really celebrated george as an outgrowth of both impulses. at their first meeting, they pledged support for the mary washington monument, the first chapter of the dnr in washington, dc was named for mary and quote, hosted a lecture

in honor of its patron saint. so both of these associate persons were formed during a time of expansion of women's organization as they were kind of outgrowths of the club women's movement of the late 19th century, but also ran counter to some elements of it. you know, the clubs we think of, the women's christian temperance union or in just a huge blossoming, burgeoning, you know, amount of women's of women's clubs, health, sanitation, professional development, education, like the reform movements of earlier decades, club women believe that it was their moral duty to shape public life and policy, particularly in matters that affected homes and families. many drew upon their power. as mothers, motherhood remained a somewhat contested concept. you had that private, domestic ideal from the antebellum period, persisting but

challenged by growing numbers of women in education. in the professions club women worked for causes that felt personal and some were pro suffrage. others were not as before war, black women organized in a black club movement expanded greatly after emancipation, like other white women's clubs, the mary washington memorial associations were racially exclusive. unlike other groups, their aims were not progressive. they turned their attention to the past, rather to the present or the future, and operated at least technically under the auspices of men. indeed, in addition to vaunted celebrated men of the past, the women used their connections to powerful men of the present. the fredericksburg group's advisory board included among others, a local judge and the town's mayor as chair. and he declared, he's like, these organizations will work together. the national group named a male board of trustees and directors that included the president of the united states, the chief

justice of the supreme court, and the governor of virginia. a meeting in may convened at the executive mansion, white house, and president harrison himself called the meeting to order so these women drew from a long standing practice, both of deference to male authority, but also from a deep tradition of female associational work. most had been active in other organizations, possessed a lot of experience. they brought their skills for raising awareness and funds to the monument cause as efforts to promote and brand their movement the organization and show upon their incorporation. the national organization adopted a corporate seal and membership badge. i know it's only i found this in the national archives and a funny story because it was in just a box of files of documents. and when i brought it up to the guy to ask about maybe photographs it, i mean, could i use my photograph could get it professionally photographed. he said, do you found this in

the in the file. there was an object, an object in the file. i was like, yes. and then he spirited away. he's like, oh, this has to go cigarets and ham. those like, but wait, i might need it again. so who knows? but it was going to go in with their treasure. something it wasn't meant to be. just like in, in a file, a folder of document is. okay so this one which is lovely, belonged to margareta hetzel, the group's first secretary, and is particularly fine with this blue ribbon attached to a gold pin bearing the bust. right. the middleton portrait and the national's letterhead did as well. but another version may have used the morse image, the one that appeared in the more in the posts on a ribbon, a souvenir ribbon from just a few years later when the monument is completed. and i found in the records that live in the national archives of the associate national association that they tried to put it, it was just a little scrap. they tried to purchase the morse

painting, but apparently didn't. i don't know. i don't know what happened. but they wanted to. so fundraising long an issue for many institutions right was key and took several forms. author mary virginia terhune, who's a popular writer of domestic fiction under the pen name marion harland, approached the national organization about writing a biography. the proceeds from which would go to the cause publisher 1892 the story of mary washington was the first stand alone biography of mary washington on one hand, harlan broke little new ground when it came to mary by the 1890s. most of the stories had coalesced into what i call this canon of stories supporting the portrait of a stern, yet doting, independent, pious woman, a mother befitting and producing george washington. on the other hand, there's a bit more emphasis in the harlan biography on intellect and on

her as a thinking mother, which which reflects her generation. but the focus is really also on mary. i mean, george is in there because, you know about the mother of washington, but it is per the title, the story of mary washington. harlan also traced the history of the monument. so it was a little plug there. it's not clear how much money the book made. in addition, the national decided that it would sell life memberships for $25 that could be passed down from mother to daughter. the match online. so it's not a lineage or a hereditary organization per se, but it has this, this, this feature. but the real money raised came from the gala events hosted in cities across the country, colonial fancy dress or costume balls like the colonial rival movement itself. the geographic span of these fundraisers was broad a ball in denver raised the most money. these were exclusive social occasions for which attendees purchase tickets, covered it

from the center quite extensively in local society. pages spotlighted elite white women who performed their connections to the present and the founding past. the cause itself linked the two, but so did the attendees. the people themselves, in many cases, and their outfits by dressing up in colonial garb, they played mary washing ten and her ilk. so these events reenacted at elite entertainments at the 18th century in setting dress occasion and oftentimes a ball honoring washington and his officers in charleston. brilliant lights and luxurious hangings of yield in times. welcome guests. quote, gentlemen, emphasis eating short clothes, diamond buckles, powdered wigs and beautiful lace ruffles. ladies and brocaded gowns came together to perform minuets, other 18th century dances. some men donned military dress in chicago. ladies dressed as mary washington might have for such a function and the costume set a ball and white silver springs were deemed superb, although the

attendees dress drew the attention. it is likely that, especially in southern cities, black men and women served the guests, perhaps dressed in colonial livery. their presence not only provided labor but served to reenact the era of slavery, actual remnants of that period, and attracting the most attention were material relics and period dressed, inherited and worn by female descendants of founding families. they performed legacy by literally donning it, adding an air of authenticity to these reenactments. in denver, may patrick were a true quote, colonial production that had been in her family for over 100 years while nancy green, originally of culpeper and a great grandniece of mary's, wore a gown that had belonged to her ancestor as hannibal mary sister in charleston. one attendee carried a fan that had belonged to a niece of mary's. other women not only wore items handed down from revolutionary but impersonated those figures

in the evening's pageantry. for example, in new orleans, evelyn crump bar went as nellie custis, from whom she was descended wearing a handsome lace sort of long to martha. gretchen mueller went as her ancestor martha will skelton jefferson where he fit fitting bring family heirlooms, pearls many of those in attendance were direct descendants of colonial dignitaries, including a five times great granddaughter of joseph falls. mary's father ball and washington descendant. as were particularly noted, you can imagine while some played their own ancestors impersonate them, such as sarah pryor, pictured here, and she would later write in the 20th century, write biography of mary washington, impersonated the figures of mary, martha and george in these roles they serve to remind everyone of their prima reason for gathering the monument. mary and through it, honoring the mother of the father and the american motherhood. she represented. so the leaders of the national mary washington memorial

association, she did in some ways achieve a national movement. there were chapters and work in many states, but it wasn't. you will not be perhaps surprised a particularly broad or cross class one you know due in part to the lineage politics exclusive nature of this fundraising but regardless for the women's association to move forward with the monument, the legal matter had to be settled right? and the land on which the monument sat secure in january of 1891 day after the judge found for george sheppard in the lawsuit that he had never sold the monument parcel never intended to he gave the body deeded mary's gravesite and the land around it to the fredericksburg association. and then the following year they conveyed it to the male trustees of the national association conditional upon, quote, erecting a suitable monument to begun no later than february 1894.

george's birthday. the locals had raised maybe some funds, but the national with its state chapters biography, branding, swag, gala events, of course, was more successful. so these factors and the greater visibility and kind of connection and right. powerful men of the national group probably animated the decision to hand over the deeds at the nationals request. so for a couple of years things appeared to be proceeding pretty smoothly. fundraising was never as robust as anyone maybe hoped, but it was proceeding, proceeding apace. but the two organizations, as it turned out, were not operating entirely in sync, spurring a contest of stakeholders. and i think it's really typical to claims over public memory. and the issue was, you know, as erecting a suitable monument that language what constituted a suitable monument in fredericksburg. and it's really the the the men, the male leaders and advisors are very vocal about this.

they want old monument finished or if not that failing that you saw what it looked like the 1870s and this is 20 years later right once the and not that they want something more in its style or something a little more lab of it. there are a lot their ideas the national group wants an entirely new rebuilt structure, which is frankly what the army corps of engineers report in the 1870s had recommended and given the state the status of the old. they want this new thing. they want an obelisk, a simple obelisk like the washington monument, you know, so, so spoiler alert. guess what? they when they prevail. but there's a little story there in terms of how how they get their so in 18 october of 1893, the old monument or half monument, partial body of it came down. what was not disposed of became true to the structure's history

itself. relics, some of the remaining stone would be used in the new monument, a gesture to the 18th thirties. and other nostalgic uses. i love these. a local artist painted the original monument on pieces of it and on the other side of each rock inscribed erected 1832. it was really 1833 demolished 1893 like dates on a tombstone, one column that remained at the site was stolen perhaps as a memento there's a long history of people taking of the monument as souvenirs, as mementos to adorn the garden of the mary washington house today columns from the original. they're the only semipublic material reminders that anything but the monument that now stands in fredericksburg existed. there were silent reminders of its story and of the mother of washington figure of the 19th century that inspired it. so in the spring of 1894, the

town of fredericksburg demonstrated its virginia hospitality, welcoming thousands of visitors, as well as the president and then grover cleveland, vice president, chief justice of the u.s., the governor of virginia, and the lady managers of the national organization for the monuments dedication. when when the monument came down, the lady managers of the national didn't didn't show up for that. that was just the kind of fredericksburg group. but they obviously they came for this it honored as the washington put it, the mother of the father. women were more visible at this event than turning the laying of 1833. but just a smile. it only men spoke of the day's events a tribute to motherhood and to the founding of it represented for them by the mother of washington women on horseback led the procession to the grounds which had a martial feel like 1830 threes and some of them sat on the rostrum. they were honored in place and recognized for their work in speeches. but the powerful men present took center stage in their turn.

each to memorialize and celebrate mary as the, quote, good virginia. the phrase captures and connects today's mutually reinforcing themes of national union. virginia history as national history and founding motherhood. as in 1833, mary and her memorialization were unifying forces in the minds of men who spoke that day. the opening prayer referenced the brutal arms of war and the bloodshed the area had seen. but now people had come, quote, from north and south with one accord. governor o'farrell of virginia hailed the daughters of this bonded union who completed the monument that honored the man who created the indestructible union, president cleveland deemed the spot a, quote, sacred national shrine, comparing it to mount vernon. as with mount vernon, virginia stood in for the nation, passed and present infused with nostalgia and gendered racial hierarchy. the day featured later turbine antes at mary washington's house as part of an old south see a

barbecue after the dedication, harking back to quote the days when the grand old mistress was yet alive, claiming the 18th century for the antebellum and bellum south, and recreate the elements of the 1833 event. the dedication collapsed its late 19th century moment into two nostalgic layers of the past revolutionary and jacksonian through memorials, raising mary's motherhood, the grand old mistress was, above all, an exemplary mother. and the reason they gathered the opening prayer thanked god for the sweet name of mother, for the memory of this noble american mother. while the president repeated george's apocryphal line, all that i am i owe to my mother so repeated, repeated and echoing andrew jackson before cleveland hoped it all would depart with their patriots and strengthen through reverence for american motherhood. senator john daniel went even further, connecting george's crediting of mary all that i am to my mother, to the debt.

the day nation then owed her not just to him. he lauded her as a good angel of the hearthstone who had nursed a hero at her breast, honored not merely for who she was. the mother of washington, but also for what she was the ideal type of her sex, her people, and her race. and although exceptional, she was not unique, rather representative of her valiant and formative era, according to daniel quote, there were 10,000 mary washington's among the mothers of the revolution and in memorializing her quote, we honor the motherhood heroic days. it was a past made. so by mothers like mary. through her, the speakers defined their version of ideal american motherhood and traced it to the american revolution. the women of the monument association did as well, connecting past and present one side of the monument. these arphotographs of mine from a few years ago bears the

inscription. mary, the mother of washington, other erected by her countrywomen in it was women's work. some women's those who had the time background resources connections also supportive, powerful men. it was there work and memorialized as such, and it was work that's celebrated and defined another kind, although never characterized as such motherhood. the monument was built by women. the headline of the washington post boldly proclaimed, even as the article focused on the day's events with a historic sites at the town it was a time to fredericksburg was trying to attract visitors, tourists and detailed the men who spoke and their remarks. however the mother of washington had her monument at last. thank you.

so i think we have time. there's time for questions. i'm happy to take some questions. and if you bring you the book, the roving mag, very close to the time of their george was born in 1743, 32, 33. to how old was his mother when when when he was born. so she was she was born in 17 no. seven. so. in my voice, i think 35 or and between 1707 and 1709 in 1707. and how much older was the father? augustine. somewhat older. i usually don't, but neither. he'd been married before. he was a widower. and then this was. but it an old man? no, he was an old man. but, you know, death was very. common in early. a lot, lot of things. he died. yes. i mean, from lots of backgrounds.

i suppose. program on c-span about mary washington. and they mentioned several times that she was a good horse rider and that her son got that from an interesting and none of this mentions that. i guess a woman on horseback is not a very maternal and that's a good point. that's not something that comes through in the 19th century. depictions of her that you know a few years ago the widow washington martha sexton published a letter. washington said, wonderful scholarly biography of mary about washington. and she talks about this. and yes, apparently, she she was. but not something. right. and it makes sense that he would have gotten that as well as maybe other things from her, but only again, only certain things come forward or brought forward about her. other things that don't fit with a kind of idealized picture of founding motherhood recede or

disappear entirely. yeah. yes. was that too much like women on bicycles, which would have been controversial slightly buoyant. you talked about her influence on these women's groups. and i was wondering with things like the ladies association of mount vernon, was she directly inspirational to that specific group and other movements? were. women were? that's a great question. you know, she wasn't they were so focused on, you know, so this is a little early, you know, pre-war, very focused on mount vernon. and pamela cunningham and to know they they're not interested in her at all, frankly. but the the become important because as they they are they are the first in some ways preservationist. and they provide this model that

other people look to when they're saying, oh, the ladies, oh, the ladies, the ladies need to do this. but the ladies of virginia, the ladies front of the nation. so they kind of set the template the terms by which then other people are like, oh, this needs to happen and it can be done and should be done. but for the movie, ella, they're just really all about george mount vernon. that was excellent talk. thank you. really need a lot of points, but i was in fredericksburg, virginia, and i was supposedly we went into mary washington home to have that was very it was that but what exactly is that? i mean, it was turning into sort of a museum, but yes. thank you for asking that. they. right. the house has its own story. one of the things i found really interesting is that the house is in the in most of the for most of the 19th century, just not a place of interest or pilgrimage in the way the gravesite and the

monument is in part. i think that's because other people are living in it. i mean, there's some some people will go, but if they're going the monument, they go to the house. but you know, presbyterian minister lives there for almost 40 years and runs a boys school out of it. you know, it's just not it's not a site. now becomes a site when the apvma virginia right acquires it in 1890. and there's this sense that what what's behind this is there is a plan by to some to to reconstruct it, take it apart and rebuild it at the columbian exposition in 1893. yeah. and it freaks people out obviously. and so, you know, the virginia, virginia preservation is mobilized and they say the house not there's a little bit of sort of interest in it, but not much happens to it. it's kind of it becomes part of the domestic house museums movement in the early 20th century. so i have done a little work at the house and they have these scrapbook. they're really from the twenties

and thirties, and that's when you start to see it, as you know, preserved, turned into, you know, the period period rooms and a place of tourism that went to college. so you mentioned the columns or the garden, the back of the house? yeah. yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. to those columns. i think one had been in the masonic lodge in fredericksburg, but now it's maybe at the mary washington house, but yes, the other side of the river. and i know in the house. oh i see. they are. yeah. yes, yeah. so the, the house is not far from the grounds that would later recalled ken moore from the louis plantation that samuel gordon would name ten more when he purchased it in 1819. it had been out of louis family hands, so she her house and she was very clear, apparently, about staying in her house betty. and fielding invited her to live with them. george never did, but she wanted to stay in her home.

so it wasn't far from the grounds of kenmore. and then she was buried on the grounds of kenmore in theory. right. so so we don't have there's not a lot of contemporary evidence, really, none about her funeral, burial or any of that. it's all later. and so reason utley, a professor at emory washington university and students has and a have ground radar and they went to go to to meditation rock which is this outcropping this beautiful site now obviously within the city of fredericksburg then on the grounds of the point of the plantation to try to figure out where her grave might have been, where she's buried. i don't think they got anywhere. she's not in the monument. no. well, i mean, it's beneath it ostensibly. maybe so. it's great. it's just so much lore, right?

so, so much lore around it, around this woman starting with her her death and with her burial would have made sense when she died that they would put the they would have buried her on that property. that perhaps. yes. i mean, that again, the story is that that's where she wanted to be buried. she walked there a lot. she walked there to pray again. this might these may be 19th century creations, but that's that that's where she wanted to be buried. and once what year did she die? she died in 1789, just as george was a senator taking. you know, assuming the presidency of the united states. interesting timing. so george would have been in a position to. yes, yeah. tell you i mean, she lived a lot. i mean, that she i mean, that she was very aged for even for this day, much less that day. the title of this book originally was the long life of mary washington, because it was just going to be biography and like long afterlife, but was way too much to bite off.

and we do have these other another excellent biography. yes. i was wondering, in the 19th century, was anyone considering her role in her other children's lives or looking at her at her as a mother of many, or it was just george, not really. i mean, it's the mother of washington, maybe even the mother of george. i think what you do get is it's a good question, is some attention to the fact that she did have other children. and when she became a widow, she became a single mother. i mean, this was not the terminology of the day, but had five children under her care. but what always owned enslaved people or and supported her life and her laborers. and so it's not like she was entirely doing on our own, like she valued her independence, but it was a dependent independence, right? so yeah, that that's where that's where you see it. i think that the idea that she had a brood, a family to, to tend to towards being the

eldest. did you have access to any of her original writings. yeah. to get some kind of sense of the person behind the history. yes. some i mean, there aren't many. there's some a few letters from her to george age, from george to her her will. i mean, you do get the sense that, you know, that she was not highly educated. i think she's woman of few words pretty direct in a dress and a dress you know, i say in the first chapter where i'm talking about her, her life in brief, because you have to know something. i think about her life to understand again what gets brought forward and what doesn't that, you know, she she was not one for, you know, salon culture or but i mean, she was she was not a fancy person far less than

her son george. right. for, you know, the rules of civility and really, you know, moved his way into much more wealthy, prominent circles in virginia. now, she may have had some aspirations for him to do so, perhaps, you know, we know that that she there is some evidence she did not want him joining the british navy at age 14 like his older brother, half brother thought maybe he should, that that was the way he was going to make his way in the world. and she did not want that for him, probably because she worried about it and thought it seemed he was very young and would have been incredibly dangerous, but also that she may have had a different vision for his future in as i saw of the planter class in virginia. yes, his his bravery.

obviously, a lot of the bravery, some of it's probably apocryphal, but the but the his his seeming bravery in in the face of danger, or is some of that the way he's raised by his mother's? is she she seems like maybe. sure. i would say the 19th century biography would say that. right. you know, she formed a hero. i mean, custer said it so clearly, you know, the spartan mode. she was a spartan mother of the spartan, not the persian mode. there was no the no fitter environment in which to raise a hero. right. so and there's there's a lot of meaning in that for for justice in others that that that she. yes that she has a lot to do with in that ultimately like for some authors, almost everything to do with his greatness is.

she ever visited him on the battlefield? no. no. and in fact, you know, she's pretty old at that point. he moves her from ferry farm to this house in fredericksburg before the war. i think he's concerned about her being kind of farther out, what's her more in town and closer to betty and to fielding? you know, one of the things that custer's response to directly and others do, too, but he's he's very you kind of outraged about this is the idea that she was a tory what? yes. okay so these so obviously these were narratives, rumors, whatever you want to call them circulating around about her at some point during or after. there's no evidence to show that she was, according to custer's agent, glad that you always worried about george. like during the braddock campaign and the french. and it was worried about him. right. so that she was glad when when

the war for independence ended. she may not have been a warm supporter of the patriot cause, but nor is there anything to show that she was a toy tory, a loyalist. you know, he she had other other allegiances. you know, other interests and allegiances other than so. but, you know, i will say, too, that some of these stories about her one is at the end of the war. there is a big piece ball in fredericksburg. virg he george cons, she goes with him on his arm and she is just so lovely but very modest and very simple and says, okay, george, now it's time for us to go. but i retire for the and so and everybody's just impressed with her republican motherhood right the way she is a kind of roman matron figure. thank you so much to