Martha Washington: First Fashionista
This article isn't exactly breaking news, especially to anyone who has read Patricia Brady's excellent 2006 biography Martha Washington: An American Life (the cover of which is adorned by the Michael J. Deas portrait seen below); but I thought it was worth sharing if only for the mention of deep purple, sequin-studded silk high heels the future Mrs. Washington wore to her wedding. Reading that positively filled me with a spirit of patriotic sisterhood....
Anyway, read on to learn about the ongoing effort to give Martha a serious image makeover. If you're interested in learning more, be sure to check out that book I mentioned ;)
America’s first first lady: Foxy or frumpy?
Historians use technology to revamp Martha Washington's image
By Brigid Schulte, Washington Post
WASHINGTON Feb. 4, 2009 - This just in: Martha Washington was hot. Or at least hotter than we thought.
Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy, dumpy, plump old lady, a fussy jumble of needlework in her lap, wearing what could pass for a shower cap with pink sponge rollers underneath.
But today, 250 years after Martha and George tied the knot, a handful of historians are seeking to revamp the former first lady’s fusty image, using the few surviving records of things she wrote, asking forensic anthropologists to do a computerized age-regression portrait of her in her mid-20s and, perhaps most importantly, displaying for the first time in decades the avant-garde deep purple silk high heels studded with silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day.
Take that, Sally Fairfax.
History is about to be revised. [Continued...]
Anyway, read on to learn about the ongoing effort to give Martha a serious image makeover. If you're interested in learning more, be sure to check out that book I mentioned ;)
America’s first first lady: Foxy or frumpy?
Historians use technology to revamp Martha Washington's image
By Brigid Schulte, Washington Post
WASHINGTON Feb. 4, 2009 - This just in: Martha Washington was hot. Or at least hotter than we thought.
Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy, dumpy, plump old lady, a fussy jumble of needlework in her lap, wearing what could pass for a shower cap with pink sponge rollers underneath.
But today, 250 years after Martha and George tied the knot, a handful of historians are seeking to revamp the former first lady’s fusty image, using the few surviving records of things she wrote, asking forensic anthropologists to do a computerized age-regression portrait of her in her mid-20s and, perhaps most importantly, displaying for the first time in decades the avant-garde deep purple silk high heels studded with silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day.
Take that, Sally Fairfax.
History is about to be revised. [Continued...]