Virginia Historical Society: Custis Family Papers

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The front sign welcoming you to the Virginia Historical Society.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Virginia Historical Society

428 North Boulevard

Richmond, VA

Website:  Virginia Historical Society
The Custis Family Papers: Saving an American Tradition

The Treasure:  The Custis Family Papers at the Virginia Historical Society shed considerable light on life in colonial Virginia, but remain of particular lasting popular interest because of their insight into the world of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington—or, as she’s better known, Martha Washington.

Accessibility: The Virginia Historical Society’s library and galleries are open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 5 and on Sunday from 1 to 5, except for major holidays. Admission is free for all visitors. There are always great exhibitions in the galleries to visit, most drawing heavily upon both the Historical Society’s permanent collections and the large archaeological collections of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

The Virginia Historical Society maintains a museum of changing, long-term, and traveling exhibitions; offers public lectures, seminars, conferences, and consulting services; arranges school and general group tours and activities; publishes teacher resource materials; conducts teacher training and re-certification workshops on- and off-site; operates a research library; and supports research through an endowed fellowship program and minority internships. Their long-term exhibition The Story of Virginia: An American Experience can be viewed online.

Specific library collections such as the Custis Family Papers are only placed on view for special exhibitions. At other times, the fragile documents are preserved in cool, dry, and dark storage as recommended by current best practices. This digital Document Gallery offers an accessible view of some representative papers from the collection.

A slave list from the Custis Family
Papers, before treatment.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical
Society.

Notes:  Settling on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the mid-17th century, General John Custis and his wife Margaret took full advantage of the opportunities of a new land. Custis served as a member of the Governor’s Council and worked the land, steadily expanding his initial holdings. The family grew wealthy and powerful over the next three generations.

Custis’ grandson Daniel Parke Custis was 38 when he married the charming 18-year-old Martha Dandridge in 1749. Five years and four children later, Daniel was dead and Martha found herself young, wealthy, and very eligible for remarriage. At the age of 27, Martha Dandridge Custis married one of her admirers—that handsome up-and-coming militia officer and Virginia gentleman, George Washington.

The Custis Family Papers provide wonderful detail on life in early colonial Virginia (Northampton County and Williamsburg) in the decades before the George and Martha union. Then the Washington-Custis portion of the collection offers valuable documentary evidence of the workings of the Washington-Custis estates as well as an inside look at the care the couple lavished on Martha’s one surviving son, John Parke Custis, and their grandchildren. While George and Martha had no children of their own, the future President enjoyed—and was fully dedicated to—his stepfather responsibilities.

Conservation treatment of the Custis Family Papers was performed at the conservation laboratory at the Virginia Historical Society and at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts.

Notes from the Editor:  The conservation of the Custis Family Papers offered an opportunity to investigate a story associated with this collection. While it’s natural for colorful legends to attach themselves to collections, it can be very difficult to authenticate seemingly apocryphal stories. Family legends get notoriously garbled as they pass down the generations, often making it impossible to separate truth from myth.

Former Confederate General George Washington Custis Lee (the eldest son of Robert E. Lee, a president of Washington and Lee University, and a Custis family member) gave the Custis Family Papers to the Virginia Historical Society in 1900. At the time it was shared that, according to family legend, the papers had been buried for safekeeping during the Civil War to preserve them for posterity. With this story in mind, the conservators were asked to look for any signs that the papers may indeed have been buried. Sure enough, the conservators noted signs of water damage that would be typical of documents buried in a container in the ground. Granted, this doesn’t conclusively prove the story is true, but the physical evidence lends some credence to the anecdotal evidence.

True or not, it’s my type of story—demonstrating a family’s commitment to preservation even in the face of impending hardship and war.

Before and after treatment of a document from the Custis Family Papers.
Photo courtesy of Virginia Historical Society.

Before and after treatment of a document from the Custis Family Papers.
Photo courtesy of Virginia Historical Society.

Other Recommended Sites:  Head a few blocks south toward the James River and spend a relaxing day at Maymont. Located on 100 scenic acres, a day at Maymont should include a tour of the handsome Victorian estate, time for strolling through the gardens, a detour to the nature center, and probably a picnic lunch. It’s perfect for families. Why, there’s even a petting zoo! Richmond natives rightfully treasure this beautiful park.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Friday’s destination:  Virginia Historical Society (Charles Hoffbauer Murals)
Monday’s destination:  Washington Monument Sculpture Group

© 2012 Lee Price