Tudor Place image When Martha Custis Williams began her Arlington diary on October 28, 1853, she had only the faintest sense that someday, it might prove historically significant. Known as “Markie” among friends and family, she was a second cousin of Mary Custis Lee (the wife of Robert E. Lee) and a grandniece of George Washington Parke Custis. Two months after returning from a yearlong trip through Europe, she came to Arlington House to keep her recently widowed uncle company while the Lee family was away at West Point. For the next four and a half years, she recorded nearly everything that she experienced there, ranging from the Revolutionary War anecdotes of her uncle, interactions with prominent visitors, and even her conversations with enslaved people. By far, her diaries provide the most detailed account of daily life at Arlington House in existence. |
Last updated: March 29, 2023