“Make-Over” of a Rare Daguerreotype: Martha Parke Custis Peter and Granddaughter
To save an 1850s daguerreotype, a portrait of Tudor Place founder Martha Parke Custis Peter (1777-1854) with granddaughter Martha Custis Kennon (1843-1886), conservation took place early this year. Martha Peter’s father, John Parke (“Jacky”) Custis (1754-1781), was Martha Washington’s son from her first marriage. She and George Washington raised him at Mount Vernon, which is where Martha Peter — who appears in the daguerrotype as an old woman — was born. The Tudor Place daguuerreotype is one of only two known photographs of a grandchild of Martha Washington; the other is in the Library of Congress.
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