Letter and poem, "To Miss Eleanor Parke Custis on her fifteenth Birthday, March 31st 1794"

Containers:
Box 6, Folder 1851.00.00
Creator:
Lewis, Eleanor Parke Custis, 1779-1852
Scope and content:

A four page manuscript beginning with a poem titled "For Miss Eleanor Parke Custis on her fifteenth Birthday, March 31st 1794", but clearly not the original Andrew Allen manuscript as it is in Nelly Custis's hand and her 21 January 1851 letter mentions having burned the original when she married. It also contains other reflections on her early life and remarks about the poem and another poem included. This piece may have been written out in 1851 either for herself or for her friend Elizabeth Bordley Gibson. It was identified by Donald Jackson as "an undated scrap intended for Elizabeth, written very late in her life" in an article "George Washington's Beautiful Nelly" published in American Heritage 28:2 (Feb. 1977).

Language:
English .

Access and use

Location of collection:
The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
3600 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Reference services
Phone: (703) 780-3600
Parent restrictions:
This collection is open for research during scheduled appointments. Researchers must complete the Washington Library's Special Collections and Archives Registration Form before access is provided. The library reserves the right to restrict access to certain items for preservation purposes.