Washington Winter Show 2014

50 wearer’s wealth and knowledge of fashion and certainly would have provided a glittering accent to a hairpiece or gown. Costumes, music and dancing, horse races and fox hunts, gracious dinners, and quiet family moments all punctuated the everyday lives of the Lee family and other residents of Stratford. Home to four generations of the Lee family of Virginia and later residents, Stratford can be seen as an embodiment of Southern entertaining and family traditions. The legacy of Stratford and the Lees survive in the collections of Stratford Hall and other Lee family historic sites, as well as in the personal private collections that remain treasured in the Lee family. This exhibit serves as a small window into Stratford’s intimate history; a past filled with family, food, and festivities. Set on 1,900 acres on the Potomac River, StratfordHall offers a tranquil setting with hours of leisure activities for all visitors. In addition to the Great House, Stratford Hall has an expansive historic area, Visitor Center, beautiful gardens, nature trails, working gristmill, beach and cliffs that date to the Miocene era, one of only four formations like it in the world. Stratford Hall is located in Westmoreland County in the historic Northern Neck of Virginia and is a Virginia Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. 1. Account of a visit to Stratford recorded in Journal & Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, 1773–1774: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion , edited by Hunter Dickinson Farish (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., 1943), pp. 69–70. 2. Lee of Virginia, 1642–1892 , edited by Edmund Jennings Lee (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1983), p. 168. 3. George Washington, Mount Vernon, to Henry Lee III, December 25, 1785, transcript in Stratford Archives. 4. Charles Carter Lee Recollections, Charles Carter Lee Papers, University of Virginia, transcript in Stratford Archives. 5. Charles Carter Lee Recollections. 6. Thomas Lee Shippen, Menokin, to Dr. William Shippen Jr., September 29, 1790, Shippen Family Papers, transcript in Stratford Archives. 7. L. T. Brien to Charles B. Tiernan, 14 June 1898, reproduced in The Tiernan and Other Families (1901) by Charles B. Tiernan; as quoted in Lee, Lee Chronicle , p. 99. Brien recalls telling this memory to General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee while serving as the latter’s chief of staff during 1864–1865, specifically mentioning “knives, forks and spoons.” Three pieces of Lee family silver (two bottle sliders and one salver) exist in the Stratford collections with Somerville ownership history. 8. Interview with Ruth Yeaton Stuart, conducted by Ethel Armes, 2 November 1936, Stratford Archives. 9. Division of Philip Ludwell Lee estate, 1782, Westmoreland County Records, copy in Stratford Archives. 10. Philip Ludwell Lee Inventory (taken 20 March 1776). See: Probing the Past database (http://chnm.gmu.edu/probateinventory/document. php?estateID=182). 11. “The price of claret sent to Col. H. Lee by Mr. Ridout,” April 1785, recorded in Richard Henry Lee memorandum book, Huntington Library, transcript in Stratford Archives. 12. Philip Ludwell Lee Inventory. 13. Richard Henry Lee, Chantilly, Virginia, May 1769 to Doctor Fothergill, London. The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Volume I, 1762-1778 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1911), pp. 35-36. 14. Philip Ludwell Lee Inventory. 15. Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia (Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, 1976), p. 33. 16. Charles Carter Lee Recollections. 17. Maryland Gazette, 13 October 1757; Jeanne Calhoun, “A Harpsichord for ‘Miss Matilda’” in report to the board, October 1990 (pp. 23-24), unpublished internal document; “Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, Abstracts of Letters 1774-1784, from Duke University Library,” Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine , December 1966 [excerpts]. 18. Estate of Philip Ludwell Lee, Administrator’s Accounts, Westmoreland County Records, transcription in Connie Wyrick, Site Precis, unpublished internal document. “Journal & Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, 1773-1774: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion,” edited by Hunter Dickinson Farish (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., 1943), p. 69. 19. Charles Carter Lee Recollections. 20. Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia , p. 36. 21. Philip Ludwell Lee Inventory. Figure 12: Crescent Brooch & Butterfly Brooch. England. Metal and paste (glass), c. 1790. Gift of Cornelia Lee Post Niver. [1981.054.001-002]