TEHS Hybrid Meeting March 2023

Past Meeting

This Society meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday February 19, 2023
at Tredyffrin Public Libary in Strafford, Pa.
co-sponsored by the Tredyffrin Public Library as an online web seminar.

Martha Washington: From Belle of Virginia to Lady Washington

presented by Amanda Carey

Amanda Carey as Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge Custis and George Washington were married in 1759 and they were among the most prominent families in the colonies. George Washington would leave home in 1775 to attend the Second Continental Congress, and he wouldn't return to Mount Vernon for over six years.

Presenter Amanda Carey shared Martha's feelings and thoughts about the war from the moment she learns her husband will not be returning from the Second Continental Congress up to her first encampment visit, and her eventual transformation from "Patsy" into Lady Washington. Martha spent every winter at camp beside her General, serving as hostess, nurse and wife. We heard about her experiences and how the trials of Valley Forge forever changed the military, and Martha.

Amanda Carey portrays a number of 18th-century women, including Martha Washington, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Peggy Shippen Arnold, and Sally Cary Fairfax. More information is available on her Best of Women, LLC website.

“Professional dedication and care is placed into the creation of each persona interpreted for historical programming. As education is as much the goal as entertainment, studious deliberation goes into the preparation of each program. This includes intensive study of biographies of not only the persona portrayed but her family and contemporaries. This also includes an in depth knowledge of the culture and events of the time period. Performances are not a one woman play, but a scholarly dive into each woman's 18th century world in which the audience is invited to travel into the past and meet a Founding Mother or historical figure first hand.”