By Peter Gordon, historian —
Long before our current obsession with Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, and Melania Trump, in 1860, Eudora Tiffany of Glen Mary Drive, Tioga, at age 15, kept a scrapbook of stories about the powerful and sophisticated women of Washington, DC, whose images appeared in the Brady Photographic Gallery. That scrapbook is housed in the Tioga County Historical Museum on Front Street in Owego.
One clipped article celebrating several young women influential in presidential politics was titled The Court Ladies of Washington. Rose Adele Cutts, the second wife of Lincoln’s Illinois rival, Stephen A. Douglas, and grandniece of her mentor, Dolly Madison, enabled Douglas’ presidential ambitions.
Eudora Tiffany Burgess photographed by her husband, Andrew Burgess. Owego Historian Image.
The article says she was “Educated at Washington … thoroughly initiated into the chicanery of political life … [and] will do her part toward making herself ‘lady of the White House.’ … she exerted a marked personal influence over gentlemen … who as usual were quite willing to be led by a young, beautiful, and brilliant woman. … She has rescued Mr. Douglas from at least some of his low associates ….”
Harriet Lane, also mentioned, was the niece of outgoing bachelor President James Buchanan. She was the de facto first lady for her uncle and, by all accounts, performed admirably as the hostess at state dinners during the time when the country was being torn asunder in the run-up to the Civil War. Eudora’s clipped article describes her as “Lane of the White House … A blonde, cold, and passionless as marble – one’s very admiration gives them a chill. … a model of repose; the very Miss Lane the papers assure us ‘receives [state visitors] with great dignity.’”
On Oct. 2, 1871, at her parent’s home on Glen Mary Drive, Eudora Tiffany would marry one of Brady’s celebrity photographers. Andrew Burgess would manage Brady’s Washington Gallery and posed celebrities in the most flattering manner, learned from the master – Brady.
Belva Lockwood is photographed at the Brady Studio, when it was managed by Andrew Burgess. Courtesy: Library of Congress.
During the period of Burgess’ gallery management, Josephine Cobb, Archivist of the Still Pictures Branch of the National Archives, credits him with attracting celebrities such as poet Walt Whitman, satirist Samuel Clemmons (Mark Twain), and suffragist pioneer Belva Lockwood to the Brady Studio.
In looking over the many images of Belva Lockwood, the one taken at the Brady Studio during that time period is seen here. It might be that Burgess, who lived with his bride on Glen Mary Drive, took that picture.
On May 10, 2025, the Tioga County Historical Society, during their 6 to 8 p.m. Grand Reopening Fundraiser, will unveil a new multimedia exhibit featuring their most treasured possession, a gift from Eudora Burgess – one of the most significant portraits of Abraham Lincoln – a portrait by one of Mathew Brady’s artists. You can read the details of the TCHS grand opening event here.
Harriet Lane, de facto First Lady to her bachelor uncle, President James Buchanan. Courtesy: Library of Congress.
The portrait has traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the Lincoln Gravesite in Springfield, Illinois, for the Centennial Memorial of Lincoln’s death. This hand-colored portrait is uniquely named and copyrighted as “The Zouave Lincoln” because of an inset image of Elmer Ellsworth, dressed in a Zouave uniform. Ellsworth was a friend of Lincoln’s and the first Union officer killed at the outset of the Civil War.
In addition to the Zouave Lincoln, Eudora donated hundreds of Brady studio images and other national treasures along with her scrapbook. Museum Executive Director Gerald Smith will talk about the history of photography and the significance of this method of portraiture.
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