{"id":105841,"date":"2025-05-02T07:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=105841"},"modified":"2025-05-02T08:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:07:59","slug":"the-court-ladies-of-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"The Court Ladies of Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Peter Gordon, historian —<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Illinois rival, Stephen A. Douglas, and grandniece of her mentor, Dolly Madison, enabled Douglas\u2019 presidential ambitions.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Eudora Tiffany Burgess photographed by her husband, Andrew Burgess. Owego Historian Image.<\/p><\/div>\n

The article says she was \u201cEducated at Washington \u2026 thoroughly initiated into the chicanery of political life \u2026 [and] will do her part toward making herself \u2018lady of the White House.\u2019 \u2026 she exerted a marked personal influence over gentlemen \u2026 who as usual were quite willing to be led by a young, beautiful, and brilliant woman. \u2026 She has rescued Mr. Douglas from at least some of his low associates \u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s clipped article describes her as \u201cLane of the White House \u2026 A blonde, cold, and passionless as marble \u2013 one\u2019s very admiration gives them a chill. \u2026 a model of repose; the very Miss Lane the papers assure us \u2018receives [state visitors] with great dignity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 2, 1871, at her parent\u2019s home on Glen Mary Drive, Eudora Tiffany would marry one of Brady\u2019s celebrity photographers. Andrew Burgess would manage Brady\u2019s Washington Gallery and posed celebrities in the most flattering manner, learned from the master \u2013 Brady.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Belva Lockwood is photographed at the Brady Studio, when it was managed by Andrew Burgess. Courtesy: Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

During the period of Burgess\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On May 10, 2025, the Tioga County Historical Society,<\/strong> 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 \u2013 one of the most significant portraits of Abraham Lincoln \u2013 a portrait by one of Mathew Brady\u2019s artists. You can read the details of the TCHS grand opening event here. <\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Harriet Lane, de facto First Lady to her bachelor uncle, President James Buchanan. Courtesy: Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

The portrait has traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the Lincoln Gravesite in Springfield, Illinois, for the Centennial Memorial of Lincoln\u2019s death. This hand-colored portrait is uniquely named and copyrighted as \u201cThe Zouave Lincoln\u201d because of an inset image of Elmer Ellsworth, dressed in a Zouave uniform. Ellsworth was a friend of Lincoln\u2019s and the first Union officer killed at the outset of the Civil War.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peter Gordon, historian — Long before our current obsession with Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, and Melania Trump, in 1860, Eudora Tiffany of Glen Mary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":105844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Court Ladies of Washington - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Court Ladies of Washington - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Peter Gordon, historian — Long before our current obsession with Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, and Melania Trump, in 1860, Eudora Tiffany of Glen Mary...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-02T11:53:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-02T12:07:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2025\/05\/Ladies3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"658\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/\",\"name\":\"The Court Ladies of Washington - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2025\/05\/Ladies3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-02T11:53:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-02T12:07:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2025\/05\/02\/the-court-ladies-of-washington\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2025\/05\/Ladies3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2025\/05\/Ladies3.jpg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":658,\"caption\":\"Pictured is Rose Adele Cutts, niece of Dolly Madison and the second Mrs. Stephen A. 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