Martha Washington; First American Hottie!?!

[cobalt1999]

At least according to the Washington Post.


www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020102023.html?nav=hcmodule

Fresh Look at Martha Washington: Less First Frump, More Foxy Lady

Forensic anthropologists used the 1796 portrait to generate an image of what Martha would have looked like in her 20s, inspiring this painting by Michael Deas.
Forensic anthropologists used the 1796 portrait to generate an image of what Martha would have looked like in her 20s, inspiring this painting by Michael Deas. (Courtesy Of Michael Deas)

Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy, dumpy, plump old lady, a fussy jumble of needlework in her lap, wearing what could pass for a shower cap with pink sponge rollers rolled too tight underneath.

But today, 250 years after Martha and George tied the knot, a handful of historians are seeking to revamp the former first lady's fusty image, using the few surviving records of things she wrote, asking forensic anthropologists to do a computerized age-regression portrait of her in her mid-20s and, perhaps most importantly, displaying for the first time in decades the avant-garde deep purple silk high heels studded with silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day.

[Javaman]

1. First Ladies gone wild. nt

[Captain Hilts]

7. Still waters run deep.

ER: Go, Martha!

[ensho]

2. I'd love to see those shoes and hooray for bringing her out of the shadows

nt

[Captain Hilts]

8. I want to know what happened to the buckles they describe in the article. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. I wouldn't kick her out of bed for wearing wooden teeth. nt

[Kahuna]

4. Seems feasible after seeing the older image. She would have been

very beautiful in her youth.

[cobalt1999]

6. Reminds me of seeing a picture of my grandmother when she was in her 20's

Wow. I never thought of her as a young woman "flapper" in the 1920's.

[Xithras]

12. That's always kind of disturbing.

I remember flipping through my grandmothers photo album when I was younger, and I came across a photo of a stunningly beautiful young woman relaxing on a grassy hillside. The photo was obviously shot by a professional photographer who was looking for something more interesting than the average staged studio shot of the day, and it was a bit risque for its time because she had her knee up and you could see much of her leg. The date on the photo was May 1918, so that would have been a big deal at the time. When I asked my grandmother who the woman was, she just smiled and replied "My mother."

Wow.

[villager]

5. Martha Washington!?:

[JackRiddler]

11. heh. endorsed.

[Poll_Blind]

9. She looks bitchy in a hot kinda way. Is FFWILF a word yet? n/t

PB

[Captain Hilts]

14. Spare us. nt

[Xithras]

10. Erm...there is ALREADY a painting of her when she was younger.

It's interesting to see her in color, but it was already known that she was a pretty woman when she was younger.

It's also known, however, that at 27 she was already a widow with two kids when she married George, so it's improbable that she still had her "youthly figure". The few surviving records indicate that she was an extremely smart business woman who was best described as "beautiful and voluptuous".

Which makes sense if you think about it. Young George wasn't exactly an ugly duckling himself.

[Winterblues]

13. Looks a lot like Rachael Maddow to me.

:shrug: I like her smile.