Martha Washington: Frumpy or Foxy?

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/apr/24/frumpy-or-foxy-historians-use-technology-to-revamp/living/

Frumpy or Foxy?: Historians use technology to revamp image of America's first first lady

Edward Lengel, the senior editor at the Papers of

George Washington project at the University of Virginia

By Brigid Schulte

THE WASHINGTON POST

Published: April 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - This just in: Martha Washington was hot. Or at least hotter than we thought.

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 underneath.

But 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 important, 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.

Take that, Sally Fairfax.

History is about to be revised.

I read this today and thought it interesting.

Maybe I should move to the Ladies Lounge...:wink2: