This bill is for a wide variety of clothing from 1756-57, from a tailor named George Heath. Several items throughout the bill are mourning clothes, and are presumably associated with one of the two deaths that struck the Custis family in 1757: …

John Custis was the very wealthy father of Martha Washington’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Custis became a widower after his wife Frances died in 1714. Although initially opposed to his son’s intended marriage, Custis met with Martha…

This guitar was a gift to Martha Washington's granddaughter Nelly Custis from George Washington toward the end of his second presidency. It made in London and features an ivory panel with Nelly Custis's…

George Washington ordered this expensive English harpsichord in 1793 for Nelly Custis, his step-granddaughter. It came to Mount Vernon in 1797 when the Washingtons returned home after the Presidency. Nelly’s harpsichord performances were an…

Martha Washington’s daughter Patsy was sixteen when this miniature portrait was painted by Charles Willson Peale. Patsy suffered from what was probably epilepsy, and a year after this portrait was executed would die as the result of a seizure…

This miniature portrait of John Parke (Jacky) Custis was executed by Charles Willson Peale. Jacky brought the painter with him to Mount Vernon when returning home from his studies in Annapolis. Jacky was eighteen when this portrait was painted. …

Partial transcript:

"P.S. please to inform Mr. Washington [i.e. Lund Washington] that I have made every possible Enquiry after his Negroes, but have not seen any belonging to him, the General or myself, I have heard that Ned is in York a pioneer,…

When Daniel Parke Custis was courting Martha Dandridge, he enlisted the help of his friend John Blair to convince John Custis (Daniel’s father) that the match was appropriate. This letter contains the news that John Custis had capitulated…