Tuesday, Jul 24, 2007
On June 30th, for the first time in 165 years, the great hallway and rooms of Arlington House once again bore witness to the pomp and circumstance of a grand wedding. This once-in-a-lifetime event served as a classic ending to a full day of interpretive and educational activities about wedding customs and traditions of the mid-19th century. Throughout the day, the public had many opportunities to participate in the commemoration of the 176th wedding anniversary of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis and the 200th anniversary of Lee’s birth.
A local couple agreed to exchange vows during the event in a public ceremony, not a re-enactment, while dressed in period clothing in the same parlor where Robert E. Lee wed Mary Custis on June 30, 1831. With the collection removed for upcoming rehabilitation work, it was a perfect opportunity for this public program and to highlight the many facets of life at Arlington House, as weddings are not otherwise held in the house.
The groom, Dr. Talmadge Williams, is chairman of The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, a partner with Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, and president of the Arlington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The bride, Ms. Nina Gutierrez, is a business owner and an active member in the Arlington, Virginia, community. In addition, the wedding party and guest list included descendents of a family once enslaved on the Arlington plantation during Lee’s lifetime.
Arlington House is administered by the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a unit of the National Park Service. To learn about Arlington House, visit http://www.nps.gov/arho. For more information about over 25 sites within the George Washington Memorial Parkway, visit http://www.nps.gov/gwmp.
|
