Tea at Trianon: Selina Gray, the Heroine of Arlington

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, August 21, 2017

Selina Gray, the Heroine of Arlington

Selina Gray was Mrs. Robert E. Lee's personal maid whom Mrs. Lee left in charge of the Arlington house and plantation for the duration of the War Between the States. Selina, a formidable woman, famously told the occupying Union soldiers to keep their hands off of "Mrs. Lee's things." She is credited with saving the family portrait of George Washington, since Mary Custis Lee was the great-granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington. From The Washington Post:

When Robert E. Lee’s wife, Mary, fled Arlington House at the start of the Civil War, she gave her personal slave, Selina Norris Gray, the keys to the mansion and responsibility for the grand house the Lees had lived in for 30 years. Gray fulfilled her duties. She is famously credited with saving from marauding Union soldiers numerous heirlooms belonging to George Washington that were stored in the house.

Now the National Park Service, which administers Arlington House, has acquired what it says is a rare and previously unknown photograph of Gray and, apparently, two of her eight children. The photograph was spotted last month on the Internet auction site eBay by Park Service volunteer Dean DeRosa. The seller, in England, had found the photo in a box of “unwanted” pictures at a British version of a yard sale.

A Park Service statement said that its nonprofit partner, Save Historic Arlington House, bid on the photograph and, “against stiff competition,” won.

“This is a big deal,” National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles said Thursday. “It’s incredibly rare to have photos of slaves that we can identify,” she said. “Since slaves were property, it’s really hard to identify the people in images like this. This is a priceless item to add to our collection.” She said the Park Service is sure the double image, which is identified on the back only as “Gen Lees Slaves Arlington Va,” depicts Gray, the older woman in the picture, and probably her children. The Park Service was able to compare the new photo with an identified photo of Gray already in its collection. Anzelmo-Sarles said the new photo is believed to have been taken outside Gray’s slave quarters at Arlington. (Read more.)