“C” is for Cunningham, Ann Pamela (1816-1875). Preservationist. Born in Laurens District, at the age of seventeen, an accident left Cunningham an invalid. On returning to South Carolina after a summer visit, her mother observed the dilapidated state of George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. From her sickbed Ann Pamela immediately penned an appeal to the “Ladies of the South!” to raise funds to purchase and renovate Mount Vernon. Women in the North and South formed “Mount Vernon Associations,” and in 1856 the Virginia legislature granted a charter to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, with Cunningham as its first regent. The money was raised and the association assumed control of the property in 1860. In 1874 Ann Pamela Cunningham penned a farewell address charging the association with the duty of preserving Mount Vernon “with sacred reverence.”
“C” is for Cunningham, Ann Pamela (1816-1875)
