Nancy Langhorne Shaw Astor, Viscountess Astor (1879–1964)
By Edith Leeson Everett
Oil on canvas
Gift of the artist
Currently on display in The Story of Virginia exhibition.
Astor was the first woman to take a seat in the British House of Commons. Born in Danville, later she lived in Albemarle
County, and in 1901 she married American expatriate Waldorf Astor and moved to England. In 1919 she won the seat
in Parliament he had vacated upon being made a lord, and she held it for twenty-six years. Her causes were temperance,
women's and children's welfare, and opposition to socialism. She once wrote, "To be a Virginian is a tremendous
responsibility. So much is expected of us."
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