Eleanor Parke Custis (1897–1983) was an American artist and photographer, born in Washington, D.C., and a direct descendant of Martha Washington. From 1915 to 1925, she trained under Edmund C. Tarbell at the Corcoran School of Art and furthered her studies with Henry Snell during the summers of 1924 and 1925 in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Her early training culminated in a solo exhibition at the Washington Art Club in 1925.

Between 1926 and 1929, Custis traveled extensively through France, Holland, Italy, and Switzerland, producing a body of watercolors that reflected her keen observation of light, atmosphere, and landscape. Later travels included Cairo in 1933 and Central and South America in 1937–1938, broadening her artistic perspective.

By the mid-1930s, Custis shifted her focus from painting to photography, publishing Composition and Pictures in 1935, which she both wrote and illustrated. Her photography career grew steadily, culminating in a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Institute in 1946. Over the following decades, she spent increasing time at her summer residence in Gloucester, Massachusetts, ultimately moving there permanently in 1960 from her home in Georgetown.

Custis’s work demonstrates a lifelong dedication to capturing the nuances of composition, light, and form across multiple media. Her early mastery of watercolor and later prominence as a photographer illustrate a unique synthesis of traditional training and modern vision, leaving a lasting impact on 20th-century American visual culture.