Katharine Campbell Young Keck was the daughter of John and Martha Eliza (née Carr) Young. She and her sister, Mary Paschall Young Doty, inherited a c. 1823 portrait of their great-grandmother, Martha Eliza Stevens Edgar Paschall (widow of General John Edgar). Painted by an unknown American artist, the picture was probably commissioned on the occasion of Martha Stevens' first marriage to Gen. Edgar. It was passed down from mother to daughter through successive generations, and was in the care of Katharine Keck's sister at the family home in Geneseo, New York, until 1970. From there it came to the Washington, D.C. home of Mrs. Keck, who later gave it to the National Gallery of Art.