Step back in time to 1882.

Chester A. Arthur is president of the United States, the electric iron and Waterman's fountain pen were recently invented and 13-year-old Daisy Williams is giving a tour of Sweet Briar House, her Amherst County home.

Claire Wittman as Daisy WilliamsIn a high-collared, lacy white shirt paired with a nearly floor-length plaid skirt, Daisy, played by local teenager Claire Wittman, talks to visitors from the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Amherst Rotary Club about her home and some of her favorite things.

Wittman started appearing as Daisy, daughter of Sweet Briar's founder Indiana Fletcher Williams and her husband, James Henry, this past winter during Sweet Briar's inaugural Fringe Festival. Since that time, she has given the 15-to-20-minute tour to several groups, and the Sweet Briar Museum has made them available to the public upon request.

On the day the Rotary Club and DAR visited, Daisy came downstairs to the foyer, greeted them and apologized for her parents' absence. She talked about her grandparents, too, saying that, although she didn't know them, "I can show you their pictures. They're in the next room. Follow me."

Wittman, wearing a gold satin bow in her wavy brown hair and a matching one around her waist, channeled Daisy, pointing to a painting of her grandmother, Maria Fletcher, and saying, "I'm named for her, you know."

In the parlor, she showed visitors paintings of her father, James Henry, and mother, Indiana. "You're probably too polite to ask, but I'll tell you about it," she said of her mother's unusual name, explaining that she was named for the state of Indiana, in honor of an uncle who founded Indianapolis.

She talked about New York, where she went to school and everyone was "so fashionable," and about her affection for flowers. "I love flowers," she said. "Maybe it isn't surprising since they've always called me Daisy."

In the dining room, she said her favorite food was angel food cake and offered a recipe for the confection. "You beat [the eggs] with a whisk until your arm is stiff and they wouldn't fall off a plate if it was turned," she said, adding that sometimes it was difficult to find where the chickens had laid the eggs among the boxwoods that grew in the front yard.

She talked about sugar — how you could only use a cup of it for the angel food cake, but you could use as much as you want in lemonade. The lemons, she said, came on the train, but before they were squeezed, she and her mother liked to display them in a bowl in the dining room, something her father called "showing off."

She also mentioned a friend, Estelle, who would be coming that afternoon, and after showing the visitors a piece of furniture purchased at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, exclaimed, "Oh, let me see about Estelle!" and ran off back to the foyer.

The guests followed and Daisy bid them farewell, remarking that they should stop by again when her parents were home.

Christian Carr, Sweet Briar Museum director, thought the Daisy tours would be a good way to bring Sweet Briar House to life. "People have adored it," Carr said. "It's been a surprise. It's so amazing that we've had that many requests for it — a dozen requests so far. ... To have a tour by Daisy is pretty cool."

Wittman is the daughter of Loretta Wittman, SBC associate professor of theater, and Jeffrey Wittman, chair of the theater department at Lynchburg College. She is an eighth-grade honor student at Holy Cross School in Lynchburg and studies voice with SBC music instructor Marcia Jones Thom.

Recently, she played Fredrika Armfeldt in Sweet Briar's production of "A Little Night Music." She also has appeared in local productions of "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," among others.

She is presently rehearsing for the Holy Cross production of "Peter Pan," in which she plays Wendy, and Academy of Fine Arts production of "Guys and Dolls." Both will be performed in May.

Daisy tours, which are free of charge, can be arranged by calling the Sweet Briar Museum at (434) 381-6246.