WOMEN IN HISTORY - DOLLEY MADISON
Wife and political partner of James Madison, the 4th President of the United States
DATE OF BIRTH
May 20, 1768
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PLACE OF BIRTHGuilford County, NC
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DATE OF DEATH
July 12, 1849
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PLACE OF DEATHWashington, DC
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Nicknamed “Queen Dolley” of Washington City for her famous Wednesday night drawing rooms called ‘squeezes’. In this way, she quietly spearheaded Washington society and influenced the informal sphere of political process in the developing republic. Dolley and Henry Latrobe restructured the state rooms of the White House so that there was a place to appropriately receive national and foreign dignitaries befitting American patriotism and values. During the War of 1812, she saved early cabinet papers, state papers, and James Madison’s papers from the hands of the British before they set to burning the White House, the Capitol, and other government buildings. She is most famously known for risking her life to save the portrait of George Washington on that same night. After James’ death at their home in Montpelier, VA, she returned to her beloved city of Washington where the House of Representatives provided her the rare honor of her own seat on the house floor and permanent free postage for life for mailing her letters. Along with Louisa Adams, John Quincy’s wife, and Eliza Hamilton, Alexander’s wife, they raised the funds to complete the Washington monument. In addition to this, she was the first First Lady to take on a public project: the co-founding and support of the Washinton Female Orphans Asylum to accommodate the orphans of the War of 1812. When she died in 1849, both houses of Congress adjourned to attend the funeral and the largest one the city had seen since its inception. Dignitaries from all areas of life walked in her procession to the Congressional Cemetery where she was buried but was eventually moved to join her husband at Montpelier.