As with many famous folks, the internet abounds with questionable folklore, spurious quotes, and outright falsities concerning James and Dolley Madison. It has long been repeated that James Madison, notoriously diminutive in stature, stood 5’4”. However, in documentary records...
Continuing my professional journey at this historic place, the home of James Madison, is a tremendous honor. Madison restored himself on these lands before returning to the Herculean task of creating a new nation. I, too, feel restored in returning home to Virginia, to the rolling Piedmont hills, and to the red earth of Orange County.
A team of curators, facilities and restoration staff, and a fine art specialist worked late into the evening hours on September 17—Constitution Day—to install thirty-four of the thirty-seven prints and engravings listed on an 1836 document entitled “Engravings in the dining room.”
Perhaps the principle highlight of James Madison’s presidency was the aptly named War of 1812. Often referred to as “America’s Second War for Independence,” the war was the new nation’s struggle for sovereignty. Locked in a long and difficult clash with Napoleon, the British attempted to hinder the growth and prosperity of their former colony, and prevent the United States from colluding against them with the French.
Montpelier is excited to announce our exhibit of a significant chair with James and Nelly Madison Sr. provenance. This rare ca. 1773 Cockburn side chair is on loan from the James Madison Museum in Orange.
What’s the hottest download at the Apple App Store? The James Madison’s Montpelier Tour App of course! From the more than 500,000 mobile apps available, Apple Computer each week chooses just a few of the most interesting and intriguing to feature in the iPhone App Store. This week, Apple has chosen the newly launched “James Madison’s Montpelier” tour app as one of the featured apps.
One hundred and sixty-three years ago today, Dolley Madison died at approximately 10:15 in the evening, “at peace with the world & it with her.” According to James Madison Cutts, Dolley’s nephew, America’s first First Lady “expired without an effort & without apparent pain.”1 Dolley was the last surviving member of the founding generation, living as a widow for thirteen years after the passing of James Madison.
This year marks the bicentennial of the War of 1812, also known as “Mr. Madison’s War.” Two hundred years ago, this war tested our young nation. President Madison proved the United States could go to war without depriving citizens of their constitutional rights.
In the early nineteenth century, many fashionable men and women including Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Clay, Queen Charlotte of England (wife of George III), and Dolley Madison dipped snuff. The nicotine stimulant made from ground tobacco leaves was typically stored in a small highly decorated box made of silver, tortoise shell, or other decorative material.
