Queen of America: In Search of the Real Dolley Madison

Despite her role as an influential first Lady, Dolley Madison left no autobiographical record of her experiences as a woman or as a socio-political figure. In The Queen of America, acclaimed author Catherine Allgor, along with other Madison historians, offer the annotated memoir of Dolley from her niece, Mary Cutts. Revealing much about public women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Allgor also offers an example of the ways in which historians can recover the lives of these "vanishing ladies."