Dolley Madison photo sold for thousands just one artifact of the former First Lady’s life

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Sotheby’s made a big deal out of this little image of Dolley Madison when they auctioned it off recently, but down at the Greensboro History Museum, old photos of Madison are, well, old hat.

The museum is home to a small chest that holds some of Madison’s personal effects.

“Inside that chest were daguerreotypes, there were other documents, dresses,” said Carol Hart, director at the Greensboro History Museum.

For more than 60 years, the museum in Dolley Madison’s hometown has had its own.

“Very revolutionary, I mean, before that there were only paintings. Paintings cannot be completely accurate. Photography is — assuming you stood still,” said Elise Allison, archivist at the museum.

The Greensboro History Museum’s daguerreotypes of Madison were taken at the Washington studio of legendary photographer Matthew Brady a year before she died.

“And we know exactly when it was taken. It was taken on the Fourth of July 1848. She had helped raise money to build the Washington Monument and they had laid the cornerstone that day,” Hart said.

The lady from Greensboro had that kind of influence because she was an innovative thinker.

“She really developed the role of First Lady that we know, today. She started to use the role of the First Lady, as a woman, to further her husband’s political ambitions, to cement the social life that she knew, strategically, would help her husband,” Hart said.

Because even though she was born into a Quaker family, Madison knew how to throw a party.

“They were known as ‘squeezes.’ They were Wednesday nights. So many people were squeezed into the room that they started calling them squeezes. But her innovation was that she didn’t just invite the politicians, she invited people from society. She would invite people who maybe weren’t friends – again, very strategic – with the idea that people get to know each other, maybe develop friendships, share a glass of wine together, might then work together, politically,” Hart said.

Her wisdom and perhaps, a touch of mischievousness seem to be lurking in that grin captured in her final years. Years well spent, even if in an era when women’s fortunes were limited.

Hart has her own ideas of what modern-day career Madison would have.

“I think she might head up a major PR firm, because that was her thing. She was a real good public relations person,” she said.

Which is helping keep her reputation alive and well, more than two centuries after she left the White House.

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