i see a question here. >> so, dolley madison.so the way you describe her she sounds as if she might have been the first of the modern first ladies, and i'm just curious what you would say about, you know, our potential first ladies right now, who do you think is the most like a dolly? >> interesting. spent or whatever it was you said. >> i don't think there's any question that she is the model for the activist, not a word she would've, but the participatory first lady as opposed to an example, in her time, when she was a young woman, and this is, abigail was a first lady and martha washington was firstly, she knew all of those people. annett davis come at the weekly event when a welcome the general public, they sat and people to come up every politely bow and scrape effectively in order to get the attention of the first lady. when dolley set up or squeezes, she mixed, she would middle, she shook hands. i do know she kissed cheeks or not, but she was definitely a very accessible, friendly, warm person who, among other things, welc

james madison is a shy man and dolley madison is his front. dolley madison is the person who sets up, has the parties. james is in a corner. and she can have everyone coming who needs to talk to him coming to talk to him. has a wonderful environment she stirs up. support for her husband. she doesn't create enemies for her husband and she's a real master of the sort of -- it's often called the parlor politics of the time period, where women are setting up their own networks of social links that keep information flowing. dolley madison has her finger on the pulse of what's being said in washington. and relaying that information back to her husband. she can bring information out to other people. she has a series of friends. she finds jobs friends of friends. it creates a support group for her husband and for her husband's administration. >> what does her bookshelf if you will here in this part tell us about who she is? what are some of the artifacts in there? >> some of the most amazing artifacts, i think the one that just really resonates is the

and he was placed here and located so that his wife, dolley, who outlived him, could be buried next to him. however, dolley had moved to washington and died in washington, and she was first interred at congressional cemetery. and it wasn't until the 1850s that her body was returned to montpelier. at about the same time, this memorial was erected, in 1858, and you see it just simply marks madison giving his last name, his birth date, and the date of his death. however, in building this memorial, mark his burial site, the builders also used the grave site set aside for dolley so that when her remains were brought here about the same time, she was buried behind madison instead of beside him and she also has a marker on her grave gve has to be marked. i think for the family, the marking of the grave was the cemetery itself. and this was the existence of the cemetery, the walls that enclose it, designated this as the family's burial ground, so that additional marking inside it wasn't necessary. as i said, both madison's parents and his grandparents are buried in the cemetery. we don't know

this is when dolley moves back to washington. she takes out an insurance policy on the house and part of what they need for this insurance policy is a plat showing where all the outbuildings are and we've outed this plat. this plat is incredibly important allowing us to locate the outbuildings in this area. in the 1990s we located a chimney base, a brick chimney base, that we were able to figure out from the archaeology was part of a duplex or a slave quarter, with a central chimney and a hearth on either side, so there would be two households that would live there. with that we were able to line up the insurance plat with the rest of the grounds and able to start to explore this area for other outbuildings and what we found is that -- we've got three duplexes in this area. three homes for slave quarters, and four of these buildings we've marked. two smokehouses that are on the insurance map, a kitchen that's beside the house that's actually an 18th century kitchen that we located through archaeology and this other duplex which i

their first -- the first power couple and the obama's could learn much from james and dolley. of pivotal moment in her history america be sieged sought to maintain its independence from forces to huge to repel. but they did. a concept that the few independent bookstores appreciate. thinks to c-span and a booktv, be sure to check out the schedule to find out when this will be held or telecast. he will offer remarks then take questions and will happily sign copies of his book. also copies are available on our website to. the book loft.com if you have questions remember to wait for the microphone. the entire staff are very pleased to welcome our friend and neighbor, 89. [applause] >> hugh howard. >> good evening. wonderful to be here thank you for those kind words. also markets and alec and all of the other folks here. independent stores are becoming more and more important in this world. for those of us to enjoy the process of browsing for books it has the special place. i think them for being here tonight. to begin, the question that comes to mind why a book on the war of 1812?

political thinker was desighing the virginia plan and the constitution, his role as an entertainer with dolley in the house but a very important role he had was as a slave owner, and how does this blend all these together, you know, the entertaining he was doing, how he had house slaves interacting with other slaves and with the guests. so, we're trying to but all this back together and the documents don't tell us everything we need, so we're trying to fill in the gaps with the archaeology. >> you can view more "american history tv" programs at our website cspan.org/history. you can also follow us on facebook, facebook.com/c-spanhistory. in >>> understanding richard nixon and his era. over the next hour scholars focus on the vietnam war. they discussed the partnership between richard nixon and henry kissinger, his role as commander in chief, the pentagon papers and the administration's response to dissent. >> welcome back to understanding richard nixon and his era, a symposium. i'm kenn hughes. i'm a researcher with the presidential recordings program of the university of virginia's miller cen

wonderful to work with, i also want to thank the library of congress, the university of virginia's dolley madison digital edition, the northern public library, james madison montpelier, author and historian william steele and the white house historical association. if anyone has any questions, i'd be happy to take them. there'll be a microphone coming around if you'd like to raise your hand. or on white house history general. i know that as well. the gentleman down here. >> the furniture that the madisons bought after the burning of the white house like by worthington, et cetera, does that still exist? is that still in the collection of the white house? >> no, it's not still in the collection. it's unknown as to where most of it is at the time. because when monroe came into the white house -- well, actually, most of those things actually never entered the white house. >> right. >> they were used in the seven building. to my knowledge, they're not in the montpelier collection. they may have been destroyed or they may just have been lost to history. >> thank you. >> sure. >> the 1814 drawin