Behind the Scenes at James Madison's Montpelier
Journals, letters, and newspaper accounts help us trace Lafayette’s three stops at Montpelier in 1824-25, from ceremonial greetings to dinner table discussions to poignant farewells.
Questionably-drawn voting districts, flip-flops, getting out the vote, and – surprise! – cordiality between the candidates. It’s election season, 1789.
Learn how ghost evidence led to some important discoveries during the restoration of the Madison house.
Learn how a current grant project is bringing a new life to the numerous boxes of records created during the restoration of the Madison house.
Charity was listed on James Madison Sr.’s personal property tax records for three years (1782-1784), after which time she disappears from the historical record.
Demas was born September 12, 1777. James Madison Sr. gave Demas – along with mother Eliza and his brothers and sisters – to his daughter Nelly when she married Isaac Hite.
In 1803, Jason escorted 11-year-old John Payne Todd from Montpelier to his boarding school in Alexandria, and then delivered horses to William Thornton in Washington.
Reuben, a weaver, appears in James Madison Sr.’s tax records in the 1780s. In 1795-96, he had a 3-month bout of rheumatism that prevented him from weaving.