Name/Title
Doll of Elizabeth Kortright MonroeScope and Content
Elizabeth Kortright Monroe
Elizabeth was born 1768 in New York of an old New York family. Father Lawrence served the Crown as a pirate during the French and Indian War and made a fortune. Little else is known about her family. James Monroe wrote that he had married the daughter of a gentleman. "Injured in his fortunes" by the Revolution. There is little known about Elizabeth Kortright Monroe.
Monroe, possibly making a strange choice for someone with political ambition and little money of his own, married Elizabeth on February 1786 when the bride was 18. The Monroes political career kept them on the move as their family increased with two daughters and a son that died in infancy.
In the year 1794 the couple went to France, being appointed U. S. Minister. When they arrived, it was in the middle of the French Revolution, Mrs. Monroe has been said to have taken a real part in saving Lafayette's wife, by visiting her in prison. Realizing the Americans showed interest in Lafayette's wife they decided to set her free.
President and Mrs. Monroe alternated between foreign missions and services as governor or legislator of Virginia for 17 years. They created a plantation known as Oak Hill, inheriting it from his uncle. The Washington scene first saw them during the year 1811 when he became Madison's Secretary of State.
Elizabeth was a very accomplished hostess when she became First Lady, but due to bad health she was forced to stop her activities. Changing the atmosphere of the White House, Elizabeth and her daughter, Eliza, created a more regal and formal style. Elizas' White House wedding was in a New York style rather than the Virginia social style made popular by Dolley Madison.
A New Years Day guest in 1825 described the First Lady as regal looking noting that Mrs. Monroe wore a dress of superb black velvet; beautifully formed around her neck and bare arms, with her hair in puff's and dressed in high on the head, ornamented with an ostrich plumes, and a pearl necklace. Even though she no longer was young, she was still very beautiful.
The Monroes retired to Oak Hill and in September 23, 1830 she passed away.Acquisition
Accession
2008.0007Source or Donor
Amacher, Dorothy
