Dolley Madison

As the British marched through and burned D.C. to the ground, a caravan led by three clerks of the state department made their way out of D.C. and towards the town of Leesburg. Once there, the group obtained an empty house and unloaded bags of documents into its cellar, all guarded by a singular priest. Among those documents were the Charters of Freedom, three of the most important documents in establishing the American identity.

On April 9, 1959, the year-old National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held a press conference to introduce the first ever American astronauts to the world. The seven military test pilots chosen to make up “The Mercury 7” sat lined at a table in the ballroom of the first NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as press and public looked on. Although the introduction of astronauts into American culture was historic in itself, the building in which it took place carried a legacy that predated NASA by nearly 140 years. Namely, the building that NASA acquired as its first residence in the District was the longtime home of the lively and revered first lady, Dolley Madison.