5. The Female Politician

This part of the exhibit features female politicians that didn’t take a back seat and openly participated in the political discussion in the 1790s. They openly spoke out in debates at salons, social events, rallies, until women’s active participation became stigmatized and dwindled by the turn of the nineteenth century.

While Dolly Madison had an important role to play, she wasn’t seen as an active politician. Instead, she was often seen as the person to unite different political parties as she got them together at dinner parties and united the United States in a way that it hadn’t been before she became the First Lady.

Touch screens featuring quotes and portraits of Mercy Otis Warren, Abigail Adams, Judith Sargont Murray, and Sarah Jay are featured prominently in the exhibit. Also displayed are several of the bullets made by women and children of Litchfield Connecticut when they were sent four thousand pounds of gilded lead torn down by New Yorkers from a statue of King George III.