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“Dolley Madison” Documentary Features UC-Riverside Historian

Dolley Madison lived through two wars, knew the first twelve Presidents, and watched America evolve from a struggling young republic to the first modern democracy in the world. At a time when women could neither vote nor participate officially in politics, Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth president James Madison, became one of the most influential and best loved figures of her day. When she died in 1849 at the age of 81—one of the last remaining members of the founding generation—Washington City honored her with the largest state funeral the capital had ever seen.

On Monday, March 1, 2010, PBS’s AMERICAN EXPERIENCE will premiere Dolley Madison, a 90-minute portrait of the woman who transformed the previously undefined role of the President’s wife and became America’s “first” First Lady.

Dolley Madison features interviews with NPR senior news analyst and bestselling author Cokie Roberts (Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation), historian Catherine Allgor (A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation), presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, and more. A distinguished cast of actors includes Tony Award-nominee Eve Best (Nurse Jackie) as Dolley Madison and Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays as James Madison. Dolley Madison is a production of tpt National Productions in association with Middlemarch Films for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Allgor is the author of “A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation” (Henry Holt and Company, 2006).

Read entire article at PBS