(5) Elizabeth Monroe

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe

Websites

First Ladies National Library Biography of Elizabeth Monroe

White House Historical Association: Elizabeth Monroe

Papers/letters collections

Surviving letters to or from Elizabeth Kortright Monroe

Note from Elizabeth Kortright Monroe to Richard Smith 1815

Historical sites

James Monroe Highland

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe Gravesite

Fascinating details

• She accompanied James Monroe to Paris where she gained a popularity that allowed her to save the life of the imprisoned Marie-Adrienne Lafayette, the wife of a French revolutionary leader and assistant to the U.S. during the American Revolution, Marquis de Lafayette, on January 22, 1795. James Monroe was minister to France from 1794-1796 but remained in France a few months after he was recalled due to slow communication.
• She is known for restoring a formal hosting style in the White House and drawing from her European experience in doing so. 
• Elizabeth made it a point to dramatically reduce the social obligations of the first lady in drastic contrast to the efforts of her predecessor, Dolley Madison, and to the dismay of many in Washington.