Q 01/05

Which artist painted the George Washington portrait that Dolley Madison refused to abandon in 1814?

A) Gilbert Stuart

B) John Trumbull

C) Charles Willson Peale

D) John Singleton Copley

Answer · why

A) Gilbert Stuart

Gilbert Stuart's canvas was screwed to the wall, so she had the frame broken and the picture carried off by two New Yorkers. It hangs in the White Hou...

Q 02/05

Which inventor asked Dolley Madison in 1844 to send the first personal message over his new line to Baltimore?

A) Samuel Colt

B) Charles Goodyear

C) Samuel Morse

D) Cyrus McCormick

Answer · why

C) Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse had just demonstrated his telegraph in the Capitol when he turned to her for a message of her own. She sent her love to a friend in Balti...

Q 03/05

Dolley Madison's elder son, John Payne Todd, was born in 1792 on which notable day of the calendar?

A) Christmas Day

B) Leap Day

C) New Year's Day

D) Valentine's Day

Answer · why

B) Leap Day

Leap Day, February 29, gave him a true birthday only once every four years. Known as Payne, he was two when his mother married James Madison.

Q 04/05

Which New York senator, an old college friend of James Madison, introduced him to the widowed Dolley Todd in 1794?

A) James Monroe

B) John Jay

C) Benjamin Rush

D) Aaron Burr

Answer · why

D) Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr had boarded at her mother's house, and that spring she named him guardian of her small son in her will. The couple married four months afte...

Q 05/05

Which pet did Dolley Madison send to the French consulate for safekeeping as she fled the capital in 1814?

A) A lapdog

B) A parrot

C) A canary

D) A pony

Answer · why

B) A parrot

A parrot named Polly, a macaw that spoke French, was a favorite family pet. Her niece later wrote that a night hawk killed the bird when it was left o...