Library

Recalling the Madisons, niece Mary Cutts like many visitors described a home filled with library spaces. “Enter the library,” she wrote of an upstairs chamber, “plain cases, not only round the room, but in the middle with just sufficient room to pass between, these cases were filled with books, pamphlets, papers, all, every thing of interest to our country before and since the Revolution....” Visitors and friends throughout Madison’s life referenced his extensive library collections in Philadelphia, Washington, and at Montpelier. Research indicates that Madison intended this north-wing chamber, added during the ca. 1809-1812 renovation of the house, to be a library. In an 1809 letter to Madison, builder James Dinsmore suggested adding more windows to the room because “without them the wall will have a very Dead appearance, and there will be no direct veiw [sic] towards the temple.”

During his retirement years at Montpelier, James Madison used this space to organize his personal papers and correspondence, including his notes from the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. For many years, contemporaries had urged Madison to publish his notes, which were recognized to be the most comprehensive record of the Philadelphia debates. With assistance from Dolley and his personal secretaries, Madison edited the papers for publication. He was keenly aware of their public importance, and he hoped publication would provide Dolley with adequate income after his death. The original Madison papers carry retirement-era edits and corrections in the hand of Dolley’s brother John Coles Payne and other secretaries. The papers, which were acquired by Congress and published after Madison’s death, establish Madison as the principal historian of the Constitutional Convention. His Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 are the bedrock for contemporary constitutional scholarship and legal interpretation.