Shaving Mirror

This shaving mirror is one of two fashioned from the broken shards of a large wall mirror that was destroyed when British troops burned the White House in 1814. According to tradition, Elizabeth Monroe and Dolley Madison observed workmen who were repairing the mansion discard the broken pieces. Mrs. Monroe salvaged the fragments and had two identical shaving mirrors created--one for her husband, and one for James Madison--to symbolize the "old and new" eras the two presidents represented.