The Dolley Madison Digital Edition and accompanying Dolley Madison Project present the life and legacy of Dolley Madison through her correspondence.  Her papers were originally published in The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, edited by David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, and printed by the University of Virginia Press.  The Dolley Madison Digital Edition is was created for the University of Virginia Press’s Rotunda site, and edited by Holly C. Shulman.  This site features the full text of the Dolley Madison correspondence, complete through 1838 and including a total of 1330 documents.

Editorial Guidelines

Under the category of “Introduction to the Dolley Madison Digital Edition (DMDE)”, there is a detailed explanation of the history of this project, the specific editorial methods, and an introduction to Dolley Madison herself.  For this project, Holly C. Shulman and David B. Mattern established and followed detailed criteria for the selection of letters, transcription, summary, identification, and glossary utilizing XML and the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines in their digital encoding and presentation.

Advantages of Digital Edition

Along with the text of a letter, the online presentation includes a summary of the text, topics discussed therein, any editorial notes on date assignments and transcription, and tags to other people and places within the text of the letter.  These tags are linked to further letters to or from the specific persons, or with reference to the specific places.  Following the text of the letter is a box displaying bibliographic information on the author, recipient, date, consulted sources, notes, identification, citation, and a revisions log.

Using the browse function, letters can be searched based on life stage with accompanying essays on background, beliefs, and other factors pertaining to Dolley Madison’s life during each stage.

Teacher Resources

The Dolley Madison Project features a series of online exhibits which break up Dolley Madison’s life and into chronological blocks.  Additionally, a resources section includes background essays, a timeline, a featurette of distinguishing 18th century handwriting, and interesting information on Dolley’s name.

Quick Guide

*Click-stream is defined as the number of clicks it takes to get from the home page to a document.

Links

Dolley Madison Digital Edition

Dolley Madison Project

University Press- Print Version

Papers of James Madison

Rotunda- Early Access James Madison Papers

Library of Congress Teacher Resources