Diane Ehrenpreis joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Martha Jefferson to a Mrs. Madison dated August 8, 1780 in which Mrs. Jefferson encourages women to join together and raise funds to support the Continental soldiers. This letter is one of only four known correspondences in Mrs. Jefferson’s hand. In this episode, Diane and Katy discuss some of the ways Mrs. Jefferson’s words have been misinterpreted in the past.

Diane Ehrenpreis is the Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. She has worked in the Curatorial Department at Monticello for twenty-three years, researching and building the collection. In her capacity as a curator, she supervised a complete study and reinstallation of Monticello’s second and third floor rooms, as well as Jefferson’s Private Suite. Currently, she is overseeing plans to reinstall the Dining and Tea Rooms to better interpret Thomas Jefferson’s aesthetic and didactic intent. Forthcoming work includes an article co-authored with scholar Nicole Brown on Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson's role as an activist living in Revolutionary Virginia, one that was initially suppressed by her partner and fellow revolutionary, Thomas Jefferson. She holds an M.A. in Art History from Boston University and B.A. in Art History from University of Illinois at Chicago.

Find the official transcript here.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios, part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

“Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson to Eleanor Conway Madison, 8 August 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-03-02-0615.

Esher Reed, “The Sentiments of an American Woman,” 1780, Virginia Humanities, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/the-sentiments-of-an-american-woman-1780/.

“George Washington to Esther De Berdt Reed, 14 July 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-27-02-0093.

Dr. Emily Sneff joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776, in which Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of the earliest printings of the Declaration of Independence. In this episode, Gehred and Sneff explore Palmer and Adams’s lifelong friendship, their experience getting inoculated for smallpox together, and military movements during the War for Independence.

Dr. Emily Sneff is a historian and leading expert on the United States Declaration of Independence. She is a consulting curator for exhibitions planned for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration in 2026 at the Museum of the American Revolution, the American Philosophical Society, and Historic Trappe. She is also the curator of digital content for Declaration Stories. Her forthcoming book explores the dissemination of the Declaration around the Atlantic in the summer and fall of 1776.

Find the official transcript here.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

“Mary Palmer to John Adams, 15 June 1776,” Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 2, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-02-02-0007.

“John Adams to Mary Palmer, 5 July 1776,” Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 2, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-02-02-0018.

“Mary Palmer to John Adams, 4 August 1776,” Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 2, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-02-02-0047.

“To John Adams from Mary Palmer, 25 November 1789,” Papers of John Adams, Volume 20, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-06-20-02-0121.

Dr. Cynthia Kierner joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss a 1778 letter from Richard Henry Lee to his sister Hannah Lee Corbin. In a lost letter, Hannah previously expressed her frustrations that widows are being taxed without representation. In this response, Richard explains the cultural and legal barriers that prevent Hannah and other widows from voting.

Dr. Cynthia Kierner is a professor of history at George Mason University. She is a a specialist in the fields of early America, women and gender, and early southern history. She is the author of many books and articles including The Tory's Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America, Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood, and Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times.

Find the official transcript here.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

The Archives of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Papers of the Lee Family, Box 2, M2009.057, Jessie Ball duPont Library, Stratford Hall, https://leefamilyarchive.org/richard-henry-lee-to-hannah-lee-corbin-1778-march-18/.