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In 1887, the Cosmos Club moved into the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square, where the widow of the fourth President of the United States had spent her declining years. Genial and warm-hearted, this great lady had rolled out her red carpet for diplomats and country cousins, statesman and scholars, children, local gentry and military heroes. She entertained the Marquis de Lafayette on his triumphal U.S. tour in 1824 and the erudite geographer Alexander von Humboldt in 1804 while acting as hostess for widower-President Thomas Jefferson, and from his presidency onward, she was on familiar terms with all the White House occupants.
It was natural then that her own residence would become the focus of a social and political life that closely paralleled that of the White House. After the president's annual New Year's Day reception, it was customary for callers to troop across the Avenue from the White House to pay their respects to the widow Madison. When her historic home became the Cosmos clubhouse, members felt that Mrs. Madison should be memorialized with a portrait.
"As the only woman in these surrounding, she has always been a patron saint to us,' Dr. Edward Emery Morse told me, as we looked up at her portrait hanging over the fireplace in the main lounge of the old clubhouse. In the late '30s, Dr. Morse, a physician to Washington's carriage trade and a longtime member of the Club, would often invite me on Monday nights to partake of free beer and snacks served at the rather spartan bar. Quite incidentally, he had also invited me to revealing glimpses of a bygone era.
In the billiard room one night, beneath a bison head and other stuffed trophies, the doctor offered a vivid biographical sketch of the Club's founding father, John Wesley Powell. Choosing an odd-shaped cue that looked more like a mace, he demonstrated the way Powell, who had lost his right arm in the Battle of Shiloh, played skillfully with his left using the cue in this very room. But how, we wondered, could this one-armed explorer ever have navigated a rowboat through hundreds of miles of wild water in the gorges of the Grand Canyon?
I was fascinated by bits of history and the tales of courage that were my introduction to some of the legendary Club members whose portraits now look down upon us today in the Long Gallery. The trim, white-mustached and goateed Otto Hilgard Tittman (1850-1938), a geodesist and former president of the National Geographic Society, left an indelible impression with his tales of the Klondike gold rush and the Transit of Venus Expedition to Japan. One eccentric scientist would almost go berserk if his slice of apple pie was not served pointing directly towards him. And Dr. Morse, a bit of an oddball and curmudgeon in his own right, as elderly bachelors tend to be, could be quick witted with an astonishing presence of mind. One sultry summer night he clapped his hands with crocodilian speed to order a double martini for a loquacious guest who had just swallowed a fat, buzzing, hairy, gun-metal colored horsefly. It was a man's world pure and simple, reminiscent of the painting "At The Club" by E.L. Siebert hanging behind the bar in the taproom or a caricature of men that Daumier might have sketched.
I soon became aware that Lafayette Square for more than 100 years had been the social and political hub of the City of Washington and that the Club located in Dolley Madison's house was in good company--among the best addresses, one could say. From 1800 on, the presidents lived in the White House. The park to the north was soon lined with residences housing distinguished American and foreign dignitaries--Stephen Decatur, Henry Adams, James Blaine, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, among others, and, of course, Dolley Madison (1768-1849). The mural paintings in the Lafayette Lounge by club member Everett Warner (CC: 1942-63) give us a good idea what the Square must have looked like.
In her public role, Dolley Madison was a prominent social figure and an important trend-setter in fashion and entertaining. An indefatigable hostess with radiant charm, she set an example for all the First Ladies to come. Thanks to photography, the light that fell on her face 148 years ago miraculously preserves her visage down to the last wrinkle, just as the legendary photographer Mathew Brady saw it. Of course, a number of silhouettes, miniatures, paintings, engravings and some sculptures had been made by contemporary artists, including Peale, Turner, Catlin and Otis.
It is interesting that all the images of Dolley Madison, be they paintings, etchings, miniatures or the allegedly more honest daguerreotypes, reflect her as an attractive, lively, outgoing and sympathetic person. The two Greensboro examples(on pages 20 and 21), especially, radiate kindness, generosity and the wisdom that comes with the miracle of aging.
Dolley's inspiring legacy is indelibly imprinted on the Cosmos Club. She would enjoy the warmth, dignity and elegance of the Townsend House today and feel at ease with the staff, in committee meetings, and with the Club's extraordinary mix of minds. Her special pleasure would surely be a Sunday brunch with happy, well-behaved, well-dressed and even obedient children, gathered around a Nobel Prize grandfather, for a family get- together. My old curmudgeon friend, the doctor, was right--she is a patron saint with a firm niche in the history of the Club and in the hearts and minds of many of its members.
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