Though I am certain this post does a great disservice to her many other admirable qualities and accomplishments, and it certainly does me no credit, nevertheless I must observe that based on this page from a century-old White House cookbook, Mrs. James Monroe was a hottie...



No wonder ol' James felt up to defending the entire Western Hemisphere (thanks for that, by the way).
Posted by: Jim | June 20, 2008 at 03:17 PM
Note that much of the competition is wearing Mother Hubbards. Fine bone structure, doe eyes. A forgotten beauty of refinement, even with bad hair, I think.
Posted by: Tim Abbott | June 20, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Women of 48 are increasingly attractive to me.
Posted by: TigerHawk | June 20, 2008 at 06:58 AM
Do you really think so? She looks like she has a small animal sleeping on her head, no?
Posted by: Marie Louise | June 19, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Born in 1768, she was 48 at the begining of James Monroe's 1st term. One detects a bit of pre-digital photoshop at work in the image I posted, as it is clearly based on this handsome but clearly mature portrait: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Kortright_Monroe
Posted by: Tim Abbott | June 18, 2008 at 05:48 PM
How old was she when she was first lady?
Posted by: TigerHawk | June 18, 2008 at 04:22 PM