Margaret Bayard Smith

Margaret Bayard Smith
Portrait of Smith, by Charles Bird King
Born
Margaret Bayard

(1778-02-20)February 20, 1778
Pennsylvania
DiedJune 7, 1844(1844-06-07) (aged 66)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1800)​
Children4
Parent(s)John Bubenheim Bayard
Margaret Hodge
RelativesJames Asheton Bayard II (cousin)
Charles Hodge (cousin)

Margaret Bayard Smith (20 February 1778 – 7 June 1844) was an American writer and political commentator in the early Republic of the United States, a time when women generally lived within strict gender roles. Her writings and relationships shaped both politics and society in the capital of early Washington, DC. Her literary reputation is based primarily on a collection of her letters and notebooks written from 1800 to 1841, and published posthumously in 1906 as The First Forty Years of Washington Society, edited by Gaillard Hunt.[1]

Smith began writing books in the 1820s: a two-volume novel in 1824 called A Winter in Washington, or Memoirs of the Seymour Family,[2] and What is Gentility? (1825).[3][4] She also wrote several biographical profiles, including one of her close friend Dolley Madison for the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, published in 1836.[5]

  1. ^ Gaillard, Hunt; Bayard Smith, Margaret. "The first forty years of Washington society, portrayed by the family letters of Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith (Margaret Bayard) from the collection of her grandson, J. Henley Smith". loc.gov. The Library of Congress. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ^ Bayard Smith, Margaret (1824). A Winter in Washington; Or, Memoirs of the Seymour Family. New-York: E. Bliss and E. White | Clayton & Van Norden, Printers. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  3. ^ Smith, Margaret Bayard (1 January 1828). "What is gentility? A moral tale ..." hathitrust.org. P. Thompson. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  4. ^ "Margaret Bayard Smith (Smith, Margaret Bayard, 1778-1844)". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  5. ^ Smith, Margaret Bayard (2016). Women and the American Story (PDF). New York City: New-York Historical Society.