A Trip to the James Monroe Museum

A few weeks ago I was driving through Fredericksburg, VA and took the opportunity to visit the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. It’s a small, single level museum, housed in what is believed to be one of Monroe’s offices during his time as a lawyer. Street parking only, but I visited around 11am on a Friday so there was plenty of spaces in downtown Fredericksburg. Admission was very reasonable, with discounted prices for military folks, seniors, and students (although the full adult price of $6 was not exactly breaking the bank). The museum itself was established and maintained by the University of Mary Washington, a public liberal arts college local to Fredericksburg.

The first room was dedicated to Monroe’s early school years and military service during the American Revolution. This was the least interesting part of the museum to me personally, as Monroe didn’t have a particularly significant impact in his military career beyond being a generally well-regarded soldier. The walls in this room were covered in paragraphs describing his early life - literal “walls of text.” I didn’t mind this approach, as there aren’t too many artifacts or physical objects to display from this stage in Monroe’s life aside from a generic soldier kit and his personal powder horn. What I DID mind was that they featured a short film on a small TV near the middle of the room, which I thought was a bit distracting as the speaker was just reading a transcript of what was written on the walls. I recognize that this is an accessibility feature for those who aren’t able to read the walls, but I wish it was fresh or summarized.

The next room was a collection of fancy artifacts collected from his various residences he held throughout his career, especially as a diplomat in France. Those in the know about the style of furniture in pre-Revolution France can picture it instantly - bright, gaudy, upholstered chairs and sofas. I was very impressed by how well these things were preserved, especially since it’s been so long and some of the pieces did not seem all that inherently resilient to age. On the walls there were small infodumps discussing Monroe’s presidential highlights as well as his relationship with slavery and Liberia. This section of the museum was more of a winding hallway of smaller rooms, ending in one of the most overdramatic things I’ve ever seen:

The final room, and my favorite part of the museum, was an open area packed with artifacts, letters, and clustered infodumps. This room, simply put, was a vibe. The objects and letters on display pertained to Monroe’s years as a domestic civil servant and lawyer after returning from France, and to me that was the most interesting time to learn about. 

Up until now I’ve deliberately avoided talking directly about Monroe himself, but it’s worth pointing out that one of his most defining traits is that he held almost every job you could in early America. Soldier, lawyer, diplomat, congressman, governor, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and President were all on his CV. Much of his varied career was, to my dismay, condensed into the infodump you see on the right side of the photo. This may seem like an unfairly harsh criticism, but I feel like I wouldn’t be as critical of this decision if there wasn’t an entire room at the beginning dedicated to his service as a regular soldier. I also recognize that this is a relatively small museum with limited resources, and the Revolutionary War is more interesting to the public than Virginia politics during his governorship in 1799, for example.

I finished my museum visit as I always do: at the gift shop. My gift shop item of choice is lapel pins, but I couldn’t find any. It was a small shop of course, and the employee working there noticed my consternation and asked me what I was looking for. I asked her if they carried any pins, and she was just as exasperated as I was - apparently she had been trying to expand the gift shop offerings but was receiving pushback from management. She happily added my comments to her arsenal for her next engagement with the powers that be at the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. 

Overall, this is a great little museum that shines a light on one of the lesser-known presidents. Ever since reading about James Monroe I felt that a study of his life provided a unique cross-section of early American life due to all of the different positions he held. This museum does a good job of leveraging that educational opportunity and I highly recommend a visit to anybody remotely interested in U.S. history. The entire visit lasted less than an hour, so if you’re driving through Fredericksburg it is a wonderful excuse to stop and stretch your legs. 

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