Episode 23: Where Decent Nature Spreads A Shade

Rosalie Stier Calvert to Marie Louise Stier, Riversdale, March 2 1804. In which "Madame Bonaparte" (Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte) scandalizes Washington by showing up to a party pretty much undressed, by U.S. fashion standards. Thomas Law, of course, writes a dirty poem about it. Aaron Burr is also involved. Thank you SO MUCH to my amazing guest, Dr. Cassandra Good. Everyone buy and read her book! The Letter: Callcott, Margaret Law, ed., Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 77-78. More from Dr. Good: Good, Cassandra A. 2015. Founding friendships: friendships between men and women in the early American republic. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. https://cassandragoodhistorian.com/ Resources: Louisa Catherine Johnston Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 Feb. 1804, Early Access Document, Adams Family Papers. Boyer Lewis, Charlene M. Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early Republic, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Also see her objects at Maryland Center for History and culture: https://www.mdhistory.org/digital-resource/?search=elizabeth+patterson+bonaparte Riversdale House Museum: http://www.pgparks.com/3023/Riversdale-House-Museum