Fredericksburgs James Monroe Museum showcases the fifth presidents cool stuff

As the guy who came after the Big Four (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison), James Monroe is perhaps the first president to be better remembered for his accomplishments — the Missouri Compromise, the Monroe Doctrine — than his Founding Fatherhood. The six-room James Monroe Museum, situated on land Monroe owned and built his law office upon, seeks to personalize Monroe through scholarship, family heirlooms and examples of the great man’s excellent taste in furniture.

Backstory: Monroe’s great-granddaughter founded the museum in 1927, and stocked it with items belonging to her illustrious ancestor. The University of Mary Washington runs it, and provided a hefty exhibit on Monroe’s role as a soldier during the Revolutionary War.

Highlights: The museum is less a textbook account of Monroe’s career than it is a collage of snapshots, glimpses into his timeline that add up to a compelling portrait. The musket he took to war, messily etched with his initials, speaks to youthful belligerence. The desk on which he drafted the Monroe Doctrine, which opposed European encroachment on the Americas, is French — he was a huge Francophile. The oddest artifact: a commemorative ribbon from his 1858 exhumation in New York and transfer to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

In the gift shop: Monroe gave Peace Medals to Native American dignitaries. Buy chocolate versions ($4) as patronizing tokens of esteem for your own favorite oppressed minority group.

James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, 908 Charles St., Fredericksburg, Va.; Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun., 1-4 p.m., $5; 540-654-1043.

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