My comments:

Margaret Bayard Smith, wife of National Intelligencer founder Samuel Harrison Smith, was one of the first prominent society members to make Washington, DC her permanent home after the federal government relocated to the new federal city in 1800. Her oft-cited collection of family letters and notebooks provide a glimpse into the political and social scene at the city’s founding, as her social circle included Thomas Jefferson, Dolley Madison and other prominent political figures and their wives.