The Foundation has been purchasing Monroe items since 1928. Many of these items can be found at the James Monroe Museum & Memorial Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Often, other museums loan artifacts from the collection.

   Principal among these has been the restoration and conservation of the Rembrandt Peale three-quarter-length portrait of James Monroe.  This is one of the most important portraits of the Federalist period.   Under the supervision of Dr. Clement E. Conger, then curator of the White House and U. S. State Department collections, the Foundation contracted with expert evaluators and conservators to clean and restore damage to the surface, and install it in an appropriate period frame purchased by the Foundation.

   Other projects have included the repair and rebinding of eighteenth century leather-bound books, and, in some cases, the construction of acid-neutral slip cases for further protection, and the conservation of eighteenth century fabrics.

   The Foundation recently finished the purchase of the following items:

Monroe Bowl | Monroe White House Bed

   To preserve the books in the James Monroe Memorial Library, President Monroe's great great grandson, Laurence Gouvernor Hoes, instituted a plan whereby each book would be endowed with a gift.  The benefactors of the book plate endowment will write his or her name and/or someone he or she wishes to honor on an adaptation of a bookplate belonging to President Monroe.   The endowment is in perpetuity, the name of the endower, the name of the person honored and the date being cross-indexed in the Library files for perpetual identification.  The name will be recorded in a leather-bound book and exhibited in the museum.  The facsimile of the Monroe bookplate along with the handwritten names of the benefactors and those honored will remain in the archives of the museum through the continued stewardship of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation.

   Do you have a favorite teacher, a family member, new grandchild, a graduating student, a patriot, hero, deceased loved one?   Would you like to memorialize their names in President Monroe's Library?

   Print out the Bookplate Endowment form and mail it along with your donation of $35 or more to the address enclosed.

   In the space following "A Book Has Been Endowed By", write in ink your name, followed by your address, city, state and zip code.

   You may, if desired, insert the words "In Honor Of" or "In Memory Of" and add the name of the person so honored or memorialized. You may also add this person's address and, if you would like, we will write to that person telling them of your gift and thoughtful remembrance.