Trivia: Which First Lady that saved a portrait of Washington from the War of 1812?
Martha Jefferson
Dolley Madison
Mary Todd Lincoln
Abigail Adams
The correct answer is Dolley Madison
So why is this answer correct? : During the War of 1812 (which actually lasted from 1812 to 1815), British troops marched on Washington, D.C., in August 1814, burning several government buildings including the White House. Though the story is often told as if President James Madison’s wife, First Lady Dolley Madison, removed George Washington’s portrait from the burning building herself, real events are less dramatic: A day before the attack, she asked a servant to save the presidential painting known as the “Lansdowne Portrait” by breaking its frame and removing the canvas with a knife.