SECRETARY’S REPORT 35 
The associate curator of political history, Mrs. Margaret B. Klap- 
thor, visited James Goodin of Reiglesville, Pa., where she inspected 
authentic costumes of President Madison’s family, especially the re- 
cently discovered dress, shoes, gloves, and turban of Dolley Madison. 
In New York City she accepted delivery of Lincoln relics offered to 
the museum by Lincoln Isham. 
Charles G. Dorman, assistant curator of political history, visited 
Albany Institute of History; the home of Gen. Philip Schuyler in 
Albany; Fort Crailo in Rensselaer, N.Y.; Bennington Historical Mu- 
seum; Shelburne Museum near Burlington, Vt.; and other historic 
houses in New England. In February 1948 he carried forward 
research at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. 
From September 23 to 27, 1957, the associate curator of cultural 
history, G. Carroll Lindsay, examined archives in Richmond, Isle of 
Wight, and Southampton courthouses in order to document the panel- 
ing now on exhibition in the Virginia Room. He established owner- 
ship of the property from the time of the original patent in the 17th 
century. He spent March 30 to April 4, 1958, in Alton, IIl., selecting 
objects from a large collection of decorative art objects of the Victorian 
period (1850-1915) which had been willed to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution by the late Miss Daisy Templin and donated by her living 
brother, Roger Pryor Templin. On June 10 Mr. Lindsay acquired at 
the Parke-Bernet Galleries a life-size cigar-store Indian princess 
through the generosity of Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post May. 
Miss Rodris C. Roth, assistant curator of cultural history, spent 
October 25 to November 4, 1957, in Boston, Salem, Worcester, New- 
buryport, Mass., and New York City studying period rooms and deco- 
rative arts related to American and English interior decorations in 
the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. 
The head curator of armed forces history, Mendel L. Peterson, 
spent 8 days in September 1957 probing the Pamunkey River, 25 
miles northeast of Richmond, to locate a shipwreck believed to have 
been sunk during General McClellan’s drive on Richmond in 1862. 
Together with a professional diver, Mr. Peterson found the wreck 
in 15 feet of muddy water. By the use of anchor chains, to prevent 
injury to themselves, they were able to examine and partially identify 
the vessel. Thus far no documentation concerning the sinking of 
such a vessel has been discovered in Civil War archives. The hull 
measured at least 200 feet in length; it was burned before sinking; 
the bow section had broken away from the hull probably through an 
explosion of gunpowder or boiler. A few days in February and 
again in March Mr. Peterson studied archival records at the New 
York Public Library and consulted with Edwin A. Link on plans 
for a continuation of their program of underwater salvage of historic 
vessels. 
