The first female congressional correspondent

9__Anne Royall’s Grave

The first female congressional correspondent

Congressional Cemetery, officially the Washington Parish Burial Ground, is the only American “cemetery of national memory” founded before the Civil War. Established in 1807, the over 65,000 individuals honored here represent some of the best and brightest of this nation – and at least one very eccentric woman.

Anne Royall was born in 1769 and learned to read and write at a young age, a rarity for women in that era. She moved to present-day West Virginia to work for William Royall, whom she married in 1797. William introduced her to philosophy and freemasonry, and he encouraged her independence. When he died in 1812, leaving Anne with no children and a will that was nullified, she was penniless and had to forge her own path.

For six years, Royall traveled extensively across the United States, supporting herself with her writing and eventually publishing a nine-volume set of her adventures. Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the United States (1826) thoroughly documented politics, education, religion, and vice across the country, incorporating statistics about crops, population, and trade as well.

She would continue writing both fiction and non-fiction, and she launched a weekly newspaper, Paul Pry, followed by another paper, The Huntress. The papers were notable for their exposés on government corruption and scathing editorials. Because of her political coverage, she is credited as the first female congressional correspondent.

Her tone was often antagonistic, and she was once convicted as a “common scold.” Though her tenacity would often be to her benefit. She was rumored to have been so insistent to interview John Quincy Adams that she sat on his clothes during one of his daily naked swims in the Potomac River and refused to move until he answered her questions. He did so, keeping only his head above the water and later described her as “the terror of politicians.”

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Address 1801 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003, +1 (202) 543-0539, www.congressionalcemetery.org, staff@congressionalcemetery.org | Getting there Metro to Stadium-Armory (Blue, Orange, and Silver Line); bus B2 to Potomac Avenue & E Street SE. Gravesite is in Range 26, Site 194. | Hours Daily dawn–dusk | Tip A favorite shop in Hill East is Hill’s Kitchen, where owner and Capitol Hill native Leah Daniels stocks the best kitchen supplies and goodies in a historic townhouse dating to 1884 (713 D Street SE, www.hillskitchen.com).