Margaret Bayard Smith Margaret Bayard Smith was a writer and a vital figure in the early social life of Washington, DC. Her letters and diaries provide some of the best descriptions of early Washington. <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/363">In 1837 she recorded what the Mall looked like when she and her husband moved to Capitol Hill in 1800</a>: "Between the foot of the hill and the broad Potomac extended a wide plain, through which the Tiber wound its way. The romantic beauty of this little stream was not then deformed by wharves or other works of art." <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Margaret+Bayard+Smith">Margaret Bayard Smith</a> Hunt, Gailliard, ed.<a> <em>The First Forty Years of Washington Society.</em></a> New York: Scribner, 1906. Quotation from page 10. <a href="https://archive.org/details/firstfortyyearso00smituoft">View original document</a>. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1800-1829">1800-1829</a>