LECTURE TO SPOTLIGHT FIRST LADIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

The year was 1814. With British troops advancing on the White House and her husband out in the field, first lady Dolley Madison had to decide what to save before fleeing the presidential home.

She chose a portrait of George Washington and James Madison's state papers.

Those mementos stayed in the nation's heritage when the White House was burned, thanks to Dolley Madison's decision to save them instead of her personal belongings.

As America recalls its roots this Independence Day, presidential first ladies expert Jacqueline Berger said the Founding Fathers' wives also played a big role in the formation of the country.

``They encouraged their spouses, they were behind their spouses, and at great risk,'' said Berger, who this month will speak about America's first ladies at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita.

Berger, a Westlake Village resident who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, travels the country to tell the story of presidential first ladies. What used to be a hobby became a career four years ago for the former finance and lending executive.

Karen Gorback, assistant dean for community and continuing education at College of the Canyons, said the July 22 workshop will be a learning opportunity for participants.

``To have this caliber of a historian here to do a presentation like this I think is really wonderful,'' she said.

Berger is an admirer of Dolley Madison, who was known as the ``hostess to the nation.'' The full-length portrait of Washington that she saved from the fire still hangs in the White House.

``She lost all of her own personal possessions, but she saved the country's possessions,'' Berger said. ``So in that sense it was quite a remarkable thing for her to do.''

Where Dolley Madison asked her guests to leave their politics at the door, first lady Abigail Adams was passionately political. Like her husband, John Adams, America's second president, she opposed slavery.

The daughter of a Massachusetts minister, Abigail Adams wrote her husband during the Continental Congress in Philadelphia asking him to ``remember the ladies.'' But the Constitution adopted in Philadelphia had no provision for women.

``Abigail Adams thought that that was absolutely terrible,'' Berger said. ``That we as a nation were fighting for our independence and the woman, the wife, didn't have a right to speak and neither did the black man.''

Berger has spoken at four presidential libraries, and later this summer she will speak at Kansas City's Union Station as part of a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit on the first ladies.

Berger's own interest in the first ladies started with a childhood fascination with Jacqueline Kennedy.

``I was kind of like the oddball when I was a kid, (my name) was unusual,'' Berger said. ``And then when Jackie Kennedy came into the White House I thought it was wonderful.''

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IF YOU GO

Jacqueline Berger's workshop on presidential first ladies will be held at 10 a.m. July 22 at College of the Canyons, 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road, Santa Clarita. The cost is $45. For more information, call [phone].

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IF YOU GO (see text)