Editing Abigail Adams (section)

==Legacy==
Historian [[Joseph Ellis]] has found that the 1,200 letters between John and Abigail "constituted a treasure trove of unexpected intimacy and candor, more revealing than any other correspondence between a prominent American husband and wife in American history."<ref name="Cited in Wood 2011">Cited in Wood (2011)</ref> Ellis concluded that Abigail, although self-educated, was a better and more colorful letter-writer than John, even though John was one of the best letter-writers of the age. Ellis argues that Abigail was the more resilient and more emotionally balanced of the two, and calls her one of the most extraordinary women in American history.<ref name="Cited in Wood 2011"/>

===Memorials===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right
 | video1 = [http://www.c-span.org/video/?310725-1/first-lady-abigail-adams "First Lady Abigail Adams"], ''[[First Ladies: Influence & Image]]'', [[C-SPAN]]<ref name="cspan a">{{cite web | title =First Lady Abigail Adams | publisher =[[C-SPAN|C‑SPAN]] | date =March 4, 2013 | url =http://www.c-span.org/video/?310725-1/first-lady-abigail-adams | access-date =November 2, 2014 }}</ref> }}
The [[Abigail Adams Cairn]] – a mound of rough stones – crowns the nearby Penn Hill from which she and her son, John Quincy Adams, watched the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] and the burning of Charlestown. At that time she was minding the children of [[Joseph Warren|Dr. Joseph Warren]], president of the [[Massachusetts Provincial Congress]], who was killed in the battle.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holton|first1=Woody|title=Abigail Adams|date=2009|publisher=Free Press Division of Simon & Schuster|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-1-4165-4680-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00holt/page/79 79]|url=https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00holt/page/79}}</ref>

One of the subpeaks of [[New Hampshire]]'s [[Mount Adams (New Hampshire)|Mount Adams]] (whose main peak is named for her husband) is named in her honor.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Bethany|title=Abigail Adams Joins the Presidential Range|journal=Appalachia|volume =62|issue= 2|date=2011|publisher=Appalachian Mountain Club|page= 132}}</ref>

In 2003, Adams was one of three women honored in a bronze sculpture as part of the Boston's Women Memorial on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/04/arts/concert-celebrate-three-women-boston-womens-memorial/#:~:text=The%20final%20concert%20of%20Clausura%27s,history%20of%20Boston%2C%20she%20said|title=Concert to celebrate 'Three Women' of the Boston Women's Memorial|website=Boston Globe}}</ref>

In 2022, a seven-foot tall bronze statue of Adams was unveiled in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], on the Hancock Adams Common.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/-quincy-mayor-unveils-statue-of-americas-second-first-lady-abigail-adams/|title=Quincy Mayor Unveils Statue Of America's Second First Lady Abigail Adams|website=WBZ NewsRadio 1030}}</ref>

An [[Adams Memorial]] has been proposed in Washington, D.C., honoring Adams, her husband, her son, and other members of their family.

===Popular culture===
Passages from Adams's letters to her husband figured prominently in songs from the Broadway musical ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]''.<ref name="uua"/> [[Virginia Vestoff]] played Adams in the original 1969 Broadway production of ''1776'' and recreated the role for the [[1776 (film)|film version]] in 1972. On television, [[Kathryn Walker]] and [[Leora Dana]] portrayed Adams in the 1976 [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] mini-series ''[[The Adams Chronicles]]''. In the mini-series ''[[John Adams (TV miniseries)|John Adams]]'', which premiered in March 2008 on [[HBO]], she was played by [[Laura Linney]]. Linney enjoyed portraying Adams, saying that "she is a woman of both passion and principle."<ref name="America p. 24"/> A revolution-era Abigail, circa 1781, is portrayed by [[Michelle Trachtenberg]], on the television series, ''[[Sleepy Hollow (TV series)|Sleepy Hollow]]'', in the season 2 episode, "Pittura Infamante" (January 19, 2015), her assistance being crucial in ending a series of unexplained murders from the period. Adams is a featured figure on [[Judy Chicago]]'s installation piece ''[[The Dinner Party]]'', being represented as one of the 999 names on the ''[[List of women in the Heritage Floor|Heritage Floor]]''.<ref name="C169">Chicago, Judy (2007). ''The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation''. London: Merrell. p. 169. {{ISBN|1-85894-370-1}}</ref> Novelist [[Barbara Hambly]], writing as Barbara Hamilton, wrote three historical mysteries set in the early 1770s told from Abigail Adams's perspective (and featuring Abigail as the detective): ''The Ninth Daughter'' (2009), ''A Marked Man'' (2010), and ''Sup with the Devil'' (2011).

===Portrait on currency===
The [[Presidential $1 Coin Program#First Spouse Program|First Spouse Program]] under the [[Presidential $1 Coin Program]] authorizes the [[United States Mint]] to issue half-[[Troy ounce|ounce]] $10 [[Presidential $1 Coin Program#First Spouse Program|gold coins]] and bronze medal duplicates<ref>U.S. Mint: [http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/firstSpouse/ First Spouse Program] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107215648/http://www.usmint.gov/mint%255Fprograms/firstSpouse/ |date=January 7, 2007 }}. Accessed June 27, 2008. "The United States Mint also produces and make available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins".</ref> to honor the first spouses of the United States. The Abigail Adams coin was released on June 19, 2007, and sold out in just hours. She is pictured on the back of the coin writing her most famous letter to John Adams. In February 2009 ''[[Coin World]]'' reported that some 2007 Abigail Adams medals were struck using the reverse from the 2008 [[Louisa Adams]] medal, apparently by mistake.<ref name=mule>{{cite journal |last= Gilkes |first= Paul |date= February 16, 2009 |title=First Spouse medals set holds Adams mule |journal=Coin World |volume= 50 |issue= 2549 |page= 1 |quote= Some collectors have begun receiving a First Spouse medal mule – a piece bearing the obverse for Abigail Adams and a reverse intended for the Louisa Adams medal. The mules surfaced in some of the 2007 First Spouse sets}}</ref> These pieces, called [[mule (coin)|mules]], were contained within the 2007 First Spouse medal set.<ref name="mule"/> The U.S. Mint has not released an estimate of how many mules were made.

<gallery>
File:Abigail Adams First Spouse Coin obverse.jpg|Obverse
File:Adams a-o.jpg|Obverse (bronze medal)
</gallery>

===Regard by historians===
Since 1982, [[Siena College Research Institute]] has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Adams has ranked among the three-most highly regarded first ladies in these surveys.<ref name="Siena2014">{{cite web |title=Eleanor Roosevelt Retains Top Spot as America's Best First Lady Michelle Obama Enters Study as 5th, Hillary Clinton Drops to 6th Clinton Seen First Lady Most as Presidential Material; Laura Bush, Pat Nixon, Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman Could Have Done More in Office Eleanor & FDR Top Power Couple; Mary Drags Lincolns Down in the Ratings |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstLadies2014Release_Final.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=May 16, 2022 |date=February 15, 2014}}</ref> In terms of cumulative assessment, Adams has been ranked:
*2nd-best of 42 in 1982<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*3rd-best of 37 in 1993<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 38 in 2003<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 38 in 2008<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 39 in 2014<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 40 in 2020<ref name="Siena2020results">{{cite web |title=Copy of FirstLadies_Full Rankings_working_dl_2.xls |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/First-Ladies-Full-Rankings-2020.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=March 11, 2025 |date=2020}}</ref>

In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Adams was ranked in the top-four of all criteria, ranking the third-highest in of background, second-highest in intelligence, 3rd-highest in value to the country, third-highest in being her "own woman", second-highest in integrity, 3rd-highest in her accomplishments, 3rd-highest in [[courage]], second-highest in leadership, fourth-highest in public image, and second-highest in her value to the president.<ref name="2008Siena">{{cite web |title=Ranking America's First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt Still #1 Abigail Adams Regains 2nd Place Hillary moves from 5 th to 4 th; Jackie Kennedy from 4th to 3rd Mary Todd Lincoln Remains in 36th |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FL_2008Release.pdf |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=May 16, 2022 |date=December 18, 2008}}</ref> In the 2014 survey, Adams and her husband were ranked the 5th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".<ref>{{cite web |title=2014 Power Couple Score |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Appendix_C_Power_Couples.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu/ |publisher=Siena Research Institute/C-SPAN Study of the First Ladies the United States |access-date=October 9, 2022}}</ref>