ECW Welcomes Madeline Feierstein

ECW is pleased to welcome a new member.

Madeline Feierstein is the Lead Historian at the Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden in Alexandria, Virginia. She specializes in the history of psychiatric institutions, military hospitals, and prisons. Over the last several years, she has led significant projects documenting the soldiers who were treated and fell in Alexandria’s wartime hospitals. Her lectures and projects reflect growing conversations in Alexandria surrounding the city’s role during the Civil War. She develops and leads guided tours at Lee-Fendall and in Old Town Alexandria.

Additionally, Madeline supports the National Museum of Civil War Medicine at several of their locations – most notably the Clara Barton Missing Soldier’s Office – and leads cemetery tours with Gravestone Stories.

Originally from Washington D.C., Madeline earned her Bachelor of Science in Criminology from George Mason University. She has received her Master of Arts in American History from Southern New Hampshire University. Madeline blended the investigative aspects of her undergraduate work with her passion for the Civil War, culminating in her MA thesis: “Union-Occupied Alexandria: Managing Disharmony in the Civil War” on the crime rates and disorder in her own town.

Besides a love of history, Madeline enjoys learning foreign languages and is a big fan of Harry Potter (proud Ravenclaw). Madeline is currently working on a book manuscript titled “Confine & Fortify: The Military Government of Civil War Alexandria,” which she intends to publish in 2026. Explore her research and catch her next tour at www.madelinefeierstein.com.

Madeline has been actively involved with ECW for the last six months. Here’s a list of her activity from the ECW archives:

• Combatting Crime in Union-Occupied Alexandria
• The Civil War at St. Elizabeth’s Asylum
• Between North & South: Alexandria’s Civil War Prisons
• 13 Cemeteries, 35,000 Stories: The Untold History of Alexandria’s Wilkes Street Complex
• The Civil War’s Hidden Hospital: Lee-Fendall House’s Forgotten History