What can the nation’s founders teach today’s business leaders? A lot, insists David Bruce Smith, founder of The Grateful American™ Series—a foundation dedicated to restoring enthusiasm in American history, for kids and adults.

Inspired by his father, business leader and philanthropist Robert H. Smith, The Grateful American™ Series is an interactive, multimedia project that includes a TV Show on DCTV, FairfaxTV, and other cable networks; and a radio show that features interviews of the leaders of the nation’s presidential homes and historic sites. Coming, too, will be a guidebook for kids and parents to help families learn more about American history so they can experience the riches of the past for the themselves. Sculpture of James and Dolley Madison, above, by Ivan Schwartz, July’s Fine Artist of the Month.

July 4 marked the launch of The Grateful American Series website—a portal to the stories, interviews, videos, and events that bring history to life: GratefulAmericanFoundation.com.

To kick off this educational series, we headed to Montpelier, the family home of James and Dolley Madison. Our guide was Kat Imhoff, who has been president of James and Dolley Madison’s Montpelier Foundation since January 2013. Scroll down for our Q&A with this historian, who gives us the inside scoop on this fascinating first couple.

How are you a Grateful American? In celebration of everything great that America stands for, we’re asking our readers to share their thoughts on what they are grateful about. Our goal is to list 1776 comments. We invite you to join us! Click here to send us your thoughts to include on the website. And don’t forget to include a photo.

Also in this issue:

• Historian and professor Adam Goodheart takes us inside the pivotal year of “1861” in our July Book of the Month.

• In our Nonprofit column, we introduce you to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, where former First Lady Laura Bush and “1776” author David McCullough were keynote speakers at the Institute’s 2014 New York City gala in May. The organization that awards the History Teacher of the Year is a decades-old group dedicated to keeping history alive. Read our Q&A with director Lesley Herrmann.

• Meet the team that runs the “Center for the Constitution” at Montpelier on Inkandescent Radio, and dive deeper into what the Founding Fathers were thinking as they crafted the nation.

• What modern-day qualities did Dolley Madison have that might surprise you? Learn more about this Founding Mother in July’s Inkandescent Woman of the Month.

In the spirit of restoring enthusiasm in American history, we leave you with this parting thought from President James Madison: “A people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Here’s to your incredible, indelible, Inkandescent success! — Hope Katz Gibbs, Publisher Be Inkandescent • Executive Director, Grateful American Foundation