BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States:

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Description of Pictures: Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States
November 13, 2020 – May 23, 2021
Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States is the first major exhibition to explore the historical significance of this prominent position through the mode of portraiture. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the White House and the National First Ladies’ Library, spans nearly 250 years, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump, and features more than 60 portraits of the First Ladies or those who undertook the role of White House hostess, alongside related ephemera, including iconic dresses.
The exhibition is curated by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, the National Portrait Gallery’s senior historian and director of history, research, and scholarly programs. A richly illustrated book entitled First Ladies of the United States, co-published by the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Books, serves as a companion for the exhibition, along with the recent volume America’s Presidents (2017).
Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States is one of 11 exhibitions dedicated to women presented by the Portrait Gallery over a five-year period (2018–22), and is part of the Smithsonian American Women’s Initiative, “Because of Her Story.” It is made possible through the support of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, Morgan Stanley, and the generosity of many other donors.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. 1STLAD_201114_001.JPG: Every Eye is Upon Me First Ladies of the United States
2. 1STLAD_201114_010.JPG: Every Eye is Upon Me First Ladies of the United States
3. 1STLAD_201114_020.JPG: SmARTify Scan the art, uncover the story. From https://firstladies.si.edu/gallery 1789–1845: Becoming First Ladies Just as President George Washington was regarded as the pater patriae (father of the nation), his wife, Martha Washington, was considered an exemplar for the country. Washington's responsibilities -- and those of her immediate successors -- were dominated by the demands of raising children, running a large household, entertaining guests, and supporting the political interests of the president of the United States. Although many of the early first ladies were the wives of presidents, some were relatives. As members of the upper class, most relied upon enslaved household servants to coordinate the gracious receptions that they hosted. With the notable exceptions of the two Adamses, ten of the first twelve presidents and first ladies were responsible for enslaving people, including illegitimate relatives, such as Martha Washington 's half-sister Ann Dandridge. A family portrait of the Washingtons in the company of an enslaved attendant testifies to this history. 1845–1877: Manifest Destiny and the Civil War The belief that the U.S. government had a "manifest destiny," or a right to hold political influence over the North American continent, took root following the War of 1812. By the time of the Mexican-American War (1846–48), that belief had begun to shape the lives of the first ladies. During the Civil War era, first ladies from the Midwest and the West brought new attitudes to the role. Mary Todd Lincoln and Julia Dent Grant, born in Kentucky and Missouri respectively, were wealthy, ambitious women. Through well-chosen unions, they achieved the height of social power, which would not have been possible outside of marriage due to their gender. Each woman was eager to preside over large receptions and state dinners, illustrations of which were often published in popular magazines like Harper's Weekly. 1877–1901: The Gilded Age At the end of the nineteenth century, the widespread availability of cheap chromolithographs brought about the rise in popular print culture. Images of the first lady began to circulate widely, making her a national celebrity. For example, Frances Folsom Cleveland's likeness was often appropriated without her permission for advertising campaigns. Her wardrobe choices also influenced fashion trends, such as the bustle, which met its demise when the rumor that she no longer favored it traveled through the press. With the increasing distribution of photographs of first ladies, their families, and the elegant White House banquet spaces in which they entertained, Cleveland's successors frequently found themselves at the center of social trends and fashion debates. 1901–1933: Imperialism and Progressivism In the early twentieth century, following U.S. interventions in the wars of independence fought by Spain's colonial populations in the Caribbean and the Philippines, the first ladies found their roles changed. The nation's growing presence on the global, imperialist stage allowed Helen "Nellie" Taft and Lou Henry Hoover, among other first ladies, to actively participate in international diplomacy in new ways that were not experienced by their predecessors. Similarly, the scrutiny of their lives increased as the national press corps began to clamor for interviews and photographs for use in daily newspapers and monthly magazines that focused on women's lives. By the late 1920s, first ladies began making appearances in high fashion publications, such as Vogue. Having worked outside the home, many also brought their professional experiences to the White House. 1933–1993: Serving a Cause By the mid-twentieth century, first ladies were expected to take up social and cultural causes as a means to both serve the country and advocate for issues about which they were passionate. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt increased her advocacy for social causes during the Great Depression and World War II. Similarly, Nancy Reagan encouraged the population to "Just Say No" to illegal drugs at a moment when the country was shifting away from the countercultural revolution of the 1960s. During this period, first ladies also became some of the most important political surrogates for their husbands. Lady Bird Johnson campaigned solo for her husband's election throughout the South, while Rosalynn Carter traveled throughout the Americas, meeting with heads of state and serving as her husband's envoy abroad. 1993–Present: Into the New Century As the nation anticipated the millennium, Bill and Hillary Clinton entered the White House as a team. Hillary Clinton challenged the existing notions of the first lady's role in the president's administration by spearheading health care legislation. Her political prominence continued after leaving the White House: She successfully ran for Senate and later served as secretary of state in the Obama administration. Laura Bush took a more subdued approach at first, devoting her attention to children's literacy, but following the attacks of September 11, 2001, she was pushed into a more public role as the nation's "comforter in chief." Her successor, Michelle Obama, also focused on children's health and international advocacy for the rights of women and girls, while First Lady Melania Trump has chosen to concentrate on cyberbullying and other important family-related issues.
4. 1STLAD_201114_026.JPG: Martha Washington (1731–1802) Born Chestnut Grove, Virginia First Lady 1789-1797 Martha Dandridge Custis married George Washington in 1759, shortly after the death of her first husband, Daniel Park Custis. At twenty-seven, she had two young children in tow and had amassed tremendous wealth. Owning more than seventeen thousand acres of land, she and her family relied on a large, enslaved workforce, which at one point included her half-sister, Ann Dandridge. George Washington served as a general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (1775–83), and the couple often stayed together in the winter encampments. In the years that followed the war, Martha Washington left her pleasant life at their Mount Vernon plantation to support her husband while he served as president. Gilbert Stuart painted Martha Washington from life in 1796, when the presidential couple was living in Philadelphia, which was then the nation's capital. This painting is a copy based on Stuart's original study, the "Athenaeum" portrait. Unidentified artist, after Gilbert Stuart Oil on canvas, c. 1800–50 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
5. 1STLAD_201114_037.JPG: George Washington and Family After the presidency, George and Martha Washington returned to Mount Vernon to raise their two grandchildren, George Washington "Wash" Parke Custis (far left) and Eleanor "Nelly" Custis (center). As an adult, Wash Custis fathered a daughter named Maria with an enslaved house servant, Arianna Carter. In 1825, he freed Maria, providing her with land from his Virginia estate, which was called Arlington. Wash's other surviving daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, went on to marry Robert E. Lee and occupied the nearby mansion house on the property that is now known as Arlington National Cemetery. In this popular print, the Washingtons gather around a map. An enslaved servant, possibly Christopher Sheels, stands at right, alluding to the complex interracial relationships and dependencies that shaped the Washington family's life and legacy. David Edwin (1776–1841), after Edward Savage Engraving, 1798 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
6. 1STLAD_201114_046.JPG: Abigail Adams (1744–1818) Born Weymouth, Massachusetts First Lady 1797-1801 Abigail Smith Adams challenged social and political limitations by advocating for women's rights, education, and the abolition of slavery. She readily expressed her opinions in letters to her husband, John Adams, by reminding him to "Remember the Ladies" as he helped to frame the new nation's institutions. Always outspoken, Adams struggled to suppress her opinions when her husband served as president. This portrait of Adams reveals her elegant and sophisticated comportment. She wears both an imported lace fichu over her bodice and an elaborately patterned scarf of Indian origin about her shoulders, demonstrating her cosmopolitan taste. Unidentified artist Oil on canvas, c. 1795 Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York; bequest from the Estate of Frances J. Eggleston, Oswego, New York
7. 1STLAD_201114_061.JPG: Dolley Madison (1768–1849) Born Guilford County, North Carolina First Lady 1809-1817 Raised by a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Dolley Payne Todd Madison was naturally vivacious and outgoing, and she cultivated strategic friendships with both male politicians and their wives. Prior to her husband James Madison's presidency, she served as an honorary hostess for President Thomas Jefferson, which prepared her for taking on the role when her husband entered the office. Madison's charisma and intelligence charmed the most hard-hearted politicians, making the lively Wednesday-night receptions she held at the White House the epicenter of Washington society. William Elwell, who painted this portrait of Madison toward the end of her life, described her as "a very Estimable lady -- kind & obliging -- one of the Old School." He paid close attention to Madison's slightly cloudy blue eyes and her rouged cheeks. The black curls (hairpieces) that peek out from her signature turban hint at her interest in maintaining a hard-won and long-cultivated public persona. William S. Elwell (1810–1881) Oil on canvas, 1848 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
8. 1STLAD_201114_070.JPG: Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836) Born Monticello, Virginia First Lady 1801-1809 The education of Martha "Patsy" Jefferson, in Philadelphia and Paris, was closely overseen by her father, Thomas Jefferson, who doted on his eldest child. After she married Thomas Mann Randolph in 1790, she continued to support her widowed father, both in Washington, D.C., and later at his home, Monticello, in Virginia. At Monticello, she kept house with the help of an extended family, which included her deceased mother's enslaved half-sister, Sally Hemings, and the illegitimate children that Hemings bore to Thomas Jefferson. (Randolph's half-siblings were also her cousins.) When Thomas Sully painted this portrait of Randolph, she had outlived both her father and her husband. She appears in a black mourning dress; her serious face with its firm jaw is framed by jaunty curls and frills of imported lace. Thomas Sully (1783–1872) Oil on canvas, 1836 Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
9. 1STLAD_201114_086.JPG: Emily Donelson (1807–1836) Born Nashville, Tennessee First Lady 1829-1834 After her uncle Andrew Jackson's presidential inauguration, there was never any question that Emily Donelson would serve as White House hostess in place of her recently deceased aunt, Rachel Jackson. Once in Washington, D.C., Donelson relished positive attention from the city's "cave dwellers," the name given to the exclusive upper echelon of Washington society, who remained in place as the occupants of the White House changed. She quickly immersed herself in the capital city's social milieu and became one of its most admired hostesses. The American artist Ralph E. W. Earl trained in London and Paris before returning to the United States and becoming the "court painter" to Andrew Jackson. Earl completed numerous portraits of members of the Jackson family, both before and after their move to Washington, D.C. His ability to paint in radically different styles is made clear when one compares his portrait of Donelson with that of Rachel Jackson. Ralph E. W. Earl (c. 1788–1838) Oil on canvas, c. 1830 Andrew Jackson Foundation
10. 1STLAD_201114_091.JPG: Rachel Jackson (1767–1828) Born Pittsylvania County, Virginia Raised in Tennessee and Kentucky, Rachel Donelson was familiar with the challenges of frontier life when she married her first husband, Lewis Robards. She was not prepared, however, for his jealous rages in which "cruel taunts and upbraidings follow[ed] flattering endearments." After divorcing Robards and marrying Andrew Jackson, she took a stand on domestic violence. When Jackson was governor of Florida in the early 1820s, she encouraged him to ban alcohol, which temperance advocates argued was fuel for such abuse. Ralph E. W. Earl depicts Rachel Jackson as a serious, mature woman with a deeply lined brow. The small timepiece we see pinned to her collar would have been used to manage time for those who were enslaved at the Hermitage, the Jacksons' large cotton plantation near Nashville. Rachel Jackson died a few months before her husband's inauguration. Her niece, Emily Donelson, agreed to serve as official hostess in the White House. Ralph E. W. Earl (c. 1788–1838) Oil on canvas, c. 1827 Andrew Jackson Foundation
11. 1STLAD_201114_100.JPG: Louisa Adams (1775–1852) Born London, United Kingdom First Lady 1825-1829 Born in London, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams's education at a convent school in France influenced her tactful approach to politics. Indeed, she went so far as to graciously host Andrew Jackson, one of her husband John Quincy Adams's most difficult political foes. A talented harpist, Louisa Adams was exceptionally charismatic and loved to entertain. She was also a prolific writer, who used her position and political savvy to confront gender inequality in early American society. Adventures of a Nobody, begun around 1840, is one of the many autobiographical stories about her life. This grand portrait, which captures Adams's continental sophistication, was painted in London by Charles Robert Leslie. The sitting took place one year after Adams completed a harrowing six-week winter journey by sleigh from St. Petersburg to Paris. Her headdress and empire waist evoke the five years that Adams spent at the court of Czar Alexander I while her husband served as President Madison's minister to Russia. Charles Robert Leslie (1794–1859) Oil on canvas, 1816 The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.; gift of Robert Homans Jr., Lucy Aldrich Homans, and Abigail Homans, in memory of their father, Robert Homans
12. 1STLAD_201114_113.JPG: Harriet Johnston (1830–1903) Born Mercersburg, Pennsylvania First Niece 1857-1861 Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston served as first lady for her bachelor uncle James Buchanan. She was passionate about the visual arts and bequeathed her vast painting and sculpture collection to the Smithsonian. Remarkably few portrait busts of women were made during the nineteenth century. This marble portrait, by William Henry Rinehart, highlights Lane's bare shoulders above a deeply plunging neckline, a style she made fashionable when she altered her inauguration ball gown by lowering it two full inches. William Henry Rinehart (1825–1874) Marble, 1873 Smithsonian American Art Museum; bequest of Harriet Lane Johnston
13. 1STLAD_201114_119.JPG: Sarah Polk (1803–1891) Born Murfreesboro, Tennessee First Lady 1845-1849 Sarah Childress Polk made her husband James K. Polk's political career the main focus of her life. Up until he entered the White House, she served as his private secretary, handling his correspondence and scheduling his speaking engagements. She was his most trusted advisor, and because she believed that entertainment took away from business, she relied on White House staff to handle the bulk of the hostess duties. This portrait of Sarah Polk shows her wearing a velvet evening gown made in a contemporary Parisian style. Her hair is covered by a matching velvet turban that is similar to the headdresses favored by her close friend and fellow first lady, Dolley Madison. This choice to emulate Madison's signature headwear speaks to the strong relationship between the two women. George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–1894) Oil on canvas, 1846 President James K. Polk Home and Museum
14. 1STLAD_201114_130.JPG: Betty Dandridge (1824–1909) Born Fort Snelling, Minnesota First Lady 1849-1850 Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor Bliss Dandridge, the only surviving daughter of Zachary Taylor and Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor (1788–1852), was raised in frontier forts while her army general father conducted the Black Hawk War (1832) and the Second Seminole War (1835–42). Her mother, of whom no portraits or other accurate likenesses survive, worked hard to raise ten children while surrounded by soldiers. During her father's presidency, she and her husband, William Bliss, lived in the White House, where she served as hostess, a duty her mother declined to assume. Her time in the White House only lasted sixteen months, owing to her father's death in office. However, "Miss Betty" earned high public praise for her ability to lead conversations with men and balance her sense of humor with a common-sense attitude toward life. After being widowed in 1858, she married Philip Dandridge, a great-grandnephew of Martha Washington. Unidentified photographer Albumen silver print, c. 1860 Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, Winchester, Virginia
15. 1STLAD_201114_137.JPG: Letitia Tyler (1790–1842) Born Cedar Grove, Virginia First Lady 1841-1842 Letitia Christian Tyler spent most of her married life raising seven children and managing a busy plantation household east of Richmond, Virginia. In 1839, a stroke left her partially paralyzed, requiring the use of a "rolling chair." Two years later, her husband, Vice President John Tyler, became president after William Henry Harrison's sudden death. At the White House, she spent most of her time in the second-floor private quarters while her daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, assumed the hostess duties. After a devasting second stroke in September 1842, Tyler became the first wife of a president to die in the White House. Depicting Letitia Tyler in the bloom of youth, this portrait was made several decades after her death. The artist, Virginia-born George Bagby Matthews, trained in Europe before setting up a studio in Richmond, where he specialized in duplicating older paintings and taking new commissions. George Bagby Matthews (1857–1944) Oil on canvas, 1885 Smithsonian's National Museum of American History; gift of Letitia C. Arant
16. 1STLAD_201114_146.JPG: Julia Tyler (1820–1889) Born Gardiner's Island, New York The "Rose" of Long Island When Julia Gardiner married President John Tyler in 1844, she was no stranger to scrutiny. As a beautiful, confident, and exceptionally wealthy young woman who came of age in East Hampton, New York, during the 1830s, Gardiner was dubbed the "Rose of Long Island" following her social debut. But in 1840, her popularity turned to notoriety after she posed for this newspaper advertisement touting a discount department store in Manhattan: "I'll purchase at Bogert and Mecamly's, No. 86 9th Avenue," the nineteen-year-old declared. "Their Goods are Beautiful and Astonishingly Cheap." To mitigate the social stigma that ensued, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner whisked their wayward daughter off for a grand tour of Europe that included an audience with Pope Gregory XVI. Alfred E. Baker (active 1833–1842) Lithograph, 1840 Museum of the City of New York; gift of Miss Sarah Gardiner, 1939
17. 1STLAD_201114_155.JPG: Julia Tyler (1820–1889) Born Gardiner's Island, New York First Lady 1844-1845 Julia Gardiner and the recently widowed President John Tyler fell in love when he comforted her following her father's death. After becoming the first woman to marry a president in office, she enjoyed just eight months holding court. Enamored with European pageantry, she sought to elevate the presidency by having "Hail to the Chief" played on state occasions. Raised in a wealthy slaveholding family on Long Island, Julia Tyler adapted easily to the Southern lifestyle of her Virginia-born husband. In 1853, she published an open letter defending slavery and describing the care that she claimed Southern ladies lavished on the people they enslaved. Later, she encouraged her sons to fight for the Confederacy. Financially strapped after the war and her husband's death, Tyler lobbied Congress for a presidential widow's pension, and it was granted in 1880. This portrait, by Italian-born artist Francesco Anelli, was probably painted at Sherwood Forest, the Tylers' plantation in Virginia. Francesco Anelli (c. 1805–c. 1878) Oil on canvas, 1846–48 The White House
18. 1STLAD_201114_164.JPG: Jane Harrison (1804–1847) Born Mercersburg, Pennsylvania First Lady 1841 Little is known about President William Henry Harrison's daughter-in-law, Jane Findlay Irwin Harrison, who served as the official White House hostess for a very brief period in 1841. She had lived with her in-laws following the death of her husband, William Henry Harrison Jr., and accompanied the president-elect to Washington, D.C. There, she received glowing reviews for the two receptions that she hosted with the help of her aunt, Jane Irwin Findlay. Her time as de-facto first lady was cut short, however, when President Harrison died on April 4, 1841, after only a month in office. With flowers placed at each ear and a veil pulled back from her face, this portrait was probably made to celebrate Jane Harrison's second marriage, to widower Lewis Whiteman, following her return to North Bend, Ohio. Just a few years later, she succumbed to tuberculosis at age forty-two. Unidentified artist Oil on canvas, c. 1841–42 Smithsonian's National Museum of American History; gift of Barbara B. Rose
19. 1STLAD_201114_179.JPG: Anna Harrison (1775–1864) Born Morristown, New Jersey First Lady 1841 In 1794, nineteen-year-old Anna Tuthill Symmes and her family abandoned the comfort of the East Coast to resettle in the wilderness of Ohio, then part of the Northwest Territory. There, she met William Henry Harrison, an Army officer stationed at Fort Washington. The Harrisons had ten children, and such frequent childbearing left Anna Harrison in delicate health most of the time. In 1841, she was at home in Indiana mourning the loss of an adult son and recuperating from an illness when her husband, then president, became ill and died after just thirty days in office. This portrait shows Anna Harrison in a simple black mourning dress, alluding to a life that was marked by the repeated loss of her children. Her hair is tied up beneath a spectacularly intricate lace cap rather than a black hair covering or veil, so we can infer that she was not in recent mourning. Unidentified artist Oil on canvas, c. 1820 The White House
20. 1STLAD_201114_191.JPG: Angelica Van Buren (1818–1877) Born Wedgefield, South Carolina First Lady 1839-1841 Poised, confident, educated, and beautiful, Sarah Angelica Singleton grew up in South Carolina at Melrose House, one of three large plantations owned by her father. In 1838, she visited Washington, D.C., where her mother's cousin -- the former First Lady Dolley Madison -- introduced her to the widower President Martin Van Buren's eldest son, Abraham. The young couple married that November, when Angelica was twenty. Two months later, on New Year's Day, she was installed as the youngest woman to serve as White House hostess. During the Civil War, Angelica Van Buren sided with her wealthy relatives in secessionist South Carolina, who enslaved more than five hundred people and held vast acreage in several counties. Thus, she sent blankets from her home in New York City to Confederate soldiers who were being held in Northern prisons. Preserving that human capital -- the source of her inheritance -- would have been of great importance. Charles Fenderich (1805–1887) Reproduction of original c. 1838–41 watercolor and graphite on paper Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
21. 1STLAD_201114_199.JPG: Hannah Van Buren (1783–1819) Born Kinderhook, New York Hannah Hoes, who was raised in a Dutch-American family, married her first cousin Martin Van Buren in 1807. Shortly before her thirty-sixth birthday in 1819, Van Buren contracted tuberculosis and died, leaving her husband to raise their five children. Inconsolable at the loss of his childhood sweetheart, Martin Van Buren never married again. He probably carried this miniature portrait on his person for the rest of his life. Unidentified artist Watercolor on ivory, c. 1815 National Park Service, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
22. 1STLAD_201114_208.JPG: Abigail Adams (1744–1818) Born Weymouth, Massachusetts Made during the first decade of the nineteenth century (before the advent of photography), this hollow-cut silhouette represents the period's most popular form of portraiture. Because only limited visual information can be gleaned from profiles, historians often rely upon inscriptions, like the ones atop this portrait, to identify sitters. Although this silhouette was made in 1804, John Quincy Adams added the inscription in 1809, when he had it framed together with silhouettes of himself, his wife Louisa Adams, and John Adams. Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825) Hollow-cut silhouette, 1804 (inscribed in 1809) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
23. 1STLAD_201114_219.JPG: Louisa Adams (1775–1852) Born London, United Kingdom Made during the first decade of the nineteenth century (before the advent of photography), this hollow-cut silhouette represents the period's most popular form of portraiture. Because only limited visual information can be gleaned from profiles, historians often rely upon inscriptions, like the ones atop this portrait, to identify sitters. John Quincy Adams added the inscription to this silhouette in 1809, when he had it framed together with silhouettes of himself, John Adams, and Abigail Adams. Henry Williams (1787–1830) Hollow-cut silhouette, 1809 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
24. 1STLAD_201114_228.JPG: Jane Pierce (1806–1863) Born Hampton, New Hampshire First Lady 1853-1857 Jane Means Appleton Pierce had already experienced the death of two sons when her husband Franklin Pierce was elected president. Then, two months before his inauguration in 1853, their only surviving child, Benjamin, was killed before her eyes in a train accident. She never recovered from her loss. Desperate to communicate with her dead son, she had mediums hold a séance at the White House. Pierce struggled to meet the social expectations of being first lady and relied on her aunt, Abigail Kent Means, to organize events. Unidentified photographer Sixth-plate daguerreotype, c. 1850 National First Ladies' Library
25. 1STLAD_201114_245.JPG: Dolley Madison (1768–1849) Born Guilford County, North Carolina Dolley Madison and Anna Payne First Lady Dolley Madison's (1768–1849) influence in Washington, D.C., was commemorated in 1844, when the House of Representatives voted unanimously to reserve a seat for her on the Congressional Floor to attend political debates. Around this time, she experienced the dawn of photography, as the daguerreotype entered into American culture. In 1848, Madison and her niece, Anna Payne (1819–1852), visited the studio of Mathew Brady, who would later become famous for his Civil War-era photographs. Mathew B. Brady (c. 1823–1896) Quarter-plate copy daguerreotype, c. 1848 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Dortha Louise Dobson Adem Rogus, direct descendant of Dolley Madison
26. 1STLAD_201114_251.JPG: Elizabeth Monroe (1768–1830) Born New York City First Lady 1817-1825 Having lived in Paris for two years, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe was a remarkably cosmopolitan woman who established herself as a skilled hostess in the European style. As first lady, she implemented new White House protocols and redecorated the mansion, giving the interior a continental atmosphere. The small size of this portrait miniature, created by the Swiss-French artist Louis Sené, would have enabled James Monroe to carry it in his pocket. In turn, the future first lady might have worn a matching one of him pinned to her dress or secured by a ribbon around her neck. Louis Sené (1747–1804) Watercolor on ivory, c. 1795 Halton Family Collection; exhibited at James Monroe's Highland, Charlottesville, Virginia
27. 1STLAD_201114_267.JPG: Mary Lincoln (1818–1882) Born Lexington, Kentucky Mary Lincoln's capelet Nearly all of the clothing Mary Lincoln wore after becoming first lady was sewn by Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, the daughter of an enslaved woman and her white owner. An accomplished seamstress, at age thirty-seven Keckley was able to use her sewing skills to buy her freedom and that of her son from her half-sister, who was then her owner. After moving to Washington, D.C., in 1860, Keckley became the preferred modiste, or dressmaker, to many important women in the capital, including Varina Davis, wife of then-Senator Jefferson Davis, and Mary Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907) Lace netting and taffeta, c. 1861 National First Ladies' Library
28. 1STLAD_201114_281.JPG: Mrs. A. Lincoln 1861 00-61-08 (?) Gift of E.H. Keckly
29. 1STLAD_201114_288.JPG: Mary Lincoln (1818–1882) Born Lexington, Kentucky Lincoln and His Family Mary and Abraham Lincoln had three surviving sons when they arrived at the White House in 1861: Robert, Willie, and Tad. Their second child, Edward, had died in 1850, at age three. The oldest, Robert (standing, center), was a student at Harvard University and was away from Washington, D.C., much of the time. "Willie," who is shown in the framed picture, was a favorite of both parents. A girl playmate remembered him as "the most lovable boy I ever knew, bright, sensible, sweet-tempered and gentle-mannered." He died of a "bilious fever" (probably typhoid) in 1862, causing enormous anguish for the first couple. The youngest son, Tad, who was doted on by his parents, was described by one of the president's secretaries as having "a very bad opinion of books and no opinion of discipline." Based on a painting, this popular print depicts the first family in a moment of quiet domesticity. William Sartain (1843–1924), after Samuel Bell Waugh Engraving, 1866 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy J. Desmond
30. 1STLAD_201114_298.JPG: Mary Lincoln (1818–1882) Born Lexington, Kentucky First Lady 1861-1865 Raised in a wealthy Kentucky slave-owning family, Mary Ann Todd Lincoln actively voiced her political opinions throughout her life. But as a woman, she could not pursue office herself. These stifled ambitions may have led to her marital alliance with Abraham Lincoln, who benefitted from the social polishing that her elite background offered him. Her focus on class position is seen in the many carte-de-visite photographs of her in fashionable costumes. Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–1894) Albumen silver print, 1861 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
31. 1STLAD_201114_305.JPG: Martha Johnson Patterson (1828–1901) Born Greeneville, Tennessee First Daughter 1865-1869 Martha Johnson Patterson joined her parents Andrew and Eliza Johnson in the White House, where she took on the responsibility of White House hostess. After President Lincoln's assassination, the mansion had been left in tatters by souvenir seekers, and under the direction of her mother, Patterson helped to restore it to its former state. Martha Patterson's husband, David Trotter Patterson, was himself a member of Congress. From 1866 until 1869, he served a term as a U.S. senator from Tennessee after it became the first Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union. During President Andrew Johnson's impeachment hearings, Senator Patterson's duties during the Senate trial made the process particularly difficult for the couple, who believed the charges against her father to be false. By the time the Senate vote fell short of the two thirds needed to convict, the Pattersons had wearied of living in Washington, D.C. M. L. Barlow (life dates unknown) Charcoal on paper, 1886 Courtesy of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
32. 1STLAD_201114_315.JPG: Eliza Johnson (1810–1876) Born Telford, Tennessee First Lady 1865-1869 The daughter of a shoemaker, Eliza McCardle Johnson was sixteen when she married Andrew Johnson, a tailor. Before moving to Washington, D.C., when her husband became Abraham Lincoln's vice president in 1864, she managed their small family shop in Greeneville, Tennessee. After Lincoln's assassination and her husband's swearing-in as president, Eliza Johnson used a congressional appropriation of $30,000 to refurbish the White House interiors, which had become rundown during the Civil War. Due to chronic tuberculosis, she remained on the second floor of the mansion, where she focused on running the household. Her oldest daughter, Martha Johnson Patterson, served as official White House hostess. This hand-colored photograph of Eliza Johnson shows her later in life and emphasizes her conservative Methodist background. She wears a black silk crepe mourning dress with a white lace collar and a modest lace cap on her head. Unidentified photographer Photograph with applied color, c. 1865–76 Courtesy of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
33. 1STLAD_201114_324.JPG: Abigail Fillmore (1798–1853) Born Stillwater, New York First Lady 1850–1853 Abigail Powers Fillmore came from hardscrabble beginnings. Her minister father died when she was a small child and left behind a singular possession: his library. Mr. Powers gifted his daughter his books, and she went on to devote her life to learning. As a young schoolteacher, Abigail Powers fell in love with one of her students, nineteen-year-old Millard Fillmore, who was just learning how to read. After their marriage, she made the unconventional decision to continue teaching as a way to support her husband's aspirations in law and politics. When she was first lady, Abigail Fillmore helped establish a reference library in the White House, and she frequently invited popular authors and performers to visit with her at the presidential mansion. The gold chain that hangs from her neck in this portrait would have been attached to a watch to be used to keep up with her busy social schedule. Unidentified artist Oil on canvas, c. 1840 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
34. 1STLAD_201114_328.JPG: Julia Grant (1826–1902) Born near St. Louis, Missouri General Grant and His Family As this print made shortly after the Civil War demonstrates, Ulysses S. Grant, Julia Grant, and their children Fred, Buck, Nellie, and Jesse had achieved a remarkable level of fame before they even entered the White House. But some members of their household remained invisible. Raised on a farm outside of St. Louis, Missouri, that was worked by about thirty enslaved people, Julia Boggs Dent received a chilly welcome when she married into the staunchly abolitionist Grant family. A formerly enslaved woman who worked for the family later recalled that the general "wanted to give his wife's slaves their freedom as soon as he was able." Having relied upon enslaved servants for most of her life, Julia Grant had only supervisory experience with cooking and baking. When as first lady she was asked to contribute a recipe to a charity cookbook, she submitted a friend's recipe for chicken gumbo. A. L. Weise & Co. (active 1865–c. 1912) Hand-colored lithograph, 1866 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
35. 1STLAD_201114_337.JPG: Julia Grant (1826–1902) Born near St. Louis, Missouri First Lady 1869–1877 For eight years, Julia Boggs Dent Grant reveled in her role as first lady and White House hostess. Following the couple's departure from the presidential mansion, she was loath to relinquish the spotlight. The White House receptions that she hosted were lavish affairs. At her husband Ulysses S. Grant's presidential inaugural ball, she wore diamond and pearl jewelry over a white silk dress trimmed with handmade lace. Grant also raised the expectations for entertaining by hosting foreign dignitaries, including King Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʼi), Russia's Grand Duke Alexis, and a delegation of Japanese political and military leaders. The state dinners she organized featured sophisticated menus prepared by Valentino Melah, the Italian-trained chef she hired, and often included as many as twenty-five courses. Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94) Albumen silver print, c. 1864 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
36. 1STLAD_201114_346.JPG: Lucy Hayes (1831–1889) Born Chillicothe, Ohio First Lady 1877-1881 Raised in a Methodist family with abolitionist beliefs, Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was the first presidential spouse to hold a college degree. She graduated from Wesleyan Female College (now Ohio Wesleyan University) in 1850. That same year, she began a relationship with her future husband, the lawyer Rutherford B. Hayes. During the Civil War, she nursed Union soldiers at Hayes's camp, and when he served as governor of Ohio, she accompanied him on public visits to prisons, schools, and hospitals. As first lady, Lucy Hayes banned alcohol from White House events. In recognition of her dedication to the cause of sobriety, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union commissioned this grand portrait of her by Daniel Huntington. The full-length format marks a shift in the representation of first ladies, while the outdoor setting alludes to the increasingly public nature of the role. Daniel Huntington (1816–1906) Oil on canvas, 1881 The White House
37. 1STLAD_201114_368.JPG: Lucretia Garfield (1832-1918) Born Garrettsville, Ohio James and Lucretia Garfield First Lady 1881 The journalist Mary C. Ames once described Lucretia Randolph Garfield as having a "philosophic mind" that made her not only her husband's equal "but in more than one respect his superior." Garfield, who was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, loved literature and the classical world. She was fluent in French, German, Latin, and ancient Greek and spent much of her time in Washington, D.C., reading books that she borrowed from the Library of Congress. On July 2, 1881, only a few months into his presidency, James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a failed lawyer who had been denied a political appointment. The first lady was still recovering from a bout with malaria but rose from her sickbed to nurse her husband. President Garfield died that September, and she dedicated the rest of her life to the historical preservation of his books and papers. Charles M. Litchfield (1850–1914) Albumen silver print, c. 1880 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of George and Sue Whiteley
38. 1STLAD_201114_377.JPG: Frances Cleveland (18641947) Born Buffalo, New York Frances Cleveland with the Wives of President Cleveland's Cabinet Members This group portrait was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, one of the first prominent women photographers in the United States. It is one of several that documents the regular meetings of the Washington wives who had the power to both influence and impact their husbands' careers in often unexpected ways. In addition to these meetings, Frances Folsom Cleveland held weekly Saturday afternoon receptions so that working women could attend official functions at the White House. Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, it was expected that the first lady would socialize with the wives of her husband's cabinet members. Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) Gelatin silver print, c. 1897 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
39. 1STLAD_201114_387.JPG: Frances Cleveland (18641947) Born Born Buffalo, New York First Lady 1886-1889, 1893-1897 No other first lady had been a celebrity before Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland. The media coverage of her White House wedding to President Grover Cleveland excited the romantic sentiments of many Americans. Almost overnight, the twenty-one-year-old bride became an icon. Her clothing choices were copied, and her likeness was used without permission or compensation in innumerable advertisements. And when her husband was re-elected to an unprecedented second, non-consecutive, term in 1892, she became the only woman to serve as first lady twice. This elegant portrait of Frances Cleveland by Swedish artist Anders Zorn acts as a companion to Zorn's likeness of Grover Cleveland, which hangs nearby in the America's Presidents galleries. The painting shows the former first lady at age thirty-five, at the couple's home in Princeton, New Jersey. She wears one of her signature looks: a lace-ruffled gown revealing her bare shoulders and arms. Anders Zorn (1860–1920) Oil on canvas, 1899 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Frances Payne
40. 1STLAD_201114_398.JPG: Rose Cleveland (1846–1918) Born Buffalo, New York First Hostess 1885-1886 When bachelor Grover Cleveland assumed the presidency for the first time in 1885, he asked his unmarried sister, Rose Elizabeth "Libby" Cleveland, to serve as White House hostess. After her brother's marriage to Frances Folsom, she chose to pursue writing. Cleveland's first novel, The Long Run, was published in 1886. In the winter of 1889–90, Rose Cleveland began a relationship with Evangeline Marrs Simpson, a wealthy married woman who eventually became her life partner. Following the death of Simpson's second husband, the two women made a home in the village of Bagni di Lucca, in the Tuscany region of Italy. They remained together until November 1918, when Rose Cleveland succumbed to the Spanish flu. This portrait of Rose Cleveland was made by John Chester Buttre, who produced many elegant engravings of first ladies, including Martha Washington, Harriet Lane Johnston, and Lucretia Garfield. John Chester Buttre (1821–1893) Engraving, 1885 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
41. 1STLAD_201114_404.JPG: Mary Arthur McElroy (1841–1917) Born Greenwich, New York First Sister-in-Law 1881-1885 The recently widowed Chester Arthur asked his sister, Mary Arthur McElroy, to serve as his official hostess when he became president in 1881. McElroy lived with her family in Albany, New York, but she spent each winter social season (from mid-November to the beginning of Lent), in Washington, D.C. McElroy was extremely active in civic life. Despite her exposure to and participation in local and national politics, she strongly believed that women should not have the right to vote. To that end, she was active in the Albany branch of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. This elegant engraving, created when McElroy's time in the White House was drawing to a close, served as the basis for a portrait in the 1903 volume Presiding Ladies of the White House. John Sartain (1808–1897) Engraving, c. 1885 The White House
42. 1STLAD_201114_410.JPG: Ellen Arthur (1837–1880) Born Culpeper, Virginia The heiress Ellen "Nell" Lewis Herndon brought great wealth to her 1859 marriage to Chester A. Arthur. In New York City, the couple kept a lavish Lexington Avenue townhouse, where she entertained guests and he indulged in Republican politics. Ellen Arthur died of pneumonia in January 1880, less than a year before her husband was elected vice president of the United States. When the bereft Chester Arthur was elevated to the presidency following the death of President Garfield in September 1881, he is said to have kept this photographic portrait of Ellen Arthur at his bedside in the White House. Charles Milton Bell (1848–1893) Reproduction of original c. 1870–80 albumen silver print with applied color Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
43. 1STLAD_201114_416.JPG: Edith Wilson (1872–1961) Born Wytheville, Virginia Edith Wilson assists President Woodrow Wilson with his work, June 1920 This image of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson standing at her husband President Woodrow Wilson's side while he works at his desk hints at an unusual work arrangement. The president, who had attended the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919, suffered a debilitating stroke that fall, leaving him partially paralyzed. Rather than reveal the extent of his illness to the public, Edith Wilson isolated him from even his cabinet members and only allowed his doctor to enter his bedchamber during his initial convalescence. Rumors about the president's condition abounded while the first lady acted as gatekeeper, carefully choosing which pieces of business to share with him. Edith Wilson soon incurred the suspicion of both his staff and his political opponents when she began to sift through matters of state in order to determine which business merited his personal attention. Harris & Ewing Studio (active 1905–1977) Reproduction of original gelatin silver print, 1920 Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
44. 1STLAD_201114_423.JPG: Edith Wilson (1872–1961) Born Wytheville, Virginia First Lady 1915-1921 President Woodrow Wilson had been devoted to his first wife, Ellen Axson Wilson, so when she died of Bright's disease during his second year in office, few imagined that he would be remarried within a year. The grieving president met Edith Bolling Galt through his cousin Helen Woodrow Bones, and the two quickly fell in love. A successful and remarkably independent businesswoman, she drove around Washington, D.C., in an electric car. Edith Wilson brought great energy to their union and an innovative spirit to the White House. As first lady during World War I, when gardeners were in short supply, she used sheep to graze on the White House lawn and donated their wool to the war effort. Despite her aversion to suffragists, who in 1917 began picketing outside the White House, Wilson became the first wife of a sitting president to cast a vote in a U.S. election in 1920. Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) Oil on canvas, 1916 The White House
45. 1STLAD_201114_437.JPG: Ellen Wilson (1860–1914) Born Savannah, Georgia First Lady 1913-1914 After her husband Woodrow Wilson began teaching at Princeton University in 1890, Ellen Axson Wilson found more time to pursue painting. However, she did not publicly exhibit her Impressionist-style landscapes until the 1910s. In 1913, when she exhibited a group of fifty paintings in Philadelphia, like the ones seen behind her in this photograph, she donated the sales proceeds to charity. Unidentified photographer Reproduction of original gelatin silver print, c. 1912 Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
46. 1STLAD_201114_442.JPG: Ellen Wilson (1860–1914) Born Savannah, Georgia Ellen Axson Wilson with Daughters During her short time as first lady, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson (1860–1914) used her position of influence to promote social welfare initiatives. She campaigned for women's restrooms in civic buildings and supported child welfare laws. Despite her husband Woodrow Wilson's efforts as president to segregate federal workplaces and institute Jim Crow laws throughout the country, she actively lobbied Congress for passage of the Alley Dwelling Bill, an effort to improve the living conditions of poor Black residents in the nation's capital. After President Wilson's inauguration in 1913, the Wilson family spent the summer at an artist's colony in Cornish, New Hampshire. Between breaks from her own painting practice, which focused on landscapes, Ellen Wilson posed for this painting with her three daughters, Margaret, Eleanor, and Jesse (left to right). The artist, American Impressionist Robert Vonnoh, was married to renowned sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh and was a family friend. Robert Vonnoh (1858–1933) Oil on canvas, 1913 President Woodrow Wilson House, A Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
47. 1STLAD_201114_456.JPG: Florence Harding (1860–1924) Born Marion, Ohio Florence Harding with Laddie Boy First Lady 1921-1923 In 1891, Florence Mabel Kling DeWolffe was a divorcée and a single mother who was supporting herself as a piano teacher when she married Warren Harding, a newspaper publisher five years her junior. During her husband's presidential campaign, she led the press to believe that she had been a widow when they married. She also refused to issue a statement in response to public speculation that candidate Harding had African American ancestors. This photograph shows Florence Harding in the uniform of the Girls Scouts of America, an organization she strongly supported. Laddie Boy, the first White House celebrity pet, accompanies her. Both Florence Harding and the Airedale terrier had their own chairs to sit in during cabinet meetings. After President Harding's death in office, the Roosevelt Newsboys' Association commissioned a sculpture of Laddie Boy as a memorial to him. It is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Edmonston Studio (active 1912–1945) Gelatin silver print, c. 1921–23 National First Ladies' Library
48. 1STLAD_201114_463.JPG: Grace Coolidge (1879–1957) Born Burlington, Vermont First Lady 1923-1929 Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge was as friendly and outgoing as her husband Calvin Coolidge was stoic and reclusive, and her accessibility was central to his popular appeal. Before marriage, she taught lipreading to students at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts; she remained deeply involved with that institution until the end of her life. After Warren Harding suffered a heart attack in 1923 and her husband, the vice president, was sworn into office, Coolidge rapidly adjusted to the duties of being the first lady. Always a bit of a maverick, when she was presented with a raccoon as a gift for Thanksgiving dinner, she named it "Rebecca" and made it into a favorite pet, along with two dogs and five canaries. Cutting an elegant figure, Grace Coolidge was a sought-after portrait subject. This painting by Howard Chandler Christy, a renowned portraitist and illustrator, shows Coolidge shortly after she became first lady. Howard Chandler Christy (1872–1952) Oil on canvas, 1924 Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum
49. 1STLAD_201114_479.JPG: Helen Taft (1861–1943) Born Cincinnati, Ohio First Lady 1909-1913 Helen "Nellie" Louise Herron Taft viewed the election of her husband William Howard Taft as a personal triumph. She later wrote that she felt a "secret elation" while riding with him in the 1909 inaugural parade, something no first lady had done before. However, her most important legacy might be the 3,020 Japanese cherry trees that she had planted on the grounds of the Capitol and along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Having become enamored with their blossoms while visiting Japan in 1900, she rightly believed they would add great beauty to the nation's capital. This enigmatic portrait of Taft, seated in the White House garden with the mansion in the distance, was painted by Swedish artist Bror Kronstrand during his 1910 tour of the United States. In her final act as first lady, Taft donated her inauguration gown to the Smithsonian Institution, marking the beginning of the First Ladies' gown collection. Bror Kronstrand (1875–1950) Oil on canvas, 1910 The White House
50. 1STLAD_201114_488.JPG: Edith Roosevelt (1861–1948) Born Norwich, Connecticut Edith and Ethel Roosevelt First Lady 1901-1909 Edith Kermit Carow and Theodore Roosevelt were teenage sweethearts, but they did not marry until later. His first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, died after childbirth on February 14, 1884, the same day he lost his mother. Two years later, Edith and Theodore Roosevelt married in London. In the White House, Edith Roosevelt focused on raising her stepdaughter, Alice, and the couple's five rambunctious children while modernizing the role of first lady. She broke tradition by hiring a social secretary; appointed a chief usher; oversaw a major renovation of the White House; and established the East Wing, creating a suite of offices for the First Lady. This double portrait of Edith Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel was painted by Cecilia Beaux. Having trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Académie Julian in Paris, Beaux was one of the most prominent society portraitists of her generation. Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942) Oil on canvas, 1902 Collection of Sarah Chapman
51. 1STLAD_201114_505.JPG: Caroline Harrison (1832–1892) Born Oxford, Ohio First Lady 1889-1892 Caroline Lavinia Scott held a degree in music and taught at the college level before marrying Benjamin Henry Harrison in 1853. Raised in a resolutely anti-slavery household, Harrison participated in the Ladies' Sanitary Committee, which helped to care for wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War. In the White House, she established the presidential china collection and initiated a mass restoration of the presidential mansion, which included installing electricity. Before her untimely death, Harrison helped raise money for the establishment of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine on the condition that the school admit women students. This grand portrait of Harrison by Daniel Huntington was a gift to the White House from the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Harrison was a founder of that organization and its first president general. In that role, she became the first wife of a sitting president to deliver a public speech. Daniel Huntington (1816–1906) Oil on canvas, 1894 The White House
52. 1STLAD_201114_519.JPG: Ida McKinley (1847–1907) Born Canton, Ohio First Lady 1897-1901 Ida Saxton worked as a teller and manager in her father's bank before her marriage to William McKinley in 1871. Following the deaths of their two young daughters, Katie and Ida, in the mid-1870s, Ida McKinley grappled with depression and seizures. This portrait miniature, painted in the White House, highlights the first lady's cropped hair. Doctors had recommended that she keep her hair short to lessen the weight on her cranial nerves, in the hopes that it would reduce her seizures and chronic headaches. Emily Drayton Taylor (1860–1952) Watercolor on ivory, 1899 The White House
53. 1STLAD_201114_525.JPG: Lou Hoover (1874–1944) Born Waterloo, Iowa Lou Hoover photograph A wealthy and exceptionally well-educated woman, Lou Henry Hoover's privilege sometimes blinded her to the challenges that working presented for lower class women or those who maintained homes and raised children without domestic help. This disconnect alienated Hoover from much of the nation when the Stock Market Crash of 1929 brought on the Great Depression. Thus, many of her solutions, including women's volunteerism and communal support, went over poorly, although they were similar to those later championed by Hoover's equally wealthy yet vastly more empathetic successor, Eleanor Roosevelt. This photographic portrait of Hoover by Edward Steichen was published in Vogue magazine. Taken in 1928, shortly before she moved into the White House, it marked the first time that this premiere fashion magazine featured a first lady in its pages. Edward Steichen (1879–1973) Gelatin silver print, 1928 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; bequest of Edward Steichen
54. 1STLAD_201114_534.JPG: Lou Hoover (1874–1944) Born Waterloo, Iowa First Lady 1929-1933 Iowa native Lou Henry met her future husband Herbert Hoover while the two were studying at Stanford University, where they both majored in geology. The couple traveled the world for his work as a mining engineer, and she acquired fluency in several foreign languages, including Mandarin. Exceptionally well educated, the wealthy Hoover chose to work, gaining prestige for her 1912 translation of a technical geological text from Latin to English. As first lady, she rejected restrictive social standards by inviting pregnant women to attend White House functions. She also defied segregationists by hosting Jessie DePriest, the African American wife of a Chicago congressman, at a White House tea for congressional wives. The original version of this portrait was made in 1932, while Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover were still in the White House. Richard M. Brown (1919–1964), after Philip Alexius de László Oil on canvas, mounted on fiberboard, 1950 The White House
55. 1STLAD_201114_541.JPG: Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) Born New York City First Lady 1933-1945 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born into an old family of great wealth (she was the favorite niece of President Theodore Roosevelt), but she was remarkably sensitive to the concerns of the underprivileged. Arguing that dignity came from within, she is credited with the saying "Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent." After her husband's death in 1945, which came just months after his re-election to an unprecedented fourth term, she became the chairperson of the United Nations' Human Rights Commission. Her work on the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights led many to hail her as the "First Lady of the World." Painter Douglas Chandor captured the many sides of the former first lady's personality in this multiple-image portrait. Made at his studio in New York City, it is inscribed by the sitter in the upper right corner: "A trial made pleasant by the painter. Eleanor Roosevelt." Douglas Chandor (1897–1953) Oil on canvas, 1949 The White House
56. 1STLAD_201114_559.JPG: A trial made portrait by the painter Eleanor Roosevelt
57. 1STLAD_201114_563.JPG: Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) Born New York City Eleanor Roosevelt's life changed radically when her husband (and distant cousin) Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the presidency in 1932. His mobility had been limited since 1921, when he had contracted polio at the age of thirty-nine. Consequently, as first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt often made public appearances in his stead. At the height of the Great Depression, she traveled widely to assess federal relief programs, and during World War II, she flew around the world visiting troops in his place. When photographer Yousuf Karsh made this portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, she was already the longest serving first lady, having lived in the White House for over a decade. She is pictured here with a pencil in hand, an allusion to her work as a journalist. Indeed, she penned over eight thousand columns for her syndicated newspaper feature, wrote twenty-seven books, and had her own radio show. Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002) Gelatin silver print, 1944 National Portrait
58. 1STLAD_201114_568.JPG: Bess Truman (1885–1982) Born Independence, Missouri First Lady 1945-1953 Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman was born into a prominent family in Independence, Missouri. As a teenager, she suffered greatly when her father died by suicide, and as a result she attempted to lead a private life as an adult. Yet she was always deeply involved in her husband Harry S. Truman's political career, and she routinely helped him write his speeches. As first lady, Truman was instrumental in saving the White House from demolition and subsequently lobbied Congress for preservation of the mansion's original walls inside a new steel frame. This painting of Bess Truman by Martha Greta Kempton is the pendant to her husband's official White House portrait. The Vienna-born artist painted at least three portraits of the first lady and seven of President Truman, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery's collection of presidential portraits. Martha Greta Kempton (1903–1991) Oil on canvas, 1967 The White House
59. 1STLAD_201114_582.JPG: Mamie Eisenhower (1896–1979) Born Boone, Iowa When Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower became first lady, Life and other photographic magazines cast her in the role of the nation's homemaker-in-chief. "Of course, being mistress of the White House is a terrific responsibility," she explained to a reporter in 1952, "and I am truly grateful for my Army wife training." Her approach to the role was in harmony with a social campaign that encouraged middle-class white women to embrace female domesticity after many had worked outside the home during the war effort. Edward Clark (1911–2000) Life magazine, October 20, 1958 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
60. 1STLAD_201114_586.JPG: Mamie Eisenhower (1896–1979) Born Boone, Iowa First Lady 1953-1961 When her husband, former General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was elected president in 1952, Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower brought her personal style and unique decorating skills to the White House. Her ebullient personality helped to popularize her signature short bangs and her favorite color, which soon became known as "Mamie Pink." Not only did it feature prominently in her wardrobe, as seen in this portrait of Eisenhower in her inauguration gown, but also in much of the feminine décor that she introduced into the White House during her eight-year stay. As first lady, Eisenhower received hundreds of letters a month, and she hired additional staff to ensure the correspondence was answered. Her welcoming attitude extended to the Easter Egg Roll, when she challenged the precedent and insisted that African American children be allowed to participate. Thomas Edgar Stephens (1885–1966) Oil on canvas, 1959 The White House
61. 1STLAD_201114_595.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) Born Southampton, New York First Lady 1961-1963 Despite her French maiden name and fluency in that language, Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, like her first husband John F. Kennedy, was primarily of Irish decent. Her skillful diplomacy convinced France to loan the Mona Lisa to the United States, and her interest in historic preservation helped lead to the organization of the White House Historical Association. As first lady, Kennedy experienced the death of her infant son, Patrick, just three months before witnessing her husband's gruesome assassination in 1963. Her remarkable poise during this time of unthinkable personal and national tragedy made her a symbol of strength for a nation in mourning. This portrait, which was made for a 1961 Time magazine cover, shows a youthful first lady in front of the South Portico of the White House. The baby carriage in the background alludes to the young family that she and President Kennedy brought with them to the mansion. Boris Chaliapin (1904–1979) Gouache, watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite on paperboard, 1960–61 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
62. 1STLAD_201114_601.JPG: Note the baby carriage
63. 1STLAD_201114_606.JPG: Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) Born Karnack, Texas First Lady 1963-1969 When Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One two hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson became first lady. The following year, she led an unprecedented solo campaign train trip aboard the "Lady Bird Special" to support her husband's presidential bid. This whistle-stop tour, on which she gave forty-seven speeches in eight states from Virginia to Louisiana, sought to win back the white Southern vote after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This 1968 portrait shows her in a gown similar to the one she wore to the inaugural ball in 1965. Today, Lady Bird Johnson is often associated with the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, an initiative that incorporated historic site preservation, natural resource conservation, and environmental protection. For her successful efforts, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988. Elizabeth Shoumatoff (1888–1980) Oil on canvas, 1968 The White House
64. 1STLAD_201114_614.JPG: Pat Nixon (1912–1993) Born Ely, Nevada First Lady 1969-1974 As a woman who had worked hard to support herself through college, Nevada-born Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was a staunch advocate of the Equal Rights Amendment. During her husband Richard Nixon's vice presidency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–61) and during his own presidency, she visited over eighty countries. As first lady she focused on access for all those wishing to visit the White House, resulting in foreign-language pamphlets and the installation of the first wheelchair ramps at the mansion. This wistful portrait of Nixon was featured on the February 29, 1960, cover of Time magazine during her husband's unsuccessful presidential run against John F. Kennedy. The artist, Robert Vickrey, was a master of egg tempera, an ancient technique that requires great skill. From 1957 to 1968, artist Robert Vickrey created seventy-eight covers for Time magazine, only a handful of which feature notable women like Pat Nixon. Robert Vickrey (1926–2011) Tempera on Masonite, 1960 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
65. 1STLAD_201114_628.JPG: Betty Ford (1918–2011) Born Chicago, Illinois First Lady 1974-1977 Elizabeth "Betty" Anne Bloomer performed with Martha Graham's modern dance company in New York City before marrying Gerald Ford in 1948. As first lady, Betty Ford earned both scorn and praise for her pro-choice beliefs and her strong support of the Equal Rights Amendment. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy just weeks after becoming the first lady. Her open encouragement of women to perform self-exams and to seek early medical care is credited with saving millions of lives. After leaving the White House, Ford spoke candidly about her drug and alcohol dependency, which she developed after suffering from a pinched nerve and chronic arthritis. Artist Everett Kinstler completed this vibrant portrait of Ford in 1996, two years before she and her husband won the Congressional Gold Medal. Kinstler also painted Gerald Ford's White House portrait and the portrait of him that is in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition America's Presidents. Everett Raymond Kinstler (1926–2019) Oil on canvas, 1996 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Everett Raymond Kinstler
66. 1STLAD_201114_636.JPG: Campaign Pins In the second half of the twentieth century, pinback buttons featuring small portraits of first ladies became popular and were typically accompanied by affirmative phrases, such as "We Want Mamie" or "Fly with Ladybird." Historically, this form of publicity had been reserved for the likenesses of presidential candidates. The wearable mini portraits shown here, therefore, hint at the increased responsibility of first ladies in modern presidential campaigns. Campaign buttons with portraits have allowed voters to express a political preference without saying a word since the nineteenth century. In 1860, when photography was still a new medium, supporters of Abraham Lincoln pinned inexpensive "tintype" portraits of him to their clothing. But it was the advent of celluloid that made possible the mass-production of campaign buttons around the turn of the century. Over the following decades, they became essential presidential campaign paraphernalia, reaching their zenith in the 1970s and 1980s. All: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
67. 1STLAD_201114_641.JPG: Pat Nixon: 1968
68. 1STLAD_201114_643.JPG: Betty Ford: 1976
69. 1STLAD_201114_646.JPG: Rosalynn Carter: 1976
70. 1STLAD_201114_648.JPG: Nancy Reagan: 1980
71. 1STLAD_201114_653.JPG: Rosalynn Carter (born 1927) Born Plains, Georgia First Lady 1977-1981 A strong advocate of social welfare programs, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter brought voters' concerns about mental health care with her to the White House in 1977. In addition to serving as honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health, Carter attended cabinet meetings so that she could offer informed answers to the questions she received at public appearances. In 1982, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter founded the Carter Center. Since 1984, the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity has built and renovated houses in the United States and abroad. Today these homes stand as the physical embodiments of the Carters' humanitarian principles. Shortly before Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, artist Robert Clark Templeton sketched Rosalynn Carter from two different angles, suggesting her multifaceted character and interests. Templeton's 1980 portrait of President Jimmy Carter is also in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Robert Clark Templeton (1929–1991) Pastel on illustration board, 1976 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; donated by Mark, Kevin, and Tim Templeton, sons of the artist
72. 1STLAD_201114_663.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) Born Southampton, New York Suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy As first lady, Jackie Kennedy had the majority of her clothes custom made by Chez Ninon, a New York City clothier who received special permission from Parisian fashion houses to create replica garments that were "made in America." However, the fabric and buttons were often supplied by the original designer, as was the case for this gray wool "Givenchy" suit. The pink "Chanel" suit that she was wearing in the motorcade, when her husband was assassinated in Dallas Texas, was also made by Chez Ninon. Chez Ninon (active 1928–1996) Wool tweed, 1961 John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston; gift of the Estate of President John F. Kennedy
73. 1STLAD_201114_673.JPG: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born 1964) Born Chicago, Illinois Michelle Obama's Milly gown As first lady, Michelle Robinson Obama alternated between off-the-rack clothes, sold by American companies, like J. Crew, or more expensive pieces by established designers. She also commissioned emerging talent, such as the Chinese-born, New York City-based Jason Wu, who was just twenty-six when he created her ensemble for her husband's first inauguration in 2009. In 2017, Obama selected a cotton poplin maxi dress by New York City designer Michelle Smith, founder of Milly, for her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery. Not only did the material speak to the history of plantation agriculture in the U.S., but the geometric color block pattern also reminded artist Amy Sherald of the African American quilting tradition of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Milly (active since 2000) Cotton poplin, 2017 Loan courtesy of Michelle Obama
74. 1STLAD_201114_718.JPG: Nancy Reagan (1921–2016) Born New York City Nancy Reagan's second inaugural gown From the beginning of her eight-year tenure as first lady, Nancy Reagan was criticized for her lavish designer wardrobe. Reagan's opulence during a period of "trickle-down economics" earned her the derisive nickname of "Queen Nancy." Detractors found her actions inappropriate when the nation was facing record homelessness and the AIDS epidemic was claiming the lives of so many. James Galanos was Reagan's favorite designer. Although he made this gown for the second inauguration, Reagan also wore it to host the state banquet in honor of their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Great Britain, when they visited the U.S. in 1985. James Galanos (1924–2016) Chiffon with Austrian and Czechoslovakian glass beads, 1985 Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute
75. 1STLAD_201114_726.JPG: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born 1964) Born Chicago, Illinois First Lady 2009-2017 After graduating from Princeton University, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson earned a law degree from Harvard University. She then returned to her hometown of Chicago, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama, while working in intellectual property law. As the first lady and as the mother of two daughters, Obama was inspired to reach young people through various health and education initiatives that included Let's Move, Reach Higher, and Let Girls Learn. The latter fought to ensure that girls worldwide were afforded equal access to learning opportunities. Since leaving the White House, she has continued to empower young women around the world with the Girls Opportunity Alliance. When Amy Sherald's portrait of Obama was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in 2018, many viewers were pleased while others were shocked by the artist's distinctive approach, which uses gray for skin color as a way to look beyond the superficial differences of race. Amy Sherald (born 1973) Oil on linen, 2018 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia; Clarence, DeLoise, and Brenda Gaines; Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper; The Stoneridge Fund of Amy and Marc Meadows; Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker; Catherine and Michael Podell; Mark and Cindy Aron; Lyndon J. Barrois and Janine Sherman Barrois; The Honorable John and Louise Bryson; Paul and Rose Carter; Bob and Jane Clark; Lisa R. Davis; Shirley Ross Davis and Family; Alan and Lois Fern; Conrad and Constance Hipkins; Sharon and John Hoffman; Audrey M. Irmas; John Legend and Chrissy Teigen; Eileen Harris Norton; Helen Hilton Raiser; Philip and Elizabeth Ryan; Roselyne Chroman Swig; Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman; Eileen Baird; Dennis and Joyce Black Family Charitable Foundation; Shelley Brazier; Aryn Drake-Lee; Andy and Teri Goodman; Randi Charno Levine and Jeffrey E. Levine; Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation; Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago; Arthur Lewis and Hau Nguyen; Sara and John Schram; Alyssa Taubman and Robert Rothman
76. 1STLAD_201114_736.JPG: Nancy Reagan (1921–2016) Born New York City First Lady 1981-1989 Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins) married fellow actor and aspiring politician Ronald Reagan in 1952. Afterward, she became his closest advisor and fiercest protector during a long political career spanning his election as governor of California in 1966 and his presidency in the 1980s. As first lady, she led the "Just Say No" campaign to educate children about the dangers of illegal drugs. She also supported the passage of the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which dramatically increased penalties. In 1988, Reagan became the first wife of a president to address the General Assembly of the United Nations when she spoke about the impact of drug trafficking. This likeness of Nancy Reagan by Aaron Shikler shows her wearing a dress in her signature "Reagan Red." It ran on the January 14, 1985, cover of Time magazine and was accompanied by a headline that hailed her as the "White House Co-Star." Aaron Shikler (1922–2015) Oil on paper, 1984–85 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
77. 1STLAD_201114_748.JPG: Nancy Reagan (1921–2016) Born New York City As first lady from 1981 to 1989, Nancy Reagan sought to heighten the style and glamour of White House events, much as Jacqueline Kennedy had done twenty years earlier. Like other first ladies, Reagan also chose worthy causes to endorse. She supported the Foster Grandparent Program and in 1982 launched her "Just Say No" campaign to fight youth drug abuse and support drug rehabilitation programs. While President Ronald Reagan was in France in 1982 to attend the economic summit conference held at Versailles, the first lady commemorated the thirty-eighth anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy by visiting Omaha Beach Memorial Cemetery. In this photograph, she stoops to place flowers on a grave in remembrance of the thousands of American G.I.s who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Diana Walker (born 1942) Inkjet print, 1982 (printed 2011) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Diana Walker
78. 1STLAD_201114_758.JPG: Hillary Rodham Clinton (born 1947) Born Chicago, Illinois First Lady 1993-2001 Not only did Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton spend eight years as first lady of the United States during her husband Bill Clinton's presidency, but she also went on to be elected a U.S. senator from New York, serve as U.S. secretary of state, and become the first woman to receive the presidential nomination from the Democratic Party. As first lady, Clinton headed the White House's Task Force on National Health Care Reform and stoically stood by her husband as he was impeached by Congress during his embattled second term. She has authored several books, including It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us (1996) and The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience (2019), co-written with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. This painting of Clinton by Ginny Stanford marked the beginning of the National Portrait Gallery's tradition of commissioning portraits of first ladies. Ginny Stanford (born 1950) Center panel: acrylic on canvas on wood; side panels: gold leaf on wood, 2006 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Gift of Ambassador Elizabeth F. Bagley and Mr. Smith Bagley, Robert B. Barnett, Susie Tompkins Buell, The Boeing Company, Buffy and William Cafritz, David V. and Judith E. Capes, Albert and Claire Dwoskin, Catherine Spitzer Gidlow, Jill and Kenneth Iscol, Ambassador and Mrs. Philip Lader, Ruesch Family Foundation, Corky Hale and Mike Stoller, and Leon and Mary Strauss
79. 1STLAD_201114_766.JPG: Laura Bush (born 1946) Born Midland, Texas First Lady 2001-2009 When Laura Lane Welch Bush entered the White House, she had been advocating for childhood literacy for decades. Having begun her career as an elementary school teacher, she went on to earn a master's degree in library science and then worked as a school librarian. As first lady, she established the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries, which still provides funds to school libraries that are affected by economic hardship and natural disasters. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush became the "comforter in chief" for many people in the United States. The two wars that followed often obscured her efforts to focus on children's education and women's welfare. In this portrait, the Siberian-born, Texas-based artist Aleksander Titovets portrays Bush in the private quarters of the White House, as though she has been interrupted while reading. Aleksander Titovets (born 1960) Oil on canvas, 2008 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Stewart
80. 1STLAD_201114_777.JPG: Melania Trump (born 1970) Born Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) First Lady 2017–2021 Melania Knauss Trump, shown here in her official White House portrait, was born in Slovenia. After Louisa Catherine Adams, Trump is only the second first lady to have been born outside of the United States and the first to become a naturalized citizen. Since the success of her husband Donald Trump's run for president in 2016, she has focused on raising their son, Barron, and her Be Best campaign, which supports children's well-being with a focus on two specific issues: online safety and combating opioid abuse. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Melania Trump actively used her @FLOTUS Twitter account to promote information on health and safety while encouraging parents to remain attentive to the needs of their children. Régine Mahaux-Van Wassenhove (born 1961) Photograph, 2017 (printed 2020) The White House
81. 1STLAD_201114_784.JPG: Barbara Bush (1925–2018) Born New York City First Lady 1989-1993 Following Abigail Adams, Barbara Pierce Bush is only the second woman to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another; she also shared a common ancestor with President Franklin Pierce. A strong supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, Bush was pro-choice and fought to destigmatize AIDS. She used her platform as first lady to combat illiteracy, writing several books and hosting a radio program with celebrity guests called "Mrs. Bush's Story Time." In 1989, the first lady created the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy to improve access to educational opportunities. It was funded in part by the proceeds of Millie's Book, in which her pet dog "describes a day in the life of [President] George Herbert Walker Bush and family, discussing morning briefings, deliberations in the Oval Office, and short breaks for squirrel hunting." This portrait shows Barbara Bush with one of the family's beloved English Springer Spaniels. Chas Fagan (born 1966) Oil on canvas, 2005 The White House
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