First Ladies

Eleanor Roosevelt pushed the boundaries of the First Lady role as she traveled thousands of miles for five weeks, visiting troops and dispatching reports back home.

The 32nd first lady wielded an influential—and disruptive—voice on behalf of equality, civil rights and social justice.

In the wake of World War II's horrors, Roosevelt saw the need to support refugees and affirm the right to education, shelter and medical care.

Dr. Jill Biden is a longtime educator and the wife of the 46th U.S. president-elect and former vice president, Joe Biden, and the future first lady of the United States.

About 8,500 women attended the camps inspired by the CCC and organized by Eleanor Roosevelt—but the "She-She-She" program was mocked and eventually abandoned.

The 'Father of the Nation' stressed education among his family's younger generations and even offered advice on navigating love.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush won the public’s admiration for her candor sharp sense of humor, but fashioned herself as a return to a more traditional first lady.

The first lady spoke her mind and shared her struggles, sparking national dialogues that affected countless American lives.

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh writes in his new book that Pat Nixon visited the emergency room and alleged that her husband had hit her shortly after Nixon resigned.

She spent nearly half the Revolutionary War at her husband’s side.

There are many ways to be a modern first lady.

After President Lincoln's death, the First Lady's public grieving was seen as evidence that she was an improper woman.

The role of the United States’ first lady traditionally goes to the president’s spouse, but in instances it falls to others.

Early Years Melanija Knavs was born on April 26, 1970, in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. At the time, the small Central European nation was part of communist-ruled Yugoslavia; it gained its independence in 1991. Melanija was raised in Sevnica, Slovenia, where he...

Fluent in French and favored by the grandest courts in Europe, the London-born Louisa Catherine Adams played a key role in the election of her husband, John Quincy Adams, in 1824.

Could a vitamin B12 deficiency explain the first lady’s long list of ailments and notoriously strange behavior?

Check out 10 surprising facts about the life and work of one of America’s most iconic first ladies.

From Franklin’s brushes with death to Eleanor’s midnight ride with Amelia Earhart, here are 10 things you may not know about this presidential pair.

He knew the bride since her birth—and had been her guardian.

Early Life Elizabeth “Betty” Anne Bloomer was the third child, and only daughter, of William Bloomer, Sr. and Hortense Neahr. Elizabeth’s father worked for the Royal Rubber Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her mother was related to a wealthy Grand Rap...

Laura Bush (1946-) was an American first lady and the wife of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States. As a former public shool teacher and librarian, Laura Bush championed the causes of education and literacy before and during her time in t...

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier: Early Life and Marriage Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. Her parents, Janet Lee and stockbroker John “Black Jack” Bouvier, divorced in 1942, and Jackie’s mother married lawyer Hugh Auchi...

Sarah Polk (1803-1891) was an American first lady (1845–1849), wife of James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States. Compared to most other first ladies of the 19th century, she was deeply involved in her husband’s career and, through him, exe...

Rachel Jackson (1767-1828) was the wife of U.S. Army general and President-elect Andrew Jackson, who became the seventh president of the United States (1829–37). She died less than three months before his inauguration. Rachel Donelson was born circa Jun...

Mamie Eisenhower (1896-1979) was an American first lady (1953-61) and the wife of famed U.S. Army commander and 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike’s military career kept the couple constantly on the move- in fact, they wouldn...

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln was the wife of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Martha Washington (1731-1802) was an American first lady (1789–97) and the wife of George Washington, first president of the United States and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution. She set many of the standards and cu...

Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson was the wife of Thomas Jefferson. Born in Virginia in 1748, she died at the family’s Monticello home on September 6, 1782, several months after giving birth to her last child and 19 years before her husband became the thi...

Lucille “Lucy” Hayes (1831-89) was an American first lady (1877-81) and the wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States. The well-educated Lucy was the first first lady to have graduated from college, receiving her degree from W...

Louisa Adams (1775-1852) was an American first lady (1825-1829) and the wife of John Quincy Adams, a U.S. Congressman and the sixth president of the United States. The first-ever first lady born abroad, she met her husband while he was serving as a U.S....

Lou Hoover (1874-1944) was an American first lady (1929-1933) and the wife of Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States. As a child, Lou developed an interest in nature and the outdoors, a passion she would follow to Stanford University, w...

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson (1912-2007) was an American first lady (1963-69) and the wife of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. A strong believer in her husband’s political talents, Lady Bird used her own inheritance to fund his ea...

Ida McKinley (1847-1907) was an American first lady (1897-1901) and the wife of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. Her ill health, particularly the onset of epilepsy when she was in her 30s, limited her ability to perform many of...

Helen Taft (1861-1943) was an American first lady (1909-13) and the wife of William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States and later chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As a member of a successful Ohio political family, Helen (or Nellie, ...

Hannah Van Buren (1783-1819) was the wife of Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States. Hannah Van Buren died 18 years before her husband Martin was elected president and never served as first lady. Instead, that social role was played...

Frances Cleveland (1864-1947) was the wife of Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Just 21 years old when she became first lady, Frances Cleveland holds a number of distinctions in presidential history: She was the younges...

Florence Harding (1860-1924) was an American first lady (1921-23) and the wife of Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the United States. Energetic, strong-willed and popular, she was an important influence on her husband’s business and political career...

Ellen Wilson (1860-1914) was an American first lady (1913-14) and the first wife of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States. Although far less well-known than her husband’s second wife, Edith Galt Wilson, Ellen is perhaps best remembered...

Edith Wilson (1872-1961) was an American first lady (1915–21) and the second wife of Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States. The couple married just a year after the 1914 death of Wilson’s first wife, Ellen. Though Edith admitted she had no...

Edith Roosevelt's Childhood and Early Life The second child of Gertrude Elizabeth and Charles Carow, scion of a successful New York City-based shipping firm, Edith Kermit Carow was born into a world of privilege. She received an extensive education in w...

Margaret Taylor (1788-1852) was an American first lady (1849-1850) and the wife of Zachary Taylor, an American military hero and the 12th president of the United States. Margaret supported her husband throughout his long military career, repeatedly upro...

Lucretia Garfield (1832-1918) was an American first lady (March 4–September 19, 1881), and the wife of James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States. Although she served as first lady for only a few months because of her husband’s assassina...

Jane Pierce (1806-63) was an American first lady (1853-1857) and the wife of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. Although Franklin Pierce was candid about his political ambitions and was already a rising member of Congress when the...

Eliza Johnson (1810-76) was an American first lady (1865-69) and the wife of Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States. Though she supported her husband’s political career, she shied away from the public role associated with it, and did no...

As the wife of one president, George H.W. Bush (1989-1993), and the mother of another, George W. Bush (2001-2009), Barbara Bush holds a unique position in American political history. Born in 1925, she married at the age of 19 and devoted much her time t...

Rosalynn Carter was a trusted adviser to her husband, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and remained committed to humanitarian issues after leaving the White House.

Ellen Arthur (1837-80) was the wife of Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, though she never served as first lady because she died of pneumonia before her husband assumed office. In her absence, the president’s sister, Mary Arthur...

Letitia Tyler (1790-1842) was an American first lady (1841-1842) and the first wife of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. Two years before her husband assumed the presidency, Letitia suffered a debilitating stroke. As a result, she spe...

Julia Grant: Early Life Julia Grant was born Julia Boggs Dent on January 26, 1826. She was the fifth of seven children born to “Colonel” Frederick and Ellen Wrenshall Dent. Raised on the White Haven plantation approximately 12 miles from St. Louis, Miss...

Thelma “Pat” Nixon (1912-93) was an American first lady (1969-74) and the wife of Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. As first lady, Pat Nixon encouraged Americans to donate their time and service to volunteerism, continued preservat...

Julia Tyler (1820-1889) was an American first lady (1844-1845) and the second wife of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. Thirty years younger than her husband, Julia married John Tyler two years after the death of his first wife, Letit...

Nancy Reagan (1921-2016) was an American first lady (1981-1989), the wife of Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, and actress, noted for her efforts to discourage drug use by American youths. Anne Frances “Nancy” Robbins was born in New Y...

Caroline Harrison (1832-92) was an American first lady (1889-92) and the wife of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States. While first lady, Caroline Harrison worked on behalf of several Washington charities; served as a fundraiser and...

Eliabeth Monroe (1768-1830) was an American first lady (1817-1825) and wife of James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. Elizabeth and James spent much of their early married life abroad, where James served as the U.S. minister to several ...

Hillary Clinton's Childhood and Early Life Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the nearby suburb of Park Ridge. The eldest child of Hugh Rodham, a fabric business owner, and Dorothy Howell, a homemaker,...

Grace Coolidge (1879-1957) was an American first lady (1923-29) and the wife of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States. A former teacher at a Massachusetts school for the deaf, she used her platform as first lady to champion education ...

Anna Harrison (1775-1864) was an American first lady (1841), the wife of William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, and grandmother of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president. She was the first First Lady to receive a formal education, ...

Elizabeth “Bess” Truman (1885-1982) was an American first lady (1945-53) and the wife of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States. An intensely private woman, Bess reluctantly agreed to attend political events with her husband throughout...

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Early Years Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City. Her father, Elliott Roosevelt (1860-1894) was the younger brother of Theodore Roosevelt, and her mother, Anna Hall (1863-1892), was from a wealthy New...

Abigail Fillmore (1798-1853) was an American first lady (1850-1853) and the wife of Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States. The first first lady to work outside of the home, she met her future husband while she was his teacher at a sc...

Dolley Madison, the wife of James Madison, established first lady precedents such as working with charities and overseeing the decoration of the White House.

Michelle Obama (1964-), wife of Barack Obama, became the United States' first African American First Lady in 2009, and served until 2017. She was also a lawyer and an associate dean at the University of Chicago.

Abigail Adams: Early Life Born in 1744, Abigail Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a village some 12 miles from Boston. Her father, William Smith, was minister of the First Congregational Church there, and also made a living as a farmer. He and h...