And it was all gods will. Soanyones personality affect did negatively her Husbands Administration, it was certainly jamie jane pierce. Mrs. Pierce suffered greatly from depression and had three sons. Her first two sons died when they were very young. Her third son was 11 years old at the time Franklin Pierce was elected president. On a train ride between andover, massachusetts, and boston, the train went off the tracks and mrs. Pierce saw her last son crushed before her eyes. She considered this to be gods will, as a way of not providing any kinds of distractions for her husband. The fourears, two of pierce years, she did not appear publicly. When she finally did appear publicly, she was always dressed completely in black. It did not help her relationship with her husband and it set a permanent pall over the quality of the administration. The depressing entertaining style, she had black decorations on the table and stiff wired flowers presented at each of the womans seats affected everyone. As one guest said, her woe gun face broke animation in others. Its no exaggeration to say that in that period of time, which was a crucial period of time right before the civil war, mrs. Pierce really did psychologically affect the whole sense of that administration as one that was ineffective with a great sense of malaise to it. She followed by harriet lane, the niece of james buchanan. Harriet lane was the first first lady to welcome a member of the British Royal family as a formal guest at the white house. This being edward, the prince of wales in the year 1816. Youthful, popular, she had listened to the mockingbird named after her, dedicated to her. She made the low neck lace bertha popular. It was her personal relationship with the royal family which raised question about englands role during the civil war. England, of course, remained neutral. There were many people who said at the time that was because of ms. Lanes personal friendship with the royal family that they did so. She entertained the prince just during the beginning of the Secession Movement about a month before Abraham Lincoln was elected president. With Mary Todd Lincoln in the white house during the civil war, her perfect of state china which had been done by other first ladies, her decorating the white house, which had also been done by other first ladies was severely criticized as action incentive to the needs and the conditions of the country. Mrs. Lincoln said it was part of her duty to dress in fine and expensive clothes as a way of lifting the morale of the nation. She felt truly this was her duty and felt that loyal republicans who owed their jobs to her Husbands Administration should help defray the costs of her gowns. Entertaining in the blue room, mrs. Lincoln was harshly criticized for that. How could somebody be spending money on champagne and on food at a time when money was needed for union blankets and guns. And yet she was criticized for not entertaining and halting the public concerts when her son died. There was no National Sympathy of any kind when mrs. Lincolns son, willie died in the white house because everyone was losing family members to the war. But the issue of ones personal life, ones family members came up in an even more harsh way with mrs. Lincoln because she, of course, had come from a southern family and many of her brothers and half brothers and brothers in law fought for the confederacy. When her sister, the widow of a confederate soldier visited the white house, it caused so much trouble and talk in washington that emily helm finally had to leave. Mrs. Lincolns personal friends were questioned. There were stories of her being friends with a drunken russian admiral and her friends with all sorts of questionable journalists in washington. Her project on behalf of the freed slaves for the Freedmans Bureau for the education and employment of slaves was also turned into a political issue. By the 1870s, the white house, the families themselves became much more attuned to the publics responses to their perceptions of white house family life. And so you had lucy hayes and the news that lucy hayes would spend sunday evenings with her family around the piano singing hymns. Mrs. Hayes clothing and hairstyle was compared to the adonna herself. Jimenezes. Mrs. Hayes clothing and hairstyle was compared to the madonna herself. She was seen as a pure and simple image during a time of the gaudy gilded age. She also banned liquor and earned the nickname lemonade lucy. This cartoon of the day shows lemonade lucy smiling in a water bottle and frowning in a wine bottle. But the bun on liquor was more than a personal decision for mrs. Hayes, it was a political decision. Rutherford hayes had been elected in part by the support of the Prohibition Party which was very powerful at the time and made an agreement with the Prohibition Party that if he would ban all spirits in the white house. There was a backlash against this and much criticism of mrs. Hayes for instilling her personal morals in the nations home. Her successor, lou key that garfield refused to continue the ban on liquor, but certainly she and the president were conscious of the hearth and home image that seemed to sell so well on the campaign trail. The family man was seen as the good candidate and mrs. Garfield certainly cooperated against her own visceral action to publiclyities about her good, solid, family life. Fashion, again, became an issue with frances cleveland. Temp s cleveland who, her rans was not to personally drink, she would drink water and turn her wine glass down. She permitted liquor to be served to those who wanted to drink it. Her popularity and eventually the limited access that the white house provided to the press turned into a very ugly situation when rumors began that the president beat his wife. This being the first time that rumors concerning a president ial marriage became common public gossip and made their way into print. It was said that mrs. Cleveland was thrown out of the white house on a rainy night by her husband. Well, in response, mrs. Cleveland began wearing very low cut gowns. Her beautiful shoulders and arms and neck visible to everyone. This in turn prompted the womens christian temp rans union to send a strong protest and begin a campaign to get mrs. Cleveland out of those immoral bare shoulder arms, and bare arms gowns. Reporters also decided to focus on mrs. Cleveland when she was out of washington for the summer and it was a slow news month and they had to somehow presence in washington back home, so they reported that mrs. Cleveland did not like the bustle and would no longer be wearing the bustle. Very shortly after the bustle disappeared not only in washington, but on mrs. Cleveland herself. Americans were beginning to feel that they had a right to dictate the personal style and the prnl choices of a first lady. The use of the family for political purposes reached a great height during the harrison administration. Baby mcgee, the grandson of president and mrs. Harrison was used by the family in photographs and in press stories as a popular sort of popular sort of mascot, if you will, of the add medicine station. Mrs. Harrisons domestic skills and china painting and orchid raising were highly touted. When news were given out about her attempts to fix the white house, it was all put under the sort of umbrella of being a good domestic engineer when in truth it was a political struggle that she went headtohead with the House Speaker on for huge propriation to essentially demolish the white house. The wings and New Buildings and a heart museum and a tour center and a government center. It eventually never came to pass because of president harrisons refusing to make certain appointments to the collectorship of maine and so mrs. Harrisons house bill didnt pass because of political animosity. William mckinleys mother was ed in campaign paraphernalia as a symbol of the close mckinley family since the couple themselves had no children. The president s obsession with his wife, either the demands on his team and his attention was turned into a pious devotion of being he was called a saintly husband. It was marked the first time that a biography, a campaign biography was issued on a president s wife. It was done so to counteract all sorts of rumors that mrs. Mckinley was insane, that she was crippled and that she was catholic. Emember, this is 1896. The Theodore Roosevelt family with the white house Young Children. Not since the garfield days had such Young Children been there and mrs. Roosevelt received a tremendous amount of mail from the public actually concerned in dictating to her what should be the proper education of the president s children. As she said, one hates to feel that all ones private life is public property. She wrote the president , you cant think how much diapers vadse the country about the childrens education. I receive dozens of letters from schools and tutors every day about it. The white house, the notion of a first lady decading the white house truly took on a political purpose during the Theodore Roosevelt administration when during the renovation of 1903, he firm of white, mrs. Roosevelt worked very closely with the architect in constructing essentially what was a stage setting, giving america an imperial look with the classic white columns and the emblems of the flag and the eagle, giving the image of america as the world superpower it had indeed become and also by the early 20th century, the notion of a first ladys Charity Project took on a sharply political and publicly political turn with ellen wilson, the first wife of woodrow wilson. She, of course, had been a parent. Studied at the Arts Student League in new york and she supported the mountain art programs of appalachian families. But her housing bill, the slum clearance bill of 1913 was seen in the black community in washington as racist. It occurred just at the time that jim crow was instituted here in washington and her attempts to place bathrooms, restrooms, and first aid stations into government offices was seen as part of the overall wilson administrations segregation plan. Florence hardings support of the veterans also had a political motive behind it. Mrs. Harding supported the veterans with visits and would frequently hand out candy and cigarettes and write letters to their mothers and girlfriends at home. Her husband had vetoed the bonus bill and mrs. Harding who privately opposed this publicly kept on a strong face in terms of supporting the administrations decision by making these appearances on a regular basis to the wards as if her appearances to the wards were in fact counteracting the reality that the veterans would not be receiving a bonus. Under florence harding, a lot of the traditional role, the center monal role of first lady took on a highly political tone. The traditional role of tree planter, mrs. Harding began the custom of regular tree planting, but it was for various organizations and special Interest Groups that had supported her husband during the 1920 campaign and through his administration. The hardings very much created an image of wholesome maintain street Old Fashioned midwestern image. We are just folks, as mrs. Harding said, shown here touring a better homes in america model. The truth was, of course, that there were poker games going on upstairs at the white house and although this was prohibition, that they were serving liquor in the previous quarters of the white house to their personal guests. This did not reach the publics ear, but the news that a jazz band had enter attended them brought down tremendous and Harsh Criticism from all sorts of religion groups and religion newspapers. Mrs. Hardings personal friendships were also criticized. She was great friends with the multimillionaires evelyn walsh mcclain, who besides owning the hope diamond and being married to the owner of the Washington Post was a morphine addict. Jeff smith who was a great friend of mrs. Harding and mrs. Mcclain frequently seen around washington was the largest bootlegger in the district of columbia, eventually died of his own hand of suicide as the teapot dome scandals were breaking. And while the hardings truly made an effort to present the image of a devoted middleaged couple still on the throes of a youthful romance, the truth was, of course, that Warren Harding had a rather public eye for beautiful women. The press knew it at the time and in fact many of the reporters had covered hardings 1920 campaign heard about it, but they wouldnt report it. The next picture shows president and mrs. Harding at the horse show. You can see where mrs. Hardings eyes are and where mr. Hardings eyes are. By last count, he had five mistresses. One it was a senators daughter, one was a government clerk, one had a daughter by him, one had a son by him, one committed suicide over him and one was his wifes best friend back home. Grace coolidge and her love of the contemporary fashions of the 1920s also served a very helpful purpose for the administration, the coolidge administrations public relations. As someone once said, she did the front door job. She favored this at the time man teller sort. There were a lot of editorials in papers like the New York Times about mrs. Coolidge being sort of with it and fashionable and that this was sort of a good thing for the country. In fact, the Retail Dry Goods Association publicly praised her as an ideal early christmas shopper, a boon to the industry. She was given an award by cartier and worth for her style in dressing shall the first time an American Woman had received such a high honor, which was sort of equal to the nobel prize for a clothes horse and during the economic boon of the 1920s, her shopping sprees for hats, furs and shoes were reported and used by the White House Press office as an example of a woman up to date with the times. Mrs. Coolidge, of course, also did a lot of Photo Opportunities for womens groups at the time. I think this picture shows her cutting the cake for a celebration of the visiting nurses association. She reveled in the role of hostess for womens groups which asked to visitor be photographed and she granted as many requests as possible. It was more than a photo tune, however. It gave consistent focus on her part to working and professional womens organizations without her having to make an overt political statement about women and their political roles. Her project was an involvement with the deaf, the clark school for the deaf. This picture shows her with helen keller at the white house. Behind this was the political purpose. Some of the very first government attempts to service the handicapped occurred during the coolidge administration. During the great deposition, republican president her better hoover had an emphasis on involvism and rather than government help in getting people through the depression who were needy. Mrs. Hoover was seen everywhere doing everything at least once, even sewing for the needy as she is seen here with some of the ladies of the red cross, the senate wives. As president of the girl scouts, she used that group for a political motive. The girl scouts in her possession as president , they were used in her radio speeches. She was the first to actually deliver radio speeches asking them, the Young Children and other children to become sort of a charity core with adults to donate, time, food, money and clothes and implore their parents to also do so for their less fortunate neighbors. There was also political liability now in the guests when invited to the white house. When mrs. Hoover entertained mrs. Oscar due priest, an africanamerican congressional wife to a congressional wives tea, she was excoriated in the south, even censored by the texas la russa for as they said defiling the race line. Texas legislature for as they said defiling the race line. Eleanor roosevelt is send with hen yeta necessary bit the housekeeper signing a pledge to ave food, rubber and useng eftovers during wartime. od] her entertainment for the king england received tremendous criticismment of course, she served them hot dogs because she thought that was the quintessential american lunch food, but she also had various ethnic entertainers, africanamericans playing American Music and many people criticized her for saying this lacked dignity for the king and queen of england. Mrs. Roosevelt was guided, however, by her wise social secretary edith helm. As mrs. Roosevelt said, she initially thought that the hostess role was a useless burden utterly few tile and not a particularly inspiring occupation. Because of the deposition, she thought it was wrong to think very seriously about purely social matters. But edith helm who worked under edith wilson came to coax mrs. Roosevelt into this role. As Eleanor Roosevelt soon realized, being hostess, she said had real meaning and value. The white house had a deep significance as a form of the peoples hospitality to representatives of other countries and to add a sense of nership and to whom it symbolizes the government. Interesting enough, throughout president ial campaigns, f. D. R. s president ial campaigns, mrs. Roosevelt played a very selfhe facing role as she told a reporter, it was proper that a candidates wife be on schedule, offer no personal opinions, remain undisturbed at commotion, limit personal appearances and lean back in an open car so the people can see him. She also knew the value of a good photograph. Besides her involvement in the inutia of government and the bureaucratic reports, she also posed at a soup kitchen dishing out soup. There was no question that the notion of the good will photo carried a strong message by this time. Events outside of the white house that a first lady involved herself in also began to taking on political meaning. Best truman, after attending an event, a tea she had been enviolated to at the d. A. R. Was criticized bec