American first ladies: their lives and their legacy

The first lady as symbol and institution

Martha (Dandridge Custis) Washington (1731-1802) : first lady, 1789-1797 / Patricia Brady

Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818) : first lady, 1797-1801 / Phyllis Lee Levin

Dolley (Payne Todd) Madison (1768-1849) : first lady, 1809-1817 / Holly Cowan Shulman

Elizabeth (Kortright) Monroe (1768-1830) : first lady, 1817-1825 / Julie K. Fix

Louisa (Catherine Johnson) Adams (1775-1852) : first lady, 1825-1829 / Lynn Hudson Parsons

Anna (Tuthill Symmes) Harrison (1775-1864) : first lady, March 4-April 4, 1841 / Nancy Beck Young

Letitia (Christian) Tyler (1790-1842) : first lady, 1841-1842 ; Julia (Gardiner) Tyler (1820-1889) : first lady, 1844-1845 / Melba Porter Hay

Sarah (Childress) Polk (1803-1891) : first lady, 1845-1849 / Jayne Crumpler DeFiore

Margaret (Mackall Smith) Taylor (1788-1852) : first lady, 1849-1850 / Thomas H. Appleton, Jr.

Abigail (Powers) Fillmore (1798-1853) : first lady, 1850-1853 / Kristin Hoganson

Jane (Means Appleton) Pierce (1806-1863) : first lady, 1853-1857 / Debbie Mauldin Cottrell

Mary (Ann) Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) : first lady, 1861-1865 / Jean H. Baker

Eliza (McCardle) Johnson (1810-1876) : first lady, 1865-1869 / Nancy Beck Young

Julia (Dent) Grant (1826-1902) : first lady, 1869-1877 / John Y. Simon

Lucy (Ware) Webb Hayes (1831-1889) : first lady, 1877-1881 / Olive Hoogenboom

Lucretia (Rudolph) Garfield (1832-1918) : first lady, March 4, 1881-September 19, 1881 / Allan Peskin

Frances (Clara) Folsom Cleveland (1864-1947) : first lady, 1886-1889, 1893-1897 / Sue Severn

Caroline (Lavinia) Scott Harrison (1832-1892) : first lady, 1889-1892 / Charles W. Calhoun

Ida Saxton McKinley (1847-1907) : first lady, 1897-1901 / John J. Leffler

Edith Kermit (Carow) Roosevelt (1861-1948) : first lady, 1901-1909 ; Helen Herron (Nellie) Taft (1861-1943) : first lady, 1909-1913 / Stacy A. Cordery

Ellen (Louise) Axson Wilson (1860-1914) : first lady, 1913-1914 / Shelley Sallee

Edith Bolling (Galt) Wilson (1872-1961) : first lady, 1915-1921 / Lewis L. Gould

Florence (Mabel) Kling Harding (1860-1924) : first lady, 1921-1923 / Carl Sferrazza Anthony

Grace (Anna) Goodhue Coolidge (1879-1957) : first lady, 1923-1929 / Kristie Miller

Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944) : first lady, 1929-1933 / Debbie Mauldin Cottrell

(Anna) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) : first lady, 1933-1945 / Allida M. Black

Bess (Elizabeth Virginia Wallace) Truman (1885-1982) : first lady, 1945-1953 / Maurine H. Beasley

Mamie (Geneva Doud) Eisenhower (1896-1979) : first lady, 1953-1961 / Martin M. Teasley

Jacqueline (Lee Bouvier) Kennedy (Onassis) (1929-1994) : first lady, 1961-1963 / Betty Boyd Caroli

Lady Bird (Claudia Alta Taylor) Johnson (1912- ) : first lady, 1963-1969 / Lewis L. Gould

Patricia (Thelma Catherine Ryan) Nixon (1912-1993) : first lady, 1969-1974 / Carl Sferrazza Anthony

Betty (Elizabeth Ann Bloomer) Ford (1918- ) : first lady, 1974-1977 / John Pope

(Eleanor) Rosalynn (Smith) Carter (1927- ) : first lady, 1977-1981 / Kathy B. Smith

Nancy (Anne Frances Robbins Davis) Reagan (1921- ) : first lady, 1981-1989 / James G. Benze, Jr.

Barbara (Pierce) Bush (1925- ) : first lady, 1989-1993 / Myra Gutin

Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947- ) : first lady, 1993- / Lewis L. Gould.