Research Guides
First Ladies of the United States: Bibliography
L to R: Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump (Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Secondary Sources
First Ladies: Vol. 1 by
In this previously untold story of a unique role and its evolving definitions, Carl Sferrazza Anthony has produced "an entirely new take on the first ladyship" and "an awesome work of scholarship" (Library Journal). Opening with a historic trip made in 1789 by Martha Washington from Mount Vernon to New York, then the capital city, First Ladies brings these women alive as never before in a saga of intertwining lives, friends, rivals, and allies. Among the women profiled in this first of a definitive two-volume history: Dolley Madison, Julia Tyler, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant, Nellie Taft, Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mamie Eisenhower. From the Federalist to the Antebellum periods, through the Gilded and Jazz ages, from the Great Depression to the Fabulous Fifties, thirty-four women confronted the towering events of American history. They also helped establish its course. We also glimpse the early years of the living First Ladies, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Barbara Bush.
ISBN: 9780688112721Publication Date: 1992-03-27
First Ladies and the Fourth Estate by
Through press coverage, U.S. first ladies have become some of the most prominent and recognized figures in American politics. While the U.S. Constitution doesn't enumerate the responsibilities of the first lady, a succession of dynamic women, beginning with Martha Washington, have shaped this post into a highly visible public office. First ladies have performed a variety of public and private roles, from hostess, escort, and social advocate to advisor and policymaker. The gendered nature of the position, however, has always influenced first ladies' performance as they balanced their institutional duties with high expectations from the press and the public that they serve as role models for American women. In First Ladies and the Fourth Estate, Burns analyzes the coverage of presidents' wives in five leading newspapers and magazines--The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and McCall's--to prove that the press has helped shape the first lady institution as well as influence the changing social and political roles of American women. By examining press portrayals of 20th-century first ladies, Burns highlights the intersection of gender, publicity, and power at particular historical moments. Through the years, journalists have used both the gender ideals of the time and the collective memories of previous first ladies to assess the performance of the president's wife. The first lady has emerged as a celebrity, an advocate for humanitarian causes, and, in more recent years, a political activist. Burns argues that this evolution of the first lady institution--from the "new woman" of the early 1900s to the "new traditionalist" and "superwoman" of the 1990s, and from the domesticity of the Cold War to the activism of second wave feminism--spurred increasingly critical press coverage as the presidential wives expanded their sphere of influence from the personal to the political. The interdisciplinary approach of this study reveals the significance of the first lady institution not only to women's history and gender studies but also to the study of U.S. history, the American presidency, political communication, rhetorical criticism, and media history.
ISBN: 9780875803913Publication Date: 2008-07-24
First Ladies and the Press by
At her first press conference, Eleanor Roosevelt, uncertain of her role as hostess or leader, passed a box of candied grapefruit peel to the thirty-five women journalists. Nearly sixty years later, Hillary Clinton, an accomplished professional woman and lawyer, tried to mollify her critics by handing out her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. These exchanges tells us as much about the social--and political--roles of women in America as they do about the relation of the first lady to the press and the public. Looking at the personal interaction between each first lady from Martha Washington to Laura Bush and the mass media of her day, Maurine H. Beasley traces the growth of the institution of the first lady as a part of the American political system. Her work shows how media coverage of first ladies, often limited to stereotypical ideas about women, has not adequately reflected the importance of their role.
ISBN: 9780810123120Publication Date: 2005-12-01
An Independent Woman by
A woman of intelligence and energy, Lou Henry Hoover's talents benefited a large number of cultural and philanthropic organizations, but her distaste for publicity obscured her many achievements until now. By the time her husband reached the White House in 1929, she had already established herself as a woman with high goals. The first woman to earn a university degree in geology, she collaborated with her husband in the translation of a classic book on mining methods. During World War I, she organized assistance for American travelers stranded in Europe, campaigned on behalf of the Commission for the Relief of Belgium, and set up a boarding house in Washington D.C. for young women working in war-related agencies. Lou Hoover served as president of the Girl Scouts during its formative years, organized the Women's Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation to encourage public participation in sports, and raised money for a number of cultural and philanthropic organizations. As First Lady, she redecorated the White House to make it a suitable residence for a head of state, cataloging its furnishings for posterity. She founded a school for underprivileged Appalachian children and ran a private, unpublicized relief network for Americans suffering under the Great Depression. After leaving the White House, she resumed the volunteer work that remained such a treasured part of her life.
ISBN: 9780313314667Publication Date: 2000-07-30
Lou Henry Hoover by
Although overshadowed by her higher-profile successors, Lou Henry Hoover was in many ways the nation's first truly modern First Lady. She was the first to speak on the radio and give regular interviews. She was the first to be a public political persona in her own right. And, although the White House press corps saw in her "old-fashioned wifehood," she very much foreshadowed the "new woman" of the era. Nancy Beck Young presents the first thoroughly documented study of Lou Henry Hoover's White House years, 1929-1933, showing that, far from a passive prelude to Eleanor Roosevelt, she was a true innovator. Young draws on the extensive collection of Lou Hoover's personal papers to show that she was not only an important First Lady but also a key transitional figure between nineteenth- and twentieth-century views on womanhood. Lou Hoover was a multifaceted woman: a college graduate, a lover of the outdoors, a supporter of Girl Scouting, and a person engaged in social activism who endorsed political involvement for women and created a program to fight the Depression. Young traces Hoover's many philanthropic efforts both before and during the Hoover presidency--contrasting them with those of her husband--and places her public activities in the larger context of contemporary women's activism. And she shows that, unlike her predecessors, Hoover did more than entertain: she revolutionized the office of First Lady. Yet as Young reveals, Hoover was constrained as First Lady by her inability to achieve the same results that she had previously accomplished in her very public career for the volunteer community. As diligently as she worked to combat the hardship of the Depression for average Americans by mobilizing private relief efforts, her efforts ultimately had little effect. Although her celebrity has paled in the shadow of her husband's negative association with the Great Depression, Lou Hoover's story reveals a dynamic woman who used her activism to refashion the office of First Lady into a modern institution reflecting changes in the ways American women lived their lives. Young's study of Hoover's White House years shows that her legacy of innovation made a lasting mark on the office and those who followed.
ISBN: 9780700622771Publication Date: 2005-01-06
The Presidential Companion by
Bringing together the work of historians, political scientists, and sociologists, this collection of essays demonstrates the political relevance of first ladies throughout US history and the dramatic expansion of their power during the 20th century.
ISBN: 9781570034619Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Government Documents and Other Literature
- It's up to the women by A book of nationwide appeal to the women of America. It answers the questions of millions of women: What does Mrs. Roosevelt think about the income problem? Children? Jobs? Recreation? The household? Social work? Marriage? Divorce? Women in public life? Budgeting and saving?Publication Date: 1933
- Franklin D. Roosevelt and Hyde Park : personal recollections of Eleanor Roosevelt. byPublication Date: 1949
- Confinement and ethnicity : an overview of World War II Japanese American relocation sites by This report provides an overview of the tangible remains currently left at the sites of the Japanese American internment during World War II. The main focus is on the War Relocation Authority's relocation centers, but Department of Justice and U.S. Army facilities where Japanese Americans were interned are also considered. The goal of the study has been to provide information for the National Landmark Theme Study called for in the Manzanar National Historic Site enabling legislation.Publication Date: 2000
- First Ladies National Historic Site, National First Ladies' Library, Ohio byPublication Date: 2005
De Re Metallica by
One of the most important scientific classics of all time, this 1556 work on mining was the first based on field research and observation and the methods of modern science. 289 authentic Renaissance woodcuts. Translated by Herbert and Lou Hoover. Reprint of English (1912) edition.
ISBN: 9780486600062Publication Date: 1950
Memoirs
American Grown by
In April 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden on the White House's South Lawn. As fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs sprouted from the ground, this White House Kitchen Garden inspired a new conversation all across the country about the food we feed our families and the impact it has on the health and well-being of our children. Now, in her first-ever book, American Grown, Mrs. Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden and shares its inspiring story, from the first planting to the latest harvest. Hear about her worries as a novice gardener - would the new plants even grow? Learn about her struggles and her joys as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil. Get an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at every season of the garden's growth, with striking original photographs that bring its story to life. Try the unique recipes created by White House chefs and made with ingredients just picked from the White House garden. And learn from the White House Garden team about how you can help plant your own backyard, school or community garden. Mrs. Obama's journey continues across the nation as she shares the stories of other gardens that have moved and inspired her: Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom; a New York City School that created a scented garden for the visually impaired; a North Carolina garden that devotes its entire harvest to those in need; and other stories of communities that are transforming the lives and health of their citizens. In American Grown, Mrs. Obama tells the story of the White House Kitchen Garden, celebrates the bounty of gardens across our nation, and reminds us all of what we can grow together.
ISBN: 9780307956026Publication Date: 2012-05-29- If you ask me. byPublication Date: 1946
- My memoir by "A part of this work has been published in the Saturday evening post under the title, As I saw it."Call Number: 1939
- On my own byPublication Date: 1958
The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) by ISBN: 9780399113864Publication Date: 1975-05-12- Recollections of full years byPublication Date: 1914
Spoken from the Heart by
In this brave, beautiful, and deeply personal memoir, Laura Bush, one of our most beloved and private first ladies, tells her own extraordinary story. Born in the boom-and-bust oil town of Midland, Texas, Laura Welch grew up as an only child in a family that lost three babies to miscarriage or infant death. She vividly evokes Midland's brash, rugged culture, her close relationship with her father, and the bonds of early friendships that sustain her to this day. For the first time, in heart-wrenching detail, she writes about the devastating high school car accident that left her friend Mike Douglas dead and about her decades of unspoken grief. When Laura Welch first left West Texas in 1964, she never imagined that her journey would lead her to the world stage and the White House. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 1968, in the thick of student rebellions across the country and at the dawn of the women's movement, she became an elementary school teacher, working in inner-city schools, then trained to be a librarian. At age thirty, she met George W. Bush, whom she had last passed in the hallway in seventh grade. Three months later, "the old maid of Midland married Midland's most eligible bachelor." With rare intimacy and candor, Laura Bush writes about her early married life as she was thrust into one of America's most prominent political families, as well as her deep longing for children and her husband's decision to give up drinking. By 1993, she found herself in the full glare of the political spotlight. But just as her husband won the Texas governorship in a stunning upset victory, her father, Harold Welch, was dying in Midland. In 2001, after one of the closest elections in American history, Laura Bush moved into the White House. Here she captures presidential life in the harrowing days and weeks after 9/11, when fighter-jet cover echoed through the walls and security scares sent the family to an underground shelter. She writes openly about the White House during wartime, the withering and relentless media spotlight, and the transformation of her role as she began to understand the power of the first lady. One of the first U.S. officials to visit war-torn Afghanistan, she also reached out to disease-stricken African nations and tirelessly advocated for women in the Middle East and dissidents in Burma. She championed programs to get kids out of gangs and to stop urban violence. And she was a major force in rebuilding Gulf Coast schools and libraries post-Katrina. Movingly, she writes of her visits with U.S. troops and their loved ones, and of her empathy for and immense gratitude to military families. With deft humor and a sharp eye, Laura Bush lifts the curtain on what really happens inside the White House, from presidential finances to the 175-year-old tradition of separate bedrooms for presidents and their wives to the antics of some White House guests and even a few members of Congress. She writes with honesty and eloquence about her family, her public triumphs, and her personal tribulations. Laura Bush's compassion, her sense of humor, her grace, and her uncommon willingness to bare her heart make this story revelatory, beautifully rendered, and unlike any other first lady's memoir ever written.
ISBN: 9781439155202Publication Date: 2010-05-04- This I Remember by Covers the years from 1920 to Roosevelt's death in the spring of 1945.Publication Date: 1949
- This is My Story byPublication Date: 1950
- This is My Story byPublication Date: 1937
The Unique Voice of Hillary Rodham Clinton by
"She is one of the most controversial women of our times. As both the wife of the U. S. President and a high-ranking member of his administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton has become champion to millions as well as a frequent target of political opposition. She is on Good Housekeeping's list of the Ten Most Admired Women and her popular book, It Takes a Village, became a New York Times bestseller." "Subjected to more public scrutiny than any First Lady in history, Hillary Rodham Clinton has unflinchingly answered questions about everything from her husband's marital infidelities to her own involvement in Whitewater. She has strongly defended the choices of both career women and stay-at-home moms, and vigorously fought for a responsible childcare system, and for national medical reform."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 9780380974160Publication Date: 1997-02-01
Children's Books
- Christmas : a story byPublication Date: 1940
Read All about It! by
Tyrone rules the school! He's king of the monkey bars, a math machine, and a science whiz. The only thing he doesn't like about school is reading. Books are so boring! But when strange visitors start dropping by the classroom for story hour, Tyrone discovers there's more to books than just words on pages. Tyrone and his friends are swept up in a mysterious adventure that lands them in a most unexpected place. Mrs. Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna create a classroom adventure that will leave readers racing to the shelves! A portion of proceeds to benefit Teach for America and The New Teacher Project.
ISBN: 9780061560750Publication Date: 2008-04-22
It Takes a Village by
For more than twenty-five years, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has made children her passion and her cause. Her long experience with children -- not only through her personal roles as mother, daughter, sister, and wife but also as advocate, legal expert, and public servant -- has strengthened her conviction that how children develop and what they need to succeed are inextricably entwined with the society in which they live and how well it sustains and supports its families and individuals. In other words, it takes a village to raise a child. This book chronicles her quest -- both deeply personal and, in the truest sense, public -- to discover how we can make our society into the kind of village that enables children to grow into able, caring, resilient adults. It is time, Mrs. Clinton believes, to acknowledge that we have to make some changes for our children's sake. Advances in technology and the global economy along with other developments society have brought us much good, but they have also strained the fabric of family life, leaving us and our children poorer in many ways -- physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. She doesn't believe that we should, or can, turn back the clock to "the good old days." False nostalgia for "family values" is no solution. Nor is it useful to make an all-purpose bogeyman or savior of "government." But by looking honestly at the condition of our children, by understanding the wealth of new information research offers us about them, and, most important, by listening to the children themselves, we can begin a more fruitful discussion about their needs. And by sifting the past for clues to the structures that once bound ustogether, by looking with an open mind at what other countries and cultures do for their children that we do not, and by identifying places where our "village" is flourishing -- in families, schools, churches, businesses, civic org
ISBN: 9780684825458Publication Date: 1996-09-25
