• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • About Current
    • Masthead
  • Podcasts
  • Support

First ladies

Dolley Madison Did Not Institute The White House Easter Egg Roll

John Fea   |  April 3, 2018

J.L. Bell debunks the myth at Boston 1775.  A taste: Even the White House Historical Association passes on that factoid, though fobbing it off on others: “Some historians note that First Lady Dolley Madison originally suggested the idea of a public...

The Author’s Corner with Jeanne Abrams

John Fea   |  March 8, 2018

Jeanne Abrams is a Professor, University Libraries at the University of Denver. This interview is based on her new book, First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role (NYU Press, 2018). JF: What...

Not Since the Kennedys

John Fea   |  May 26, 2017

It appears that Catholicism has returned to the White House. One of the things we learned during the Trump visit to the Vatican is that Melania Trump is Catholic. Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports at The Washington Post.  A taste: After she...

De Facto First Ladies

John Fea   |  January 24, 2017

What role will Ivanka Trump play in the White House? Will she do the work of the First Lady while Melania Trump is living in New York with her son Barron? JSTOR Daily has a nice historical piece on the...

From Presidents' Failures to Their Wives' Successes

John Fea   |  April 12, 2016

Michael David Cohen, editor of the Correspondence of James K. Polk and Research Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, checks in with another post from this weekend’s annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians.  For his previous posts...

Reflections on Gender and Antebellum Political Leadership at #oah2016

John Fea   |  April 11, 2016

We were very pleased to have Elise Leal, a Ph.D candidate in American history at Baylor University, writing for us this weekend from the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Providence.  Leal’s research examines the relationship between evangelicalism,...

Abigail Adams: Letters

John Fea   |  March 23, 2016

The Library of America has announced the publication of Abigail Adams: Letters.  The collection of 430 letters from the former first lady is edited by historian and Adams scholar Edith Gelles. In a post at The Library of America blog, Gelles...

That Time Gerald Ford Lost His Voice

John Fea   |  March 5, 2016

This past week at the Fred W. Smith Library at Mount Vernon I attended a discussion of American first ladies with C-SPAN’s Susan Swain and presidential historian Richard Norton Smith. The discussion was based on Swain’s book  First Ladies: Presidential...

C-SPAN’s “First Ladies: Influence & Image”

John Fea   |  February 26, 2013

Did you get a chance to see the first installment of C-SPAN’s new series on American First Ladies? It looks like the cable network is devoting Monday nights for the course of the next year (with a break in the...

Primary Sidebar

Patron Access

Way of Improvement blog banner

Evangelical roundup for August 15, 2022

August 15, 2022 By John Fea

Eric Metaxas and Charlie Kirk have a Christian nationalist meltdown in the wake of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago

August 14, 2022 By John Fea

Sunday night odds and ends

August 14, 2022 By John Fea

Song of the Day

August 14, 2022 By John Fea

Donald Trump in 2016 on “classified information”

August 14, 2022 By John Fea

More Blog Posts

Subscribe via Email



Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Footer

Contact Forms

General Inquiries
Pitch Us

Search

Subscribe via Email



Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
Subscribe via Email


Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide