Caroline Harrison ‘Followed Her Own Path’
Nancy Kegan Smith spotlights a short-term first lady with a big impact in latest 'In Pursuit' essay installment.
Caroline Harrison is a lesser known American first lady. But she shouldn’t be, insists Nancy Kegan Smith, a first ladies expert and author of the In Pursuit essay published Thursday detailing the former first lady’s commitment to shaping an institution she knew others would inherit.
In fact, the White House of today exists in large part because of how Caroline Harrison helped shape the Executive Residence a few years before her death from tuberculosis there in October 1892. Switching on a light in the mansion, for instance, can be traced back to her extensive renovation of the White House that included installing electricity—even though, Smith says, those inside the White House were at first scared to turn it on.
Although Smith has written extensively about first ladies and is co-author of the recently updated book Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women,…
