It’s About Time: Lighting the Legacies of First Ladies
Guest Column by Stacy Cordery and Nancy Kegan Smith
In 2018, seven first ladies scholars came together to discuss the formation of the first national organization to promote the study of the lives and legacies of U.S. first ladies. They invited researchers, academics, journalists, and the interested public to join them. Not long thereafter, they convened in an initial meeting in June 2019, at the historic DuVall’s Tavern in Old Town, Alexandria just outside Washington, D.C. Diana Carlin, Myra Gutin, Anita McBride, Elizabeth Natalle, Katherine A.S. Sibley, Nancy Kegan Smith, and Molly Wertheimer became the founding members of what they decided to call the First Ladies Association for Research and Education, or FLARE.
In the Beginning …
It had been a long road in the development of the field of First Ladies Studies to reach that moment. While a smattering of books about first ladies existed earlier, we date the beginning of the academic field to the 1980s and the work of political historian Dr. Lewis Gould at the University of Texas at Austin. While researching the 1912 election, Gould came to understand the scope of the power and influence of first ladies—both in their husband’s lives and in the public sphere—differently. Gould was already a prestigious scholar and well-known author of several books. His dawning awareness brought about a wholesale rethink of his own research, analysis, and writing. His intellectual curiosity led him to offer the first-ever college course on the History of First Ladies in the fall of 1982.
Gould moved beyond the entrenched, male-centered paradigm to teach about first ladies as women of intellect and action. The class received and generated a lot of media interest in first ladies, especially after Lady Bird Johnson’s guest appearance. In that same year, Siena College conducted its first poll ranking the work of first ladies and demonstrating a wider interest in the topic.
Two years later, the emerging field of First Ladies Studies gained an important endorsement when former First Ladies Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter cooperated to hold the first conference on the subject. At the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, in April of 1984, scholars and White House insiders examined the contributions of first ladies and the many roles they have had to balance. Prof. Gould’s closing remarks were a powerful clarion call to the future:
In the most profound sense, the study of First Ladies holds up a mirror to ourselves. And for this male historian, it has also shown the unstated and often unconscious chauvinism about the achievements of women that permeates our society… History and circumstances make it necessary to evaluate First Ladies as helpmates, appendages, surrogates and partners of the presidents, but these categories should not be barriers to seeing presidential wives for what they were and are—autonomous human beings with as much claim to the attention of the student of our history as their masculine counterparts. We will only understand the past of our presidents and ourselves most fully when we grasp it in all its richness. A history that excludes First Ladies, or the contribution and lives of women generally, will be a record that is limited, false and wrong.
The Advancement of First Ladies Studies
A quick review of the further development of First Ladies Studies starts in the mid-1980s when a trio of important books laid a foundation for the field: First Ladies, by historian Betty Boyd Caroli; Presidential Wives, by American Studies professor Paul Boller; and The President’s Partner by Communications scholar Myra Gutin. Scholarly articles based upon archival research began to appear in journals such as Presidential Studies Quarterly. Author Carl Anthony published his two-volume First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents’ Wives and Their Power in 1992, and volume one of historian Blanche Wiesen Cook’s landmark three-volume biography of Eleanor Roosevelt followed shortly thereafter. Such books laid a firm foundation of excellent scholarship for the nascent field.
The fourth book was different. Nancy Kegan Smith and Mary Ryan edited Modern First Ladies: Their Documentary Legacy. This book spelled out why archival documents should be located, described and made available to researchers so we could deepen—and in some cases begin—the critical task of identifying what, exactly, individual First Ladies actually did.
Lewis Gould noticed that while interest in first ladies was increasing, there was no single, dependable reference work detailing their achievements. He sought exemplary scholars and invited them to write lengthy biographical sketches for his pathbreaking 1996 compilation American First Ladies: Their Lives and Their Legacy. Building upon this, in 1999 Dr. Gould launched his Modern First Ladies book series, published by the University Press of Kansas. It is impossible to overstate its importance. His Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmental First Lady was the first book devoted to analyzing a first lady’s substantive issue, rather than a biographical overview. It became the model for the series: seventeen books covering Edith Roosevelt through Hillary Clinton, for which Dr. Gould again broadened the field of scholars by seeking contributions from academics from different disciplines. Although Gould has now retired, Jill Hummer and Katherine Sibley are currently continuing the series with books in progress on Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, respectively.
In the mid-1990s, another key marker of increased interest in first ladies appeared when the National First Ladies Library opened at the Ida Saxton McKinley Birthplace in Canton, Ohio. Led by Mary Regula, the NFLL reached a broad public through the biographical overviews and extensive bibliography on its website. When the National Parks Service took it over in 2000, the NFLL became the second federally funded site dedicated to first ladies. The first was the Smithsonian Museum’s First Ladies Exhibit, which has been open, in various forms, for 100 years. In 1992, National Museum of American History curator Edith Mayo brilliantly refocused the popular first ladies dress collection to accent the women’s achievements. The exhibit, recently updated, continues to be a big draw for visitors from around the globe.
Scholarship Today
As the twenty-first century dawned, historian Catherine Allgor’s trailblazing book, Parlor Politics, reconsidered and redefined power as utilized by America’s “Founding Mothers.” Allgor’s work has positively shaped the revelatory books that have been published since by stellar scholars such as Patricia Brady, Joseph Ellis, Amy Greenberg, Robert Watson, Catherine Clinton, Katherine Sibley, Kristie Miller, Lewis Gould, Nancy Beck Young, Barbara Perry, Myra Gutin, Lisa Burns, Maurine Beasley, Elizabeth Natalle, Molly Wertheimer, and Julia Sweig, among others. Today, university classes on first ladies are not uncommon, books and articles continue to dissect the work and legacies of first ladies, and the academic field is thriving.
Interest Spreads Outside Academia
Not long after that first university class, interest spread well outside academia, as the existence of children’s books, novels, films, and documentaries attest. C-SPAN’s “First Ladies: Influence & Image” aired in 2013 and 2014. It brought together pairs of experts to discuss every first lady with moderator Susan Swain in a show so popular that C-SPAN later published the interviews in book form. In 2017, the Smithsonian Channel released “First Ladies Revealed,” blending commentary by scholars and reporters, contemporary footage, and dramatization to critical acclaim.
Journalists have turned their attention to first ladies in recent years. Cokie Roberts, Rebecca Boggs Roberts, Lisa McCubbin Hill, Karen Tumulty, Kate Anderson Brower, and Carl Bernstein, among others, have based their books on interviews with people in the first lady’s circle. Some journalists, such as Ronald Kessler, Peter Sleven, Susan Page, and Darlene Superville, have interviewed first ladies, thus providing an invaluable vantage point. However, first ladies often decline interviews, especially when they plan to pen their own memoir!
Louisa Catherine Adams was the first, first lady to write a memoir—with the sad title of “Adventures of a Nobody”—but it has never been published.
First Ladies Who Tell Their Own Stories
Louisa Catherine Adams was the first, first lady to write a memoir—with the sad title of Adventures of a Nobody—but it has never been published. So far, 13 first ladies have published their reminiscences. Lady Bird Johnson’s White House Diary, released in 1970, focused on her White House years and received tremendous media interest. Since then, all first ladies have published autobiographies, except for Pat Nixon and Melania Trump. These memoirs have often been received more favorably and sold better than their husbands’. Michelle Obama’s autobiography Becoming demonstrates this popularity: it sold over 10 million copies in the first five months.
First Ladies in Media and Pop Culture
Another marker of heightened interest in first ladies and First Ladies Studies is their increasing appearances in media—live, fictionalized, and documentary. These, of course, are of varying qualities and levels of historical accuracy. First ladies have a long, but sporadic, history with non-print media, dating back to early radio broadcasts and television shows. Over time, their presence has increased exponentially.
Pat Nixon began the tradition of inviting Sesame Street characters to the White House. Barbara Bush was the first, first lady to appear on the show. Every first lady, from Nixon in 1969—when the TV show started—to Jill Biden, has been on Sesame Street, except for Melania Trump. In the mid-1980s, Nancy Reagan helped first lady television appearances seem more routine. The camera loved her, and she was a natural because of her former career as an actor. Americans saw her on shows like Good Morning America and Diff’rent Strokes.
An important first occurred on November 17, 2001, when Laura Bush became the first, first lady to deliver the Presidential Radio Address on the plight of women in Afghanistan. This matters because when the West Wing takes the first lady seriously, the world takes note.
Michelle Obama was the first, first lady to serve during the era of ubiquitous social media. She sent the first Tweet (now X) and wrote the first blog posts by a first lady. And while her Carpool Karaoke with James Corden and the Evolution of Mom Dancing with Jimmy Fallon were memorable, Obama utilized social media seriously to publicize her causes and her activities.
First Ladies Studies Thrives
Four significant occurrences attest to the vibrancy of the field of First Ladies Studies. First, in 2011, American University’s School of Public Affairs put its heft and prestige behind the creation of its First Ladies Initiative, and then added to its status by making Anita McBride, former chief of staff to former First Lady Laura Bush, its director. The First Ladies Initiative publicizes the work and legacies of presidential spouses chiefly with conferences and a lecture series.
Second, on June 21, 2021, the establishment of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education, FLARE, as a nonprofit with the institutional affiliation with American University’s School of Public Affairs took place. FLARE’s vision is to be “the primary association to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and outreach among scholars, institutions, first staffs, biographers, archivists, journalists, and public historians interested in research and education about the continuing impact and lasting legacies of U.S. First Ladies.”
Through programs, events, networking, group discussions, research and education, FLARE hopes to enlarge what has been the traditional focus on first ladies to appreciating their role as leaders on major societal issues and sometimes global changes such as civil rights, human rights, health care, education, and support for military and their families.
Third, the launch of East Wing Magazine in 2023. Journalist and Founder Jennifer Taylor and Contributing Editor Erin Donaghue, established East Wing Magazine as “the first journalistic-driven publication dedicated to covering presidential first ladies present and past.” It is the only periodical to report the activities of both first ladies and of first ladies scholars.
Fourth, the publication of the first textbook dedicated solely to first ladies. In 2024, Diana Carlin, Anita McBride, and Nancy Kegan Smith wrote U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies. Carlin, McBride, and Smith have brought out a version for the general public, too, entitled Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of History-Making Women.
The Future Begins With Scholarship
This brief chronicle of the birth and increasing interest in First Ladies Studies touches, of necessity, only the high points. The members of FLARE hope that anyone interested in first ladies will join with our established network to promote research and education on the lives, lasting legacies, and impact of first ladies through our virtual programs, conferences and sponsorships, and our forthcoming e-journal, so that we may analyze the significant contributions that first ladies (and hopefully someday a first gentleman) have made to society. Please visit flare-net.org and help us fulfill Abigail Adams’s 1776 request to “Remember the Ladies.”
Stacy Cordery is a history professor who traces her career-long scholarly interest in first ladies to the first college class ever taught on the topic—a course she now herself offers at Iowa State University. She is a FLARE Board member, and served as bibliographer for the National First Ladies Library for seventeen years. Cordery lectures widely and comments regularly on first ladies on venues such as NPR, CNN, C-SPAN, Smithsonian TV, and the History Channel. Her four books include biographies of Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Juliette Gordon Low, and her newest biography, Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire will be published by Viking this fall.
Nancy Kegan Smith was an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration from 1973 until 2013, retiring as Director of the Presidential Materials Division. She has authored book chapters on Lady Bird Johnson and Michelle Obama, is co-editor of Modern First Ladies – Their Documentary Legacy and lectures on first ladies. She is the co-author of U.S. First Ladies: Making History and Leaving Legacies and Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women. She is a founder and current President of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education.
Current board members of FLARE are: Nancy Kegan Smith, President, Diana Bartelli Carlin, Vice President; Molly Meijer Wertheimer, Secretary; Kathleen Spennrath, Treasurer; Myra G. Gutin, Immediate Past President; and Members-At-Large Stacy A. Cordery, Christopher Leahy, Heath Hardage Lee, Anita B. McBride, Elizabeth J. Natalle, Katherine A. S. Sibley, and Jeanne Ryan Wolfson.