‘The Timing Is Right’
With an eye on growth, the Ohio-based National First Ladies Library & Museum launches a new National Advisory Board with roots in Washington, D.C., and beyond.
From inside one of Jacqueline Kennedy’s childhood homes—Merrywood, just outside of Washington, D.C.—the National First Ladies Library & Museum last week began a new chapter in its mission of telling America’s first ladies stories when it launched its first National Advisory Board.
“The timing is right for our organization to step into that national spotlight again,” David Lee, CEO and president of the Canton, Ohio-based National First Ladies Library & Museum (NFLLM), tells East Wing Magazine in a recent interview.
Lee is referring to re-establishing the national connections that helped bring the vision of the nonprofit’s founder, the late Mary Regula, to life. When Regula, the wife of the late Ralph Regula (a former Republican congressman), learned how little historical attention had been paid to America’s first ladies, she set out to change that.
In 1995, she gathered historians, educators and supporters to help document every first lady’s life and impact. In 1998, her vision became a reality when the National First Ladies Library at Canton’s historic Saxton-McKinley House opened followed by, in 2000, President Bill Clinton signing legislation creating the First Ladies National Historic Site, formally partnering the Library with the National Park Service.
“It’s really going back to our roots and bringing the Washington, D.C., people together to rally for our first ladies and also for the work we’re doing to grow our presence across the United States,” Lee says, noting that their broadening connections also include people far and wide who are passionate about their mission. Specifically, the National Advisory Board is described as uniting a “distinguished group of leaders, including former first ladies chiefs of staff, historians, educators and advocates who share a belief in the power of women’s stories to inspire the next generation.”
Regula, during her time as a congressional spouse, had connections to the White House East Wing (where a number of first ladies and their staff had historically worked), the White House and congressional leadership, according to Lee. She relied on those connections to build out the library and the collection.
“Those connections in Washington, D.C., really allowed her to acquire first lady gowns and first ladies visiting the site,” Lee says.
In June 1998, the grand opening and dedication of Saxton-McKinley House as the home of the National First Ladies Library was held with a ribbon-cutting ceremony headed by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
It was July 23, 1999, when then First Lady Hillary Clinton visited the restored Saxton-McKinley House—the home of Ida McKinley and her husband, William Mckinley, the 25th president of the United States—where she spoke about Regula’s efforts and the preservation of America’s heritage.
“If you have not been there yet, I hope you will take the time to visit this extraordinary place. It is a perfect example of a preservation partnership, as a federal agency, a foundation, and an innovative project combined to make this a living site,” Clinton said at the time.
While visiting, Clinton commented on things she had never seen before, like priceless photographs of first ladies and a McKinley family heirloom—Ida McKinley’s silver inkwell—that had been recently acquired by the library from a descendant.
“As I looked at that inkwell, I marveled at how 100 years ago, Ida would sit at that desk and correspond with her friends and family by dipping her pen in ink,” Clinton said at the time. “So as I looked at Ida’s inkwell, I thought about how the role of women—and first ladies—has grown and evolved over this past century, and how much we still needed to learn about their lives, their achievements, and their aspirations.”
“… I thought about how the role of women—and first ladies—has grown and evolved over this past century, and how much we still needed to learn about their lives, their achievements, and their aspirations.”
—Hillary Clinton
It was during Clinton’s visit when she announced that the City National Bank Building (where the museum portion of the NFLLM campus currently resides) would be the future site of the First Ladies’ Library Education and Research Center and that its renovation was designated as an official project of Save America’s Treasures.
In 2003, then First Lady Laura Bush dedicated the Education & Research Center (later called the Visitor Center/Museum), which marked the third first lady to visit the site.
For Anita McBride, director of the First Ladies Initiative at American University and former chief of staff to former First Lady Laura Bush, now is the “perfect” time for the NFLLM’s National Advisory Board for which she is an inaugural member.
“Canton, Ohio has been a great home for this historic site. The vision of its founders, former Congressman Ralph Regula and his wife Mary, sought to preserve the home of former First Lady Ida McKinley as a place to honor all the women who served in this unique role in the American presidency,” says McBride in an email. She added that with all the Library and Museum has accomplished, it’s an ideal time to reach out beyond that community and enlist supporters around the country to expand its education mission and share its collection with audiences of all ages across the country.
Along with the establishment of its National Advisory Board and nurturing their connections, Lee says among the organization’s goals are to bring more national attention to the Library and Museum and to continue work on a first ladies exhibit that would travel nationally. Its National Advisory Board is its second advisory board. A local board, says Lee, advises on volunteers and onsite and local events.
Both have a unified commitment of preserving the history of America’s first ladies.
“I’m deeply invested in shining a light on the role of first ladies and their contributions over the course of the nation’s continually unfolding story and [ensuring] their rightful place in our history books,” McBride says.
Jennifer Taylor, editor and founder of East Wing Magazine, is a member of the National First Ladies Library & Museum’s National Advisory Board.