Episode 11: Charities, Children & Change
Kelly Marino discusses how the advocacy work of first ladies contributed to various campaigns and movements. The forgotten work of Julia Tyler, Abigail Fillmore, Harriet Lane, and Florence Harding is explored.
TRANSCRIPT
Teri Finneman: Eleanor. Dolley. Mamie. Jackie. They were the nation’s original influencers. Some were fearless, some were fragile. All left their mark on the nation’s history. In this podcast, we'll reflect on the fascinating legacies of the women forever tied to the White House. I'm your host, Teri Finneman, a journalism historian who studies media portrayals of first ladies with production editing by Bella Koscal. This is The First Ladies podcast.
Without a job description, first ladies must decide what they're going to do with their time in the role. Although Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton tend to receive the most attention for their work as first lady, women throughout history have used the position to give attention to social causes. In today's episode, Kelly Marino discusses how the advocacy work of first ladies during different eras contributed to various campaigns and movements.
Kelly, welcome to the show. Why did you become interested in studying first ladies?
Kelly Marino (1:16): I became interested in studying first ladies because my primary research is actually on women in politics, and so, I research actually like women involved in the suffrage movement primarily, and it seemed like a natural extension of sort of the work that I was already doing. I do a lot in activism. Even my advisor in grad school used to joke with me about how I was obsessed with learning about activism. So, looking at the social advocacy work of first ladies was definitely something that I was definitely interested in learning more about and exploring.
Teri Finneman: We're obviously talking today about first ladies and social advocacy. Why do you think this is an important aspect of first ladies to study?
Kelly Marino (1:54): I think it's an important aspect, and I'm sure other people maybe have mentioned this in other episodes because there is a depiction of first ladies in both early scholarship and in popular culture that they were sort of these ornaments, beautiful figures on their husband's arm, sort of that they had a social purpose that was really just catering at the White House, or entertaining guests, greeting guests and that they didn't really, especially early on, have a significant political role or role in activism in any way. And what I actually found in my research is even with some of the early first ladies, there were always causes that they were invested in, and what I believe is actually that they practiced, and I'm going to steal a term from one of my colleagues and I'll kind of orally cite her. I have a colleague that I really respect. Her name is Carol Linskey and she wrote this wonderful dissertation. It's a history dissertation from SUNY Binghamton, and it was on Dorothy Kenyon, and she talks about invisible politics and I thought that was such a great term.
(2:55): I'm going to use it maybe a little bit differently in my comments, and I think there were these invisible politics early on, because you have these early first ladies who very much had causes, right, that they were interested in. I'm going to say women's advancement rather than women's rights early on, even civil rights issues early on, but they didn't necessarily go out on the news media, right, and speak about them, but they did lobby for them in other ways.
So, for example, within their network of friends, they would talk about different causes and issues they supported, sometimes helped to generate funds to back different issues they supported. They would talk to their husband, right, their spouse, the president in this case, about different causes and issues that they were passionate about and supported. So, it was like these invisible politics that existed, but very much they had these causes that deserved to be kind of highlighted and I think when we think about the modern first ladies, we do think about the different issues, the agenda that they've supported and it's important to kind of contextualize that and realize that it goes back much longer historically.
Teri Finneman (3:54): Your work covers so much ground because there is so much to say, and so, we're going to be focusing specifically today on some of the first ladies that many people are unfamiliar with. So, let's start with Julia Tyler and social advocacy. She was only first lady for eight months between 1844 and 1845 since she was the second wife of John Tyler. What did she accomplish in that small amount of time?
Kelly Marino (4:22): When I was doing research on her, what I found that was particularly interesting is that people would often write to her requesting that she discuss with her husband the possibility of presidential pardons or even clemency. So, people that felt like they were unjustly convicted of a crime or unjustly sentenced would appeal to her and ask her to lobby on their behalf to her husband, or to cabinet members in his administration, to see if they could actually intervene and get their sentences either extinguished or commuted. And so, there's one famous case of a New Yorker named Babe, and he was sentenced actually for piracy, and he was supposed to receive the death sentence actually for this during the time period. And the story is that Julia actually helped to get his conviction overturned and supposedly in doing this, the story goes that she had helped to save an innocent man's life.
In addition to this, she also intervened on behalf of the well-being of soldiers to get them certain benefits that they weren't receiving, like extra lead time, and even help to find people jobs within the federal government and help them get appointed to those positions and use their influence to do that.
Teri Finneman (5:29): I was really glad to see that you included Abigail Fillmore in your research because she's one of those first ladies no one knows anything about. How did she use her position as first lady for social advocacy?
Kelly Marino: So, Abigail Fillmore actually was one of the first ladies that I researched who had a background in teacher education, and so she started her career actually as a school teacher. So, when she got into office, she supported public literacy and even helped to create a White House reference library, which I thought was really interesting. And she was involved in other classes as well. Like, she got involved in a movement in flogging as a punishment in the U.S. Navy because it was very degrading and humiliating form of reprimand in the military.
And another thing that she, well, she also supported women's access to greater education and even wanted her husband, or pressured him, to veto the Fugitive Slave Act, though there's controversial statements about whether it was because she was actually truly in sympathy with civil rights issues, or if it was more because she thought it would be advantageous to his political position, though eventually he signed it into law. So, those are a couple of the things that I thought that she did that were kind of interesting in the area of social advocacy.
Teri Finneman (6:47): The first ladies following the Civil War – Eliza Johnson, Julia Grant, and Lucy Hayes – also don't get much attention. What do you see as their contributions?
Kelly Marino: So, with Eliza Johnson, what I found is that she did a lot of early work – a lot of the modern first ladies have done a lot of work with children, and she did some early work to benefit children. Actually, it was one of my favorite stories that I learned about. After the period of the Civil War – and I had never thought about this actually before and I definitely want to include it when I teach about this topic to my students – but there was an issue of displaced children in the South. There were, you know, these children who had lost loved ones, potentially both their parents. Either one parent, maybe the one parent remaining couldn't support them, and they were in need right after this time period happened. It was one of the consequences of so much fighting actually taking place in the South, the majority of the war versus the North.
(7:43): And so, she wanted to work with the philanthropist Josephine Newcomb, actually, who was involved with I believe the forming of Newcomb College and some other philanthropic endeavors, to create an orphanage for some of these displaced children in the South following the Civil War, and I actually thought that was really interesting because I always talk about the Civil War and some of the real distressing sort of realities that Southerners faced in the wake and how they had to rebuild and I never thought of that part of it. In terms of Julia Grant, what I found about her is, during the Spanish American War, she was one of the people that helped to lead the Women's National War Relief Association. So, they help to gather clothing, medical supplies for American troops that were in locations like Manila, the Philippines, to kind of improve the conditions that they were facing, and what I found is that a lot of early first ladies were involved in those kinds of efforts of helping to improve the experience of soldiers and thinking about the well-being of the military at critical moments in the nation’s history.
(8:47): And then, Lucy Hayes, I thought, was really interesting because of her involvement in the temperance campaign. So, I believe it was her father, her grandfather, was a big temperance advocate, and so this influenced her, and she had a ban that she helped to initiate on liquor being served at the White House, and it got her the nickname Lemonade Lucy. And the WCTU went crazy with this, and they used her as a poster woman for their movement for a period of time to help gain support. And so, those are some of the things that I thought that those first ladies did that were particularly sort of remarkable.
Teri Finneman: Let's briefly shift and discuss first ladies who did not get on board with certain social advocacy. It's always been interesting to me that Frances Cleveland, the youngest first lady – she was in her early 20s when she married Grover when he was president – she wasn't a suffragist. You note that Caroline Harrison, the wife of Benjamin Harrison, didn't take a strong stand on the issue, either. What did you find in your research on this, and what did they advocate for instead?
Kelly Marino (9:53): So, with a lot of the early first ladies, what I thought was really interesting is I did notice that they were very hesitant to label themselves, for example, as a suffragist, just because suffrage was pretty controversial for quite a long time in U.S. history. And so, for a lot of women, there could be some concern with associating with the cause because people were concerned about what women would do with their votes, how it would shape politics and economics, and at least in the South, there was a movement among some of the Southern suffragists, for example, to basically encourage the decision on whether or not women should vote to be made at the state level. It was a states’ rights issue for them. People like the Gordon sisters, for example, from Louisiana, Kate Gordon and her sister – Jean, I believe, is her sister's name. And so, there were some people who said there shouldn't be like a federal amendment.
(10:50): And so, it was very controversial in a lot of realms, and some of these first ladies did not want to get really involved in labeling themselves in that way, but that didn't mean that they necessarily didn't advocate for women’s, like I would say, women's advancement, right? So, Cleveland, for example, supported the idea that women should be given greater opportunities in the educational realm. She served on a Wells College board. She also promoted the well-being of children, families, and supported the development of kindergartens. Those are some of the things that she got involved with, charity work, making clothing for the poor, and Harrison did similar charity work, and she was in favor of, again, women's advancement being a co-founder of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and even in regard to the development of John Hopkins Medical School, she was one of the people that helped to fundraise, but the condition was if she helped to fundraise, that Johns Hopkins would actually agree to admit women when it opened.
(11:45): So, it showed that these women did support the idea, again, of women's advancement, maybe not promoting the specific issue of suffrage or kind of embracing that particular label, but she did welcome women from the National Council – I think it was the National Council of Women – to the White House at one point. So, these are some of the things that she actually did to, again, support greater advancement for women, but not necessarily in regard to that suffrage legislation.
Teri Finneman: Yeah, so you mentioned charitable work. You know, first ladies have been involved with some pretty unique projects. So, tell us about some others.
Kelly Marino (12:24): Yeah so, actually what I found is that there was quite a bit of charity work over time in different eras that women did. There was a strong focus on kind of maternalist politics and politicizing the role of mother and being a caretaker for the community. And so, what I found is, like, for example, Harriet Lane is somebody who helped to endow a home for invalid children that was known as the Harriet Lane Home, and it wasn't open until 1912. It took a while to actually develop this particular project. It was pretty comprehensive, but it was also really important. It was the first hospital that was created in the nation devoted specifically to healthcare for children and dealing with some of the different issues that they were facing, and it was known especially for having these – they were like specialty clinics to deal with particular issues that people were sort of struggling with.
(13:17): And I read that at its peak, it treated about 60,000 children a year. It was considered an outstanding pediatric facility, so it was pretty well lauded and pioneering during that time period. I also found that, in addition to that, she helped to establish a school in Washington, D.C., called St. Albans, and she helped to donate the money that allowed underprivileged children to actually attend the school, providing them with scholarships because she believed everybody deserved the right to access to a good education. A lot of the humanitarian sort of efforts that are geared at children, a lot of them have been taken up by more recent first ladies. So, one of the stories that I really like, just because I think it's really fascinating, is Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign. And so, I was actually just talking about this earlier in the class that I was teaching just because we were kind of hitting that time period today.
(14:11): But you know, during the 1980s, there was a huge drug problem in the US, a huge crack cocaine problem, particularly in 1985, and a lot of the statistics show that a lot of the consumers were teenagers, were young adults, and so Nancy Reagan really gears her campaign to the youth. And statistically, I don't remember offhand what the statistic is, but it shows that after the messaging of this campaign, there was a decrease in drug abuse among young people in the United States, so it's pretty effective at dealing with that particular issue.
And then if you think about Laura Bush, she had a controversial movement, right? She was involved with the “No Child Left Behind” reforms that affected the public school system, and those have been really, you know, criticized heavily kind of for their promotion of standardized testing, and people have said, okay, well, what's that done to the culture of education? But if you look at some of the broader things that she was involved in, she was a big advocate of getting young people to read and supporting reading programs, especially among the youngest students, the youngest learners.
(15:16): Michelle Obama had the big healthcare for, you know, young people, getting them active, exercising anti-obesity, having healthy school lunches movement, and then Melania Trump, right, had the anti-bullying and anti-cyber bullying especially campaign that was geared at younger people. And so, I think even more recently you've seen a lot of this work take off as more recent modern first ladies have taken up these different causes and issues.
Teri Finneman: Many of the first families had pets, but Florence Harding in particular was a major advocate for animal rights. Talk about the work she did there.
Kelly Marino (15:52): Yeah so, Florence Harding, I thought it was really interesting because I had heard a little bit through researching suffrage and some of the earlier women's rights activists that some of them kind of crossed over into some environmentalist work and animal rights work. And so, there was this movement that I had vaguely heard about, about not having women wearing hats with feathers in it, and so, she was one of the people that actually took up that campaign against feathered clothing. She also was fighting against wearing fur, wearing fur just sparingly was something that she promoted. She challenged rodeos, killing seals in California, and she was a supporter of the Humane Society and their campaign that they were kind of leading along with other organizations to educate people about the civil treatment of animals in public schools.
She had a dog, and his name was Laddie, and he was an Airedale, and he would travel with her to different animal rights events, and the press would take pictures of her with her dog, and it would help to drum up publicity and also funding for the different causes and events that she was supporting.
Teri Finneman (17:03): We focused today on the lesser-known first ladies and their causes, but when people think of first ladies and advocacy, certainly Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton are at the top of the list. Talk about some of the many causes that Clinton was involved with during her time as first lady.
Kelly Marino: Yeah, so Hillary Clinton was really interesting, and one of the things that I learned about her through reading about her biography is that she was very much inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt, and she did an incredible amount to support women and children, public health in particular, and even human rights. And so, in 1997, she was involved in the passage of a state children's insurance program that would provide government assistance for children who are not eligible for healthcare through their parents, and she also was someone that promoted youth vaccination programs, and again to support the well-being of family, at least that's how I looked at it. Iin my research, I found that she wanted women and mothers to get mammograms more frequently. She wanted to advocate government funding to research prostate cancer. I looked at these as measures to build stronger families so that children weren't growing up losing their mother or father to cancer.
(18:14): In addition to that, I found that she helped to develop the Department of Justice office on violence against women. She worked on adoption programs that would allow teens to be eligible for resources a little bit later as they aged out of the traditional system. She had several conferences at the White House on children and issues that were facing them, sort of like within the society. There were several that she planned, and she supported women's rights, not only in the U.S. but also globally as well, particularly in the Middle East, and was an advocate of human rights, and I hope I'm not misspeaking saying this, but I do recall a long time ago, I was teaching a global LGBTQ+ history class, and I thought I remember that she gave this UN speech that was pretty important during the time period of the ‘90s that was on the concept of human rights within this international sort of context. And so, those are some of the different causes that Clinton was involved with over time.
Teri Finneman (19:15): Overall, why do you think studying first ladies matters?
Kelly Marino: I think it matters because, in my opinion, and I argue this in the chapter that I wrote for the edited collection, I think we're moving into a new time period and the new time period is that it's focused where Americans, when they go to vote, I don't think people are looking anymore at one person, right, like what the president is doing. I think they're looking at what the administration is going to bring collectively, like people are thinking about the president, the vice president, the spouses of these figures, who the, you know, advisors are going to be. They're going to vote in an administration, and I think that's how they're looking at it.
And I think first ladies are expected currently to have a political agenda, and I think, again, I think there's a danger in thinking that it's all new. I think we, because the scholarship has focused so much on the president, it's kind of like we've had that erasure of other figures surrounding him, and I think doing this work and researching for the edited collection and highlighting some of the activism of these women show that when we study these different presidencies, there's a larger story and we don't want to erase the other figures that were important to that story.
(20:30): We want to shed light on them as well. So, we're giving a really full depiction of what that administration brought, and these first ladies were part of that administration, and they had their own causes and agendas that they supported. So, I think it's really valuable to telling a richer history or richer story of these presidential administrations.
Teri Finneman: All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us today.
Kelly Marino: Thank you.
Teri Finneman: We hope you enjoyed the show. Tune in next time to uncover more untold histories of the nation's first ladies. I'm Teri Finneman, and this is The First Ladies podcast.
Show music credit: "Winning Elevation" by Hot_Dope.