Ohio's First Ladies

Katherine Jellison is professor emerita of history at Ohio University. Her previous books include Entitled to Power: Farm Women and Technology, 1913-1963 (1993), It's Our Day: America's Love Affair with the White Wedding, 1945-2005 (2008), and (with Steven D. Reschly) Amish Women and the Great Depression (2023).

"Ohio’s First Ladies offers a unique assessment of the women who joined their husbands in the White House during a period of national transformation. The collection’s authors effectively establish how these women represented a distinctly Ohio sensibility while also reflecting prevailing conceptualizations of womanhood in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A welcome addition to the expanding literature on the nation's first ladies." - Karen Dunak, author of Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life "Ohio would never have become the "Mother of Presidents" without the resilient, dedicated, and intelligent women depicted so skillfully in this excellent volume. Katherine Jellison's book gives Ohio's first ladies their long overdue recognition in an engaging manner that will captivate scholars, university students, and general readers. A must-read for anyone interested in presidential, gender, or Midwestern history." - Dean J. Kotlowski, author of Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy Ohio’s First Ladies provides moving portraits of six women who encouraged, supported, and guided their husbands-Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Harding-into the White House. Each one embodied the civic virtues cherished in their home state-a devotion to education, a dedication to their families, and a belief that politics must serve the good of all. Readers might well be left wondering whether these women would have made better presidents than their husbands." - Mary Stockwell, author of Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionKatherine Jellison 1Chapter 1 More Than “Lemonade Lucy”Lucy Webb Hayes (First Lady 1877–1881)Kara M. French 000Chapter 2 “A Wonderfully Wise Woman”The Life of Lucretia Rudolph Garfield (First Lady 1881)Benjamin T. ArringtonChapter 3 First Lady of FirstsCaroline Scott Harrison (First Lady 1889–1892)Jennifer Capps Chapter 4 The Gallant Resolve of Ida Saxton McKinley (First Lady 1897–1901)Michelle Gullion Chapter 5 The Trailblazing Helen Herron Taft (First Lady 1909–1913)Annette B. Dunlap Chapter 6 Flo from OhioFlorence Kling Harding (First Lady 1921–1923)Katherine A. S. Sibley EpilogueKatherine Jellison Bibliography Contributors Index