To truly understand American history requires a knowledge not only of the country’s presidents, but also the women to whom they were married who made their own mark on the country, said a prominent Catholic who worked as a White House official and has cowritten a book on the nation’s first ladies.
“It is impossible to look at the arc of American history or the impact of a president without looking at the first ladies,” said Anita McBride, co-author of “Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women.”
She made her remarks as the keynote speaker at a brunch following the John Carroll Society’s Jan. 5 Epiphany Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington.
McBride is the director of the First Ladies Initiative at American University’s School of Public Affairs. She served in three U.S. presidential administrations – those of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush – and was chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush.
She was one of the White House officials who oversaw planning for Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-17, 2008 visit to Washington, and she was charged with coordinating the Bushes’ welcoming the pope at Joint Base Andrews on April 15 and the official White House welcoming ceremony on April 16.
Born in Connecticut, McBride is the daughter of Italian immigrants. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Connecticut and studied international relations and languages at American University and the University of Florence in Italy.
She is a founding member of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education and also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Italian American Foundation, the White House Historical Association and the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council. She and her husband, Timothy McBride, frequently attend Mass at the Italian national parish, Holy Rosary Church in Washington, D.C.
McBride cowrote “Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women” with Diana B. Carlin, professor emerita of communication at Saint Louis University and a retired professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas; and Nancy Kegan Smith, the retired director of the Presidential Materials Division of the National Archives and Records Administration, and the co-editor of “Modern First Ladies: Their Documentary Legacy.”
Americans have been curious about presidents’ wives since Martha Washington became the first lady in 1789 when President George Washington, the nation’s first president, began his term, McBride said in her John Carroll Society talk.
But McBride said there has been very little study about the first ladies and their influence on society. She noted that since the founding of this country until today, “there has been no formalized description of the duties of the first lady. There is no one way to be a first lady. The influential role is written by each individual first lady.”
McBride said that the nation’s first three presidents’ wives – Martha Washington, Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison – were “intelligent and savvy women ... who taught us how to operate in a new society.”
Martha Washington used her own money to keep troops fed and clothed, McBride said, “and she was a trailblazer who had George’s full support,” and Abigail Adams was “profoundly devoted to the new nation and an ardent supporter of human rights.”
As a matter of fact, the title of the book comes from a paraphrase of part of a letter Abigail wrote to her husband. While John Adams was attending the 1776 Continental Congress, Abigail wrote to her husband to “remember the ladies” and include women's rights in the laws of the new nation.
Dolley Madison “included her husband’s critics and supporters in all her social events and had a political acumen that he (James Madison) admired the most,” McBride said.
“She was beloved in Washington and tutored many of her successors,” McBride noted. “She was the first to be called ‘The First Lady of the Land.’ The term was used for the first time at her funeral.”
“Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women” has chapters that are both biographical and thematic. It looks at the first ladies, their contributions to their husbands’ tenures as president and their larger influence on society. Every first lady from Martha Washington to Dr. Jill Biden is included in the book.
The book is an interesting, engaging read with plenty of anecdotes. McBride highlighted several of the first ladies during her keynote address.
Mary Todd Lincoln, she said, “added polish to an un-polished president” but “sympathy and goodwill was rarely extended to her.” McBride said Mrs. Lincoln is ranked among the least popular first ladies while her husband is among the most popular presidents. Caroline Harrison, wife of Benjamin Harrison, was asked to use her influence to raise money for Johns Hopkins University’s medical school and agreed to do so only if it would admit women students.
Florence Harding was a proponent of women’s suffrage and was the first first lady to vote in a presidential election. Lou Hoover had a degree in geology from Stanford University and was the first first lady to deliver a radio address from the White House.
Eleanor Roosevelt was a trailblazer who refused a Secret Service detail, drove her own car and was the first first lady to hold a press conference. “She was ultimately recognized as the president’s eyes, ears and legs,” McBride said.
Jacqueline Kennedy, McBride said, “dialed back on the activism” of previous first ladies. She promoted the view of the White House as almost a museum. She established the first White House curator position, the White House Historical Association, and created the first White House visitor’s guide that is still in use today.
Lady Bird Johnson “sought to restore Eleanor’s activism,” McBride noted, and is credited with helping her husband win at least three southern states that originally did not support him. Pat Nixon was the most traveled first lady in American history, Betty Ford will be remembered for her very public fight against addiction and Barbara Bush, McBride said, “had a stratospheric approval rating that has been difficult to match even to today.”
McBride said there is also a textbook version of “Remember the First Ladies” because “we are bringing this information into the classrooms – we are looking at these women and their contributions to history through their partnerships with the presidents.”
Every first lady “gets to define it (the role of first lady) as they want,” she said. “The position is rewritten by each occupant, and these women have overall been mirrors of their time.”
Prior to the brunch, Father Mark Ivany, director of priest vocations for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, celebrated a Mass for John Carroll Society members at St. Patrick Church in Northwest Washington, D.C., to mark the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.
The John Carroll Society is a more than 50-year-old organization of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington who work in professions and businesses in the metropolitan area and assist the archbishop of Washington in charitable and community projects, and they also participate in spiritual, intellectual and social activities together.
Father Ivany said that the Magi saw in the star they followed “something more important than themselves ... they knew this was in a sense the whole point of their existence... they saw God.”
Father Ivany urged the faithful to be inspired by the three kings, “and ask the great question – what am I seeking? – and then learn the lesson to seek the greatest thing.”
“Recognize the signs all around us that we can have the great joy of falling down on our knees and adore the Lord,” he said.
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