List of United States First Lady firsts

This list lists achievements and distinctions of various First Ladies of the United States. It includes distinctions achieved in their earlier life and post-First Lady service.

According to the White House and the National First Ladies' Library, there have been forty-five First Ladies and forty-six First Ladyships. This discrepancy exists because President Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted chronologically as both the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth president; his wife Frances Folsom Cleveland is also counted twice.

Also note that First Ladies not recognized by the National First Ladies' Library listing include Martha Jefferson Randolph, Emily Donelson, Sarah Yorke Jackson, Angelica Van Buren, Priscilla Tyler, Mary McElroy, Rose Cleveland, Mary McKee, and Margaret Woodrow Wilson.

Martha Washington

• First First Lady.^[1]
• First First Lady to have a U.S. stamp honoring her.
• First First Lady to have a U.S. military ship named in honor of her.

Abigail Adams

• First First Lady to live in the White House.^[2]
• First First Lady to also be the mother of a president.
• First First Lady to have been a Second Lady.

Martha Jefferson Randolph

• First First Lady to give birth to a child in the White House.

Dolley Madison

• First First Lady given an honorary seat on the floor of Congress.^[3]
• First First Lady (and first American) to respond to a telegraph message.^[3]

Louisa Adams

• First First Lady born outside of the United States.^[4]
• First First Lady to have both houses of the United States Congress adjourn in mourning on the day of her funeral.^[5]

Anna Harrison

• First First Lady to be widowed while holding the title.^[6]
• First First Lady to be granted by law a pension as a president's widow.

Letitia Tyler

• First First Lady to die in the White House.^[7]

Priscilla Tyler

• First First Lady to travel with the President as an official member of the Presidential party.

Julia Tyler

• First First Lady to marry a President who was already in office at the time of the wedding.^[8]

Sarah Polk

• First First Lady to host an annual Thanksgiving dinner at the White House.

Julia Grant

• First First Lady recorded on film.^[9]
• First First Lady to write her memoirs.^[9]

Lucy Hayes

• First First Lady to earn a college degree.^[10]

Frances Cleveland

• First First Lady to marry in the White House.^[11]
• First First Lady to have a child in the White House.
• First First Lady to preside at two nonconsecutive administrations.
• First First Lady to remarry after widowing.

Caroline Harrison

• First First Lady to raise a Christmas tree in the White House.

Helen Louise Taft

• First First Lady to own and drive a car.^[3]
• First First Lady to ride in her husband’s inaugural parade.^[3]
• First First Lady to support women's suffrage.^[3]
• First First Lady to publish her memoirs.^[3]
• First First Lady to smoke cigarettes.^[3]
• First First Lady to successfully lobby for safety standards in federal workplaces.^[3]

Edith Wilson

• First First Lady to assume presidential functions.

Florence Harding

• First First Lady to vote.^[3]
• First First Lady to fly in an airplane.^[3]
• First First Lady to operate a movie camera.^[3]
• First First Lady to own a radio.^[3]
• First First Lady to invite movie stars to the White House.^[3]

Grace Anna Coolidge

• First First Lady to earn a four-year undergraduate degree.^[12]
• First First Lady to speak in sound newsreels.^[3]

Lou Hoover

• First First Lady to make regular nationwide radio broadcasts.^[13]

Eleanor Roosevelt

• First First Lady to hold regular press conferences.^[3]
• First First Lady to write a daily newspaper column.^[3]
• First First Lady to write a monthly magazine column.^[3]
• First First Lady to host a weekly radio show.^[3]
• First First Lady to speak at a national party convention (1940).^[14]
• First First Lady to be depicted as part of a presidential memorial (the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial).^[15]

Jacqueline Kennedy

• First First Lady to hire a press secretary.^[3]
• First First Lady to hire a White House curator.^[3]
• First First Lady to win an Emmy Award.^[11]

Lady Bird Johnson

• First First Lady to become a millionaire in her own right.

Pat Nixon

• First First Lady to enter a combat zone.^[16]
• First First Lady to visit Africa.^[17]
• First First Lady to travel to the People's Republic of China.^[18]
• First First Lady to visit the Soviet Union.^[18]
• First First Lady to wear pants in public.^[3]

Betty Ford

• First First Lady to admit having a drinking problem.

Rosalynn Carter

• First First Lady to keep her own office in the East Wing.^[3]

Nancy Reagan

• First First Lady invited to address the United Nations General Assembly (which she did).^[19]

Hillary Clinton

• First First Lady to earn a postgraduate degree.^[20]
• First First Lady to have her own professional career up to the time of entering the White House.^[20]
• First First Lady with an office in the West Wing.^[21]
• First First Lady to win a Grammy Award.^[22]
• First First Lady to be subpoenaed to testify before a Federal grand jury.^[23]
• First First Lady to run for elected office (for senator for New York State).^[24]
• First First Lady to win elected office (for senator for New York State, election in 2000).^[24]
• First First Lady to march in an LGBT pride parade (2000).^[25]
• First First Lady to run for president (election in 2008).^[3][26]
• First First Lady to served in the cabinet (for Secretary of State).
• First First Lady (and first woman) to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party (specifically, the Democratic party).^[27][24]

Laura Bush

• First First Lady to give birth to twins.^[3]
• First First Lady to substitute for the President in the President's weekly radio address.^[3]

Michelle Obama

• First African-American First Lady.^[28]
• First First Lady to announce the winner of an Oscar (Best Picture which went to Argo).^[29]

Melania Trump

• First First Lady to date not to have been born a citizen of the United States or in what would later become the United States. Louisa Adams, though (prior to Melania Trump) the only First Lady born outside of the United States, was the daughter of an American father (Joshua Johnson, the American Consul in London) and American citizenship was, therefore, her birthright.^[30][31] Melania Trump, meanwhile, only became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2006.^[32]
• First First Lady not to live in the White House following the Presidential inauguration. ^[33]

References