Homes of the First Ladies ─ A Guide to Publicly Accessible Homes, Museums, and Related Sites

America's First Ladies become better known and their influence and accomplishments become more widely recognized, interest in and fascination with the women themselves increases. Homes of the First Ladies is a guide to places that commemorate and interpret the lives and legacies of these First Ladies. This book provides short biographical sketches of all of the First Ladies, including those wives of presidents who died before their husbands were elected to that high office, then identifies, describes, and provides access information to some fifty-eight sites where wives of presidents once lived or are otherwise commemorated. Many of the sites described in this book are those that the women shared with their husbands, but increasingly homes and other structures in which these women lived during childhood or before marrying are being preserved in recognition of their historical value and the rich legacies of the First Ladies themselves.Visits to the homes and museums described in this book will afford curious travelers the opportunity to experience some of the most intimate personal spaces, material possessions, and creativity that influenced, shaped, and gave voice to that small but very special group of women whose husbands happened to have been elected President of the United States.

William G. Clotworthy retired early in the 1990s from a career in television and almost immediately started to write about presidents of the United States. Homes and Libraries of the Presidents (1995, 2002, 2008) was his first book, followed by Presidential Sites (1998) and In the Footsteps of George Washington (2002). Homes of the First Ladies, his fourth book on presidential and related sites, reflects the public’s great and growing interest in the women that have accompanied, and often substantially influenced, the careers and legacies of American presidents. From his home base in Virginia, Mr. Clotworthy continues an active schedule of lecturing and teaching on Presidents and First Ladies, subjects that have taken up much of his life since he “retired.”