March 19, 2024 – Theme Week Day 2

We’re continuing our First Ladies theme week with Julia Gardiner Tyler! She was the second wife of President John Tyler, and our first lady for the final 8 months of his term. The Gardiner family was very wealthy and influential, and Julia became a prominent socialite at a young age. She met the recently widowed John Tyler in 1842. She agreed to marry him after he comforted her as she grieved her father’s death. They married in secret in 1844.
Their marriage was controversial when it was announced to the public. It was the first time a president had married while holding office, and many people felt it was inappropriate for him to marry so soon after his first wife’s death. There was also quite an age difference – President Tyler was 54 while Julia was 24.
After arriving at the White House, Julia used her family money to refurbish it, buying new furniture and updating the staff uniforms. She also bought many stylish and elaborate dresses, which made her a prominent influence in fashion. As first lady, she wanted to copy the customs of European courts. So she formed her own court with her sister, cousins, and daughter-in-law, who served as her ladies-in-waiting. She also had an Italian Greyhound her husband bought her from Naples. She hosted many fabulous parties, popularizing polka dancing and introducing the waltz to White House events. She broke social norms by dancing in public, which was scandalous at the time. And to bring an element of grandiosity to the presidency, she started the tradition of playing “Hail to the Chief” to announce the entry of the president.
She differed from earlier first lady’s who shied away from politics. She used her influence to exert power in her own right, even flattering Senators to win their support. Specifically, she lobbied for the annexation of Texas because she believed it would benefit her husband’s legacy.
After leaving the White House, the Tylers moved back to the Sherwood Forest Plantation and had 7 children. In the 1870s, she returned to Washington, where she helped convince Congress to provide a pension for widowed first ladies. She died of a stroke at the age of 69 in 1889, in the same hotel where her husband died, also of a stroke, 27 years earlier. Learn more here.