We’re right in the middle of our First Ladies theme week! Today we’re talking about Harriet Lane, who served as first lady for her uncle, lifelong bachelor James Buchanon, from 1857-1861. Eleven women were first lady but not married to the president, with most being relatives of widowed presidents.
Lane’s family was from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. After being orphaned at the age of 11, she was adopted by her favorite uncle James Buchanon, a senator from Pennsylvania at the time. He enrolled her in a private boarding school and introduced her to fashionable and political circles.
Harriet was a popular hostess during her uncle’s presidency. Women copied her hairstyle and fashion, daughters were named after her, and a popular song (“Listen to the Mockingbird”) was even dedicated to her. The presidential yacht was named for her, the first of several ships to be named after her. There’s a United States Coast Guard Cutter still in service with her name! She also used her position to promote social causes, and is seen as the first of the modern first ladies for both her popularity and advocacy work. Her popularity has been compared to that of Jacqueline Kennedy in the 60s.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Harriet did her best to keep political adversaries apart at her weekly dinner parties. By the time Buchanon and Harriet left the White House, 7 states had seceded. The two returned to Buchanon’s spacious country house near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
At 36, Harriet married a Baltimore banker named Henry Elliott Johnson. They had 2 sons, but in the 18 years between 1867 to 1885, her uncle, husband, and children all died. Harriet wrote her will in 1895 and lived another 8 years, during which the value of her estate greatly increased.
In her will, she dedicated $400,000 (around $13 million today) to establish the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It was the first hospital in the nation devoted to children when it opened in 1912. Today, the Harriet Lane Clinic treats thousands of children a year and is a pioneer treatment, teaching, and research clinic. Learn more here.