Eliza Johnson 1810–1876

Born Telford, Tennessee
First Lady 1865–1869

The daughter of a shoemaker, Eliza McCardle Johnson was sixteen when she married Andrew Johnson, a tailor. Before moving to Washington, D.C., when her husband became Abraham Lincoln’s vice president in 1864, she managed their small family shop in Greeneville, Tennessee. After Lincoln’s assassination and her husband’s swearing-in as president, Eliza Johnson used a congressional appropriation of $30,000 to refurbish the White House interiors, which had become rundown during the Civil War. Because chronic tuberculosis limited her to the second floor of the mansion, she focused on running the household. Her oldest daughter, Martha Johnson Patterson, served as official White House hostess.

This hand-colored photograph of Eliza Johnson shows her later in life and emphasizes her conservative Methodist background. She wears a black silk crepe mourning dress with a white lace collar and a modest lace cap on her head.

Courtesy of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site