Jane Harrison 1804–1847
Unknown Artist
Born Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 1841
Little is known about President William Henry Harrison’s daughter-in-law, Jane Findlay Irwin Harrison, who served as the official White House hostess for a very brief period in 1841. She had lived with her in-laws following the death of her husband, William Henry Harrison Jr., and accompanied the president-elect to Washington, D.C. There, she received glowing reviews for the two receptions that she hosted with the help of her aunt, Jane Irwin Findlay. Her time as de-facto first lady was cut short, however, when President Harrison died on April 4, 1841, after only a month in office.
With flowers placed at each ear and a veil pulled back from her face, this portrait of Jane Harrison was probably made to celebrate her second marriage, to widower Lewis Whiteman, following her return to North Bend, Ohio. Just a few years later, she succumbed to tuberculosis at age forty-two.
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Barbara B. Rose