Born Chillicothe, Ohio First Lady 1877–1881
Raised in a Methodist family with abolitionist beliefs, Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was the first presidential spouse to hold a college degree. She graduated from Wesleyan Female College (now Ohio Wesleyan University) in 1850. That same year, she began a relationship with her future husband, the lawyer Rutherford B. Hayes. During the Civil War, she nursed Union soldiers at Hayes’s camp, and when he served as governor of Ohio, she accompanied him on public visits to prisons, schools, and hospitals.
As first lady, Lucy Hayes banned alcohol from White House events. In recognition of her dedication to the cause of sobriety, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union commissioned this grand portrait of her by Daniel Huntington. The full-length format marks a shift in the representation of first ladies, while the outdoor setting alludes to the increasingly public nature of the role.
The White House