Remember the Ladies

As of 2023, there have been 45 different men serve as President of the United States. If you’re wondering why that number seems to be off by one, remember that Grover Cleveland served twice and was the 22nd & 24th President of the United States.

But as Abigail Adams wrote to John when he was the Continental Congress, “Remember the ladies!” Heeding her words we’ve collected a list of books and podcasts about First Ladies.

Did you know there have been 54 different First Ladies? 

Both John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson’s wives died during their term and remarried while in office.

Also, some of the First Ladies were not wives of the presidents. Harriet Lane was the niece of President James Buchannan. James was a bachelor.

Available at the Gal’s Guide Library

1st First Lady, Martha Washington

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition
• Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington’s Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition

2nd First Lady, Abigal Adams

• Abigail Adams: A Biography
• Who Was Abigail Adams?
• First Family: Abigail and John Adams
• Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams
• The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters
• Dear Abigail : the intimate lives and revolutionary ideas of Abigail Adams and her two remarkable sisters
• Founders Force John and Abigail Adams: The Champion Duo and the Trial in Boston
• Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

3rd First Lady: Martha Jefferson & Sally Hemmings

• Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times
• Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America
• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

4th First Lady, Dolley Madison

• Dolley Madison (First Ladies)
• Dolley Madison Saves George Washington
• The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family
• Queen Dolley
• Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

5th First Lady, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition
• Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America

6th First Lady, Louisa Adams

• The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters
• Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

7th First Ladies, Emily Donelson & Sarah Jackson

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

8th First Lady, Sarah VanBuren

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

9th First Ladies, Anna Harrison & Jane Harrison

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

10th First Ladies, Letitia Tyler & Elizabeth Tyler & Julia Tyler

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

11th First Lady, Sarah Polk

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

12th First Lady, Margaret “Peggy” Taylor

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

13th First Lady, Abigail Fillmore

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

14th First Lady, Jane Pierce

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

15th First Lady, Harriet Lane

• Harriet Lane, America’s First Lady
• Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition
• 100 women who made history : remarkable women who shaped our world

16th First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln

• The trials of Mrs. Lincoln : the harrowing never-before-told story of Mary Todd Lincoln’s last and finest years
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

17th First Lady, Eliza Johnson

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

18th First Lady, Julia Grant

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition
• Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868

19th First Lady: Lucy Hayes

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

20th First Lady, Lucretia Garfield

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

21st First Lady, Mary McElroy

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

22nd First Ladies, Rose Cleveland & Frances Cleveland

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

23rd First Lady: Caroline Harrison & Mary Harrison McKee

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

24th First Lady, Frances Cleveland

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

25th First Lady, Ida McKinley

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

26th First Lady, Edith Roosevelt

• Alice & Edith : A Biographical Novel of the Two Wives of Theodore Roosevelt
• The Roosevelt Women: A Portrait In Five Generations
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

27th First Lady, Helen “Nellie” Taft

• Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

28th First Ladies, Ellen Wilson & Margaret Wilson & Edith Wilson

• Power with grace : the life story of Mrs. Woodrow Wilson
• Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote
• Crusader in Crinoline
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

29th First Lady, Florence Harding

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

30th First Lady, Grace Coolidge

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

31st First Lady, Lou Hoover

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

32nd First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt

• Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt?
• Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884-1933
• Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life
• Grandmère: A Personal History of Eleanor Roosevelt
• Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth
• Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933-1938
• Eleanor Roosevelt: A Photoillustrated Biography (Read and Discover Photo-Illustrated Biographies)
• Stateswoman to the World: A Story About Eleanor Roosevelt (Creative Minds Biography)Stateswoman to the World: A Story About Eleanor Roosevelt (Creative Minds Biography)
• Eleanor (Picture Puffin Books)
• No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
• On my own
• Amelia And Eleanor Go For A Ride
• The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice
• The Roosevelt Women: A Portrait In Five Generations

33rd First Lady, Elizabeth “Bess” Truman

• Harry S. Truman
• First Ladies
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

34th First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower

• Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

35th First Lady, Jackie Kennedy

• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
• Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
• Who Was Jacqueline Kennedy?
• America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait of Her Private Years
• Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath
• Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill
• Remembering Jackie: A Life in Pictures

36th First Lady, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson

• Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

37th First Lady, Thelma “Pat” Nixon

• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

38th First Lady, Betty Ford

• Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer
• Times of My Life
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

39th First Lady, Eleanor Rosalynn Carter

• First Lady from Plains
• A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

40th First Lady, Nancy Reagan

• My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

41st First Lady, Barbara Bush

• Barbara Bush: A Memoir
• Barbara Bush, First Lady (Contemporary Women Series)
• Reflections: Life After the White House
• Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition

42nd First Lady, Hillary Clinton

• Hillary Rodham Clinton: Her Essential Wisdom
• Who Is Hillary Clinton? (Who Was?)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History
• Hillary Clinton: The Life of a Leader (Step into Reading)
• The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power
• The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary
• Living history
• What Happened
• Hard Choices: A Memoir
• The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election
• She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History
• Start Now!: You Can Make a Difference

43rd First Lady, Laura Bush

• Spoken from the Heart
• Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species
• First Ladies – From Martha Washington To Laura Bush, The Fascinating Lives Of The Women… Third Edition
• Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life

44th First Lady, Michelle Obama

• Michelle Obama: A Life
• Michelle Obama (Essential Wisdom)
• Michelle Obama: A Photographic Journey
• Who Is Michelle Obama? (Who Was?)
• Michelle Obama: First Lady, Going Higher (Step into Reading)
• A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother
• Becoming
• The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election

45th First Lady, Melania Trump

46th First Lady, Jill Biden