Harriet Lane life and biography

Harriet Lane Johnston, also known as Harriet Lane born May 9, 1830 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, United States - died July 3, 1903 in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, United States was the First Lady of the United States and philantropist.

Harriet Lane Johnston was the niece of bachelor American President James Buchanan, and served as his hostess at the White House during his tenure there (1857-1861). Widely admired by politicians and the general populace alike, the term "First Lady" was coined for her. She went on to overcome personal tragedy and become a noted philanthropist before passing away on July 3, 1903.

First Among First Ladies

Johnston was born Harriet Lane to a prosperous family in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, on May 9 around 1833 (most later sources list her birth year as 1830, but her 1903 New York Times obituary cites the date as 1833). Her parents died within a year of one another (1839 and 1840) when she was quite young, but her mother's brother, James Buchanan, immediately stepped in to rear her as his own. Under his auspices, Johnston received a top-flight education, including boarding school in what is now West Virginia and graduation (1848) from the prestigious Georgetown Visitation Convent. Intelligent, attractive, and high spirited, Johnston repaid her uncle's kindness by excelling at her studies and then becoming an asset to his political life.

Johnston first performed hostess duties for Buchanan while he was serving as the U.S. ambassador to England in 1854. She honed her social skills in British society and became a great favorite of Queen Victoria and her son, the Prince of Wales. Thus, she was well prepared, if still young, to take up the role once again when Buchanan was elected president in 1857. In the White House, Johnston's tact, poise, and good spirits were widely admired. The song "Listen to the Mockingbird" was dedicated to her and in 1860, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Monthly referred to her as the "First Lady of the Land," thus coining what has become the common term for a male U.S. president's wife and/or hostess. (See Pittsburgh Post-Gazette citation below.) In short, Johnston was a tremendous success.

Buchanan's presidency ended in 1861, and Johnston married Henry Elliot Johnston in 1866. The happiness of that union was marred by the untimely deaths of Johnston's two sons (in 1881 and 1882), followed by that of her husband in 1884. She then sold her houses and returned to Washington, D.C., where she once again reigned over society. She became a noted philanthropist, and helped establish what would become a pediatric training facility at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. She also co-founded an institute for the blind in New York City, and donated her extensive art collection to the then-nascent National Gallery of Art (now known as the Smithsonian American Art Museum). Throughout her life she was also active in such social causes as the improvement of prison and hospital conditions and the rights of Native Americans. Indeed, Johnston's impact on the world was ongoing and substantial. Perhaps one of the most succinct summations of that influence was demonstrated by her trip back to England the year before she died--it was to attend the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, the one-time Prince of Wales who had been so charmed by her in her youth. Johnston passed away on July 3, 1903, in Narragansett, Rhode Island, leaving a legacy that continues to this day.

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