First Ladies

DK Eyewitness Books

by Amy Pastan

Meet forty-five dynamic women -- from Martha Washington to America's newest first lady. Here is a captivating, photo-filled guide to the extraordinary women who have made their mark on the White House, and the nation. Eyewitness First Ladies explores the second hardest job in America--and the forty-five exceptional women who did it. Filled with stunning, full-color photographs of personal mementos, family pictures, and campaign memorabilia, this is an engaging visual tour of U.S. History, as seen through the eyes of America's first ladies. See Dolly Madison's snuffbox, Mary Todd Lincoln's mourning cape, Edith Wilson's tiara, Eleanor Roosevelt's writing desk, and Pat Nixon's party favors. Learn about the part Martha Washington played in the American Revolution, why the White House can be both a palace and a prison, how Frances Harding won her husband's campaign, and of the scandal that haunted Rachel Jackson. Discover why Jackie Kennedy won an Emmy Award, which president's wife was the first to attend cabinet meetings, the first lady who was suspected of treason, and much much more.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Childrens, American History

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Amy Pastan is an independent writer, editor, and book producer. She is former acquisitions editor for art and humanities at the Smithsonian Institution Press. She lives in the metropolitan D.C. area.

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Beth's rating on this book and it brought back memories. So, I got the book a few days later. I love the DK books! You are never to old to read them.

The first ladies and their stories are so interesting. I never knew that Martha Washington's marriage to George was her second marriage. What a huge event to happen to a single mom in those days. To get remarried, AND THEN go on to be the first, of the First Ladies of America. Single parents everywhere should raise their glass to Martha!

I can "somewhat" relate to Edith Roosevelt. She was noted to be a mom who was in control, that she always remained calm & dignified when her kids bounced off the walls..the White House walls! 6 children in all! Leading their ponies down the mansion corridor, sliding down the staircase. Oh..I can only imagine... Hide and seek would be Awesome!

Great book & Fun stories that you can easily read in one sitting.

[Becki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick bites of information about every First Lady from Washington to Trump. Also some historical context given.

[Michelle Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this while browsing the shelves at my local library. An abbreviated overview of each our First Ladies along with interesting tidbits of information and related images. Great for teens and leisure reading.

[Lis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting and well written. I enjoyed every minute of it and I learned a lot.

[Copeland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have fond memories of reading eyewitness books as a kid, and I remember the Mary Cassatt one in particular so I was pretty disappointed when I picked up this book. It took me as a college student several days to get through as it was not compelling or interesting enough to engage me. Granted I am not the target audience, but even so, informational texts such as this should have something to offer to every reader.
I also remember reading these books sort of piece meal as a kid anyway. I much preferred to jump around and pick up interesting facts rather than sit and read them cover to cover.
Published in 2009, and containing plenty of photographs and paintings, I was also disappointed by the quality of the images. I know that reproducing some images is expensive, but there are countless artifacts and higher quality images out there than some that are represented here, in grainy and pix-elated form.
I did enjoy learning about first ladies I had never learned about previously, and appreciated the explanation of who acted as first lady (official hostess) and thought it was interesting too that for a long time the first lady had to attend events in order for other women to be allowed to go to them as well.
It felt weird to me though that the book included the wives of presidents who never actually served as first ladies (having died before their husbands reached the office) I think it would better to include a subtitle delineating that.
Overall, there are better histories of the first ladies out there for elementary and middle school age children.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book features information on the First Ladies of the United States starting from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. There are also tidbits of information on historical events at the time, fashion, projects the First Ladies participated in, and historical artifacts from the time period. There is also an added list of resources readers can check out to find out more information.

The DK Eyewitness Book series is a great source to find out more information about a plethora of topics. Reading this book reminded me of how much I loved this series as a kid.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book is marketed for 8 to 12-year-olds, I find DK Eyewitness Books to be great reading, no matter how old you are. The Smithsonian Institution contributed, obviously by allowing their treasure-trove of First Lady personal items and gowns to be photographed.

Whenever DK publishes a book, I can be sure that it will be colorful and interesting. Because of the number of first ladies, the book is by necessity rather superficial.  However, I just want an overview of all of them, not an in-depth analysis.  Thus, this meets my needs very well.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It covers our country's first ladies from Martha to Melania. The book gives a lot of information on each First Lady and some surprises. For example, who knew that Eliza Johnson, wife of President Andrew Johnson, taught her husband how to read and write? The book has lots of photos of items from the First Ladies' lives, such as jewelry, clothing, dishware. A quick read and fun!

[Jolie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly fun-fact-packed look into the history of the almost always overshadowed/forgotten first ladies.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, informative summary of the United States First Ladies! Loads of photographs and paintings. Full of little known facts and information. Covers Martha Washington to Michelle Obama.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behind every US President is an interesting First Lady. This book is a nice little capsule of information on all the First Ladies. Worth reading.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting!

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 2 out of 5]

The weakest volume I've encountered in this series. Of course the pics are nice (as is only to be expected from DK), and the material pretty much arranges itself. But the text seems to have been written by a PR rep for NOW from press releases. Actually, coverage of the early years of the republic went along smoothly enough...but the closer we got to the present, the sillier things became. For some reason Pastan intrudes a section on the 19th Amendment into the works (even though the First Lady of the time was against it). And how many times did we have to read that this or that First Lady helped her husband as best she could once he became president? (as though there were something remarkable in that fact). Then too we are confronted by the occasional pompous and schoolmarmish passage: "When Barack Obama clinched his party's nomination, Michelle congratulated him with a fist bump. The friendly gesture, which is historically associated with the African-American community, caused a minor media frenzy." (lol) Or: "Hillary helped Bill attain his political ambitions, but she suffered personal pain in 1997, when he admitted having an inappropriate relationship with a White House Intern." (Inappropriately oral, I guess.)

[Katie Frakes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not my favorite by any means. Firstly, while there is information provided about the first ladies, it is all very general and broad. In other words, the information isn’t really specific to any first lady, which made it hard for me to follow. For example, the book only gives brief descriptions of the ladies while they lived in the White House and doesn’t really talk about all of the wonderful things that they accomplished. Also, this book is formatted more like a textbook than an actual storybook, so it wouldn’t work to read aloud to a class at all. Because of this format, this book would work better for upper elementary and middle school students. However, I enjoyed looking at the pictures of the ladies because, before reading this book, I wasn’t really familiar with that many of them. In the end, while this wasn’t a book I necessarily enjoyed, I can see how it could be helpful to have in a classroom because it would provide broad information about the wives of presidents in our country.

[Amy Dennehy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to have great pictures and fact about the First Ladies of the United States. These picture and descriptions detailed what these ladies did while they lived in the White House. However, I believe it only gives minimal detail about these ladies lives, not depicting all the wonderful things they did. This is a good book for learning fact about what First Ladies do, but not about particular ones in general. This is a good starting point to find out what First Ladies to read further about in different books. This would also be a difficult book to use in the classroom setting as it reads more like a textbook. This would be better for older grades as an individual reading book.

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost every school library in America has the Eyewitness series, and my elementary school was no exception. The one Eyewitness book I found on my own, however, was First Ladies. This books contains many pictures as do most Eyewitness books. The pictures, while good for keeping a young child's attention, don't help us get an accurate picture of the wonderful first ladies we've had. If anything, this is more of a book about the first ladies' stuff with a tiny paragraph or so dedicated to the first ladies for themselves. Then again, Eyewitness books usually lack any actual history anyway. Advice: Find your kids better books than this series. Please, I'm begging you!

[Krissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Hayes was the first college graduate to hold the position of first lady.

Edith Wilson was anti suffrage despite the 19th amendment being passed while she was in office.

Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazing humanitarian.

I enjoyed this. It was a quick read (obviously). My Grandma used to give me Eyewitness books as a child. They have just a teaser of information about the subject which works since they're mostly childrens books. For someone who just wants a taste of information, they're a good starting point. I may flip through more in the future. I like the layout of the books, the information shared, and how it's all presented.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is not a lot of new information here obviously, but that is not what these DK Eyewitness Books are supposed to provide. This book is a great introduction to all the women who have been First Ladies throughout America's history, with just a few facts and notable events or particulars that give a little personality to each woman. Other than a few famous first ladies, most of the women written about here will be new to most readers, so everyone is sure to learn something no matter what age you are. It would have been nice to give some more focus on some of the lesser known Presidents' wives, but the same 8-10 get the focus and that is probably to be expected.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and the detailed accounts it provides of each first lady, from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. It gives details on their experiences in the white house, the clothes they wore, and different artifacts they had.The amazing artwork,photographs, and summarizes of the first ladies experience are given in a detailed concise manner.I feel that this book would be a great resource to have in a classroom. It could be used during different units of American history, specifically when discussing presidents in order to stress the importance of the first lady.

[Katie Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book about the First Ladies of the United States of America. It includes pictures and facts about what they did when they lived in the White House. This is a good book to use to teach about famous women.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, informative summary of the First Ladies of the United States of America. Loads of photographs and paintings!! Full of little-known facts and information.

[Grapeseed22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

very educational

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This thin book caught my eye when our library displayed it during Women's History Month. The First Ladies are presented in chronological order with a short biography and pictures of primary documents related to the First Lady being featured. Many of the primary documents and pictures are probably housed in the Smithsonian Museum. Most of the First Ladies are featured on one page, but some received more attention.

A book to read and reread for every aged reader!

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Ladies tells us what the wives of Presidents did while living in the White House.

[Algona Public]

first Ladies is filled with interesting facts, family pictures and tells stories how each first lady helped change the history of our country. From Martha Washington to our First Lady today, Melania Trump.
Chris S.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such nice, juicy details.