Harriet Lane: "Fair First Lady of the Land"

Harriet Rebecca Lane was born to Elliot Tole Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane on May 9, 1830 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Her father’s family emigrated from England to western Virginia during the American Revolution. Her mother was raised in an Ulster-Scots Pennsylvania family and was a younger sister of James Buchanan, who later became the 15th U.S. president. Harriet was the sixth of seven children, with five brothers and one sister.

By age ten, Harriet was orphaned, her mother having died in 1839 and her father in 1840. At her request, she went to Lancaster to live under her Uncle James Buchanan’s guardianship.

Harriet and her Uncle James, who she playfully called "Nunc," developed a father-daughter relationship. As a child, Harriet Lane was strong-willed and intelligent. Her uncle encouraged her intellectual development, while simultaneously engaging her in training to become a sophisticated young lady and an excellent companion and hostess.

By 1840, Harriet had lost her parents and two of her brothers to consumption. Despite these reasons for melancholy, Harriet was a mischievous and happy young girl, known for playing good-humored school pranks and for her exuberant athleticism.

As happy running around outdoors as she was reading schoolbooks, one schoolmate referred to Harriet as, "a fun-loving, trick-playing romp, and a willful domestic outlaw."

In her teenage years, Harriet attended the Georgetown Catholic School of the Visitation in Washington, D.C., where she thrived academically and graduated with honors at age 18 in 1848.

While in school, Harriet was also introduced to Washington society by her Uncle James, who was a U.S. Senator living in Washington at the time. Mr. Buchanan and Miss Lane (pictured on the far left) were frequent guests at President Polk's White House (Polk is pictured in center, holding his lapel).

When James Buchanan was appointed as ambassador to Britain, Harriet joined him in London in 1854. There, Harriet experienced society life at the Court of St. James and became a favorite of Queen Victoria.

A member of British society praised Harriet for being "very ladylike & not at all American," and Queen Victoria took such a liking to her that she granted Harriet the protocol status of spousal ministerial consort, usually reserved for spouses of ambassadors.

Directly after her time in Europe, Harriet again lost siblings: her sister Mary died in 1855, and her brother Elliot died in 1857.

However, Harriet persevered after a period of deep mourning and continued to serve as Mr. Buchanan's capable hostess and confidante. In between social visits to friends across the East Coast, Harriet spent time in 1855 and 1856 at the home she shared with her uncle in Lancaster, called Wheatland. She engaged in "retail therapy" and occupied herself with tastefully decorating the home.

When Buchanan won the presidential election in 1856, Harriet Lane was a natural fit to serve in the role of White House hostess. She was immediately embraced by the American people for her youthful effervescence and sophisticated charm.

Since she was the first woman to preside over the White House for a bachelor president, there was a need by the American press to identify her with a new designation. Thus, Harriet Lane became the first presidential family member that was called "first lady in the land" in public print.

While in the White House, Harriet became a fashion plate for American women. The mark of distinction to her formal gowns was an unusually low neckline, her bosom veiled by a strip of lace called a "bertha."

Harriet's fashion risks scandalized some, but she nonetheless started trends among an elite class of American women. Fashion historians have credited Harriet with popularizing the neckline.

As First Lady, Harriet took an interest in the welfare of Native Americans in the western United States, and sometimes advocated for their well-being.

Harriet was called "the great mother of the Indians" by Chippewa man Wingematub. She earned this title by removing an Indian Affairs Agent who was illegally selling liquor on reservation lands. Although most of Harriet's interaction with Native Americans was superficial, she did act to prevent the further importing of alcoholic beverages among their population, and to remove Christian missionaries from their lands.

Harriet assisted Buchanan in hosting several important foreign visitors. In the spring of 1860, she played host to a large delegation from the Japanese embassy.

The Japanese envoy stayed in Washington for 10 days in 1860, and Harriet made a splash with the banquet she threw for them which "featured chicken, halibut, ham, ice cream, lobster, pigeon, and turtle soup."

Tateishi "Tommy" Onojirô, who received some fame in America after his visit, was particularly taken with Harriet. He confided to a reporter, "I saw the president, splendid gentleman, and, I saw Miss Lane -- Ah!"

As Buchanan handed over the political side of the White House to Abraham Lincoln in 1861, Harriet handed over the social side to Mary Todd Lincoln.

Before leaving the White House, Harriet hosted an elegant dinner for the Lincolns and their friends. A few days after the dinner, Harriet and Uncle James returned to Lancaster.

Harriet spent much of the war years at Wheatland, temporarily lightening her busy schedule of social visiting. However, this quiet life did not last long.

In the summer of 1864, Harriet vacationed in Bedford Springs, where she ran into her longtime friend Henry Elliot Johnston, a wealthy banker from Baltimore. In January 1866, after the war, Harriet wed Henry at a ceremony at Wheatland. At age 35, Harriet Lane became Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston.

In this photograph, Harriet is pictured center, wearing a hat, and Henry is standing.

Harriet and Henry set up a stately home in Baltimore, Henry's hometown. Henry's notoriety as a businessman and Harriet's celebrity made them an "it couple" in the Baltimore scene.

In January 1867, the Evening Star announced that Harriet, "is now the mother of a bouncing baby boy, who rejoices in the name of James Buchanan Johnston."

In March 1870, two years after President Buchanan passed away, Harriet gave birth to her second son, Henry Elliot Johnston, Jr.

Sadly, both of Harriet's sons did not survive to adulthood. James Buchanan Johnston died in 1881, and Henry Elliot Johnston, Jr. died just 15 months later. Both boys were afflicted with rheumatic fever.

Harriet and Henry deeply grieved the loss of their two boys. Together, they founded the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children in Baltimore. This charity would serve as a pediatric hospital and a training center for nurses, in memory of the sons they lost to childhood illness.

Unfortunately, the melancholy did not ease for Harriet. Just two years after she lost her second son, her husband Henry died after contracting pneumonia.

By age 53, Harriet Lane Johnston was a childless widow.

Harriet spent her remaining years living in Washington, D.C. By this point, she had lost all 6 of her siblings, her parents, her beloved uncle, and her husband and children. Although never fully recovering from the many losses she had in life, Harriet busied herself with art, faith, and philanthropy.

Harriet amassed an impressive collection of art, which became the basis for the Smithsonian American Art Museum after her death. In her will, she also expanded her commitment to pediatric medicine, leaving over $400,000 (equivalent to the spending power of $11 million today) for the Harriet Lane Home.

Age the age of 66, Mrs. Johnston once again traveled to London to visit with Queen Victoria.

While in Europe, Harriet purchased fine dresses for herself at elegant Paris fashion houses such as the House of Worth.

Even in her later years, Harriet was a sophisticated and fashionable woman. She remained active in Washington society circles throughout the rest of her life.

Harriet Lane lived to see the dawn of the 20th century, and passed peacefully away while visiting friends in Narragansett, Rhode Island on July 3, 1903.

What legacy does Harriet Lane leave behind? She was a generous philanthropist and a beloved figure of the mid-19th-century. She was friends with Queen Victoria, and once took the King of England bowling. Yet, her name has been all-but-forgotten by most Americans.

Harriet remains a precedent-setting First Lady, and a top-tier White House hostess.

Remarking on her life in 1903, the Lancaster Examiner proclaimed, "If her uncle had done his part as well as she did hers, history of a different sort would be written."