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Bio
Michelle Obama
Michelle Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 17, 1964. Her father, Fraser, was a pump operator, and her mother, Marian, raised Michelle and her brother Craig at home.1 After graduating from public school, Michelle earned her B.A. in sociology from Princeton University in 1985 and then attended Harvard Law School, receiving her Juris Doctor three years later. Michelle then returned
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Bio
Barack Obama
When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he became the first African American to hold the office. Obama faced major challenges during his two-term tenure in office. His primary policy achievements included health care reform, economic stimulus, banking reform and consumer protections, and a repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy preventing lesbian and gay Americans from serving
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Bio
Caroline Harrison
Caroline Scott was born in Oxford, Ohio, on October 1, 1832 to educator Mary Neal Scott and John Witherspoon Scott, a Presbyterian minister and president of Oxford Female Institute. Caroline, or “Carrie,” studied languages, music, and drawing at the institute, graduating in 1852.1 She also met Benjamin Harrison, a student at nearby Miami University, while in school. They later married on October 20, 1853.2 In 1854, the
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Bio
Benjamin Harrison
Nominated for president on the eighth ballot at the 1888 Republican convention, Benjamin Harrison conducted one of the first "front-porch" campaigns, delivering short speeches to delegates that visited him in Indianapolis. As he was only 5 feet, 6 inches tall, Democrats called him "Little Ben"; Republicans replied he was big enough to wear the hat of his grandfather, "Old Tippecanoe."Born on August 20, 1833
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Bio
Ellen Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur’s beloved “Nell” died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880. That November, when he was elected vice president, he was still mourning her bitterly. His grief was the more poignant because she was only 42 and her death sudden. Just two days earlier she had attended a benefit concert in New York City—while he was busy with politics in Albany—a
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Bio
Chester A. Arthur
Dignified, tall, and handsome, with clean-shaven chin and side-whiskers, Chester A. Arthur looked like a president.The son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from northern Ireland, Arthur was born on October 5, 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont. He graduated from Union College in 1848, taught school, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in New York City. Early in the Civil
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Bio
Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Geneva Doud was born on November 14, 1896, in Boone, Iowa. She was the daughter of John Sheldon Doud and Elivera Mathilda Carlson Doud. The Doud family later moved to Colorado, eventually settling in Denver. Mamie attended local public schools and graduated from the Wolcott School, a private school for girls in 1915. That fall she met Second Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower,
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Bio
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bringing to the presidency his vast experience as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight Eisenhower oversaw the growth of postwar prosperity. In a rare boast he said, “The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration.... By God, it didn’t just happen—I’ll tell you that!” B
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Bio
Edith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Carow was born on August 6, 1861, in Manhattan, New York. She was the daughter of Charles Carow and Gertrude Tyler. The Carows were neighbors of the Roosevelt family, and Edith was childhood friends with Corinne Roosevelt, sister of Theodore Roosevelt. Edith received most of her early education from tutors, and later attended Miss Comstock’s private school. As teenagers, Th
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Bio
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Assuming the presidency during the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his first Inaugural Address that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."Born on January 30, 1882 at Hyde Park, New York, he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law
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Bio
Jane Pierce
Jane Appleton was born on March 12, 1806, to parents Elizabeth and Jesse Appleton. Following the death of her father, a Congregationalist minister and president of Bowdoin College, Jane attended boarding school in Keene, New Hampshire. She later met a Bowdoin graduate, a young lawyer with political ambitions, Franklin Pierce. Although he was immediately devoted to Jane, they did not marry until
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Bio
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce became president at a time of what seemed on the surface like domestic tranquility. The United States, by virtue of the Compromise of 1850, seemed to have weathered its sectional storm. By following the recommendations of southern advisers, Pierce—a New Englander— hoped to prevent another outbreak of that storm. But his policies, far from preserving calm, hastened the disr