Item: i95825
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Caroline Harrison
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (32.90 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
CAROLINE HARRISON 1889 1892 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Caroline facing 1/2 left.
Caroline Harrison 1832-1892 Involved in many worthy activities; helped to found Daughters of American Revolution and was its first Regent., White House facade atop.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Caroline Lavinia Harrison (née Scott; October 1, 1832 – October 25, 1892), was a teacher of music, the wife of President Benjamin Harrison and mother of two surviving children; she was the first lady of the United States from 1889 until her death. She was the second first lady to die while serving in that role.

She secured funding for an extensive renovation of the White House and oversaw the work. Interested in history and preservation, in 1890 she helped found the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and served as its first President General.

Benjamin and Caroline were married on October 20, 1853, at her house, with her father officiating. She was 21 years old. The groom was 20. The newlyweds honeymooned at North Bend, Ohio. They lived at the Harrison family home for some time while they saved money. They settled in Indianapolis, Indiana, after Benjamin completed his law studies a year later and set up his first practice.

The first few years of marriage were a struggle. The couple rarely spent time together, as Benjamin worked to establish his law practice and was active in fraternal organizations to build up his business network. When Caroline became pregnant, she returned to Oxford to stay with her parents. Many young women went home for childbirth, to have their mother’s experience. In 1854, her first child Russell was born.

She soon returned with him to Indianapolis. Not long after, a fire destroyed the Harrison house and all their belongings. The family managed to recover financially after Benjamin took a job handling cases for a local law firm whose founder had decided to run for office.

In 1858, Caroline gave birth to a daughter, Mary Scott.

In addition to her two children, she had a daughter who was born in 1861.

At the onset of the Civil War, both Caroline and Benjamin sought to help in the war effort. Caroline joined local groups such as the Ladies Patriotic Association and the Ladies Sanitary Committee, which helped care for wounded soldiers directly and raised money for their care and supplies. At the same time, she joined the church choir and raised their two children.

In 1862, Benjamin recruited a regiment of over 1,000 men from Indiana. Initially offered the command, he declined because of lack of experience and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. During the day, he trained his men, and at night he studied military strategy. After two years, he was commissioned as a colonel and led the men in numerous engagements in the east. In 1865, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

After the war, he spent the next decade practicing law and getting involved in politics.

Benjamin ran for governor of Indiana in 1876 and lost. Five years later, in 1881, the Republican-dominated legislature elected him to the United States Senate (few states had popular elections for this office). He and the family moved to Washington, D.C. Caroline had suffered from poor health since her bout with pneumonia years earlier and did not participate much in social events in the capital. She supported charities and headed the Garfield Hospital Aid Society.

In 1888, the Republican Party nominated Harrison as its presidential candidate. That fall he defeated the incumbent Grover Cleveland.

During the Harrison administration, their daughter Mary Harrison McKee, her two children; Caroline’s father, and other relatives lived at the White House. The First Lady tried to have the overcrowded mansion enlarged, but was unsuccessful. She did secure $35,000 in appropriations from Congress to renovate the White House; and she oversaw an extensive project making up-to-date improvements.

She had the mansion purged of the problem of rodent and insect populations, laid new floors, installed new plumbing, painted and wallpapered, and added more bathrooms. In 1891 she had electricity installed but was too frightened to handle the switches. She left the lights on all night and a building engineer turned them off each morning.

In 1889 Caroline Harrison raised the first Christmas tree in the White House, as the custom was becoming more popular. She introduced the use of orchids as the official floral decoration at state receptions. A talented artist, she conducted china-painting classes in the White House for other women; it was a popular craft of the time.

With other ladies of progressive views, she helped raise funds for the Johns Hopkins University Medical School on the condition that it admit women.^[1]

The centennial of President Washington’s inauguration in 1889 heightened the nation’s interest in its heroic past, and in 1890 she lent her prestige as First Lady to the founding the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) and served as its first President General. She took a special interest in the history of the White House.

She had a dog named Dash, who was a mixed breed collie. It was reported that he was always wanting to play with his owner, but Harrison couldn’t because he feared his colleagues would think of him as less of a man.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.