Item: i95837
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Edith Roosevelt
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 38.1mm (32.97 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
EDITH ROOSEVELT 1901 1909 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Edith facing 1/3 right.
Edith Roosevelt 1861 – 1948 Organized position of First Lady in business-like manner; installed first social secretary and kept regular office hours., White House facade atop.

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

Edith Kermit Roosevelt (née Carow; August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the first lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She also was the second lady of the United States in 1901. Roosevelt was the first first lady to employ a full-time, salaried social secretary. Her tenure resulted in the creation of an official staff, and her formal dinners and ceremonial processions served to elevate the position of first lady.

Edith Roosevelt enjoyed being First Lady of New York. She modernized the governor’s mansion, joined a local woman’s club, and continued to assist with her husband’s correspondence. While First Lady of the state, Edith began a custom that would continue in the White House — she held a bouquet of flowers in each hand. Edith found shaking a stranger’s hand overly familiar and preferred to bow her head in greeting.

Edith moved back to Washington when Roosevelt won the vice presidency in 1900.

After President William McKinley’s assassination, Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency, and his wife became first lady.

With the country in mourning, the new first lady could not do any entertaining. Instead, she focused on how to fit her large family into the White House. Edith eliminated the office of housekeeper, performing the supervisory work herself.

Edith Roosevelt made a major institutional change when she hired Isabelle “Belle” Hagner as the first social secretary to serve a first lady. Hagner’s initial assignment was to plan Alice Roosevelt’s debut in 1902. Edith soon began to rely on Hagner and authorized her to release photos of the first family in hopes of avoiding unauthorized candids.

Edith built on the first lady’s long history of entertaining visitors and made the titular office into the nation’s hostess. She expanded the number of social events held at the White House, ensured her parties were not outshone by the parties of Cabinet wives, and worked to make Washington the nation’s cultural center. The two most significant social events during Edith’s tenure as first lady were the wedding of her stepdaughter and the society debut of her daughter, Ethel.

Edith also organized the wives of the cabinet officers and tried to govern the moral conduct of Washington society through their guest lists.

Edith is believed to have exerted subtle influence over her husband. They met privately every day from 8 to 9 am. The President’s assistant, William Loeb, often helped sway the chief executive to Edith Roosevelt’s way of thinking. She read several newspapers a day and forwarded clippings she considered important to her husband. In a 1933 article in the Boston Transcript, Isabelle Hagner reported that the legislation which created the National Portrait Gallery was passed because of Edith’s influence. Historians believe her most important historical contribution was acting as an informal liaison between Theodore Roosevelt and British diplomat Cecil Spring Rice, a link which gave the President unofficial information about the Russo-Japanese War. As a result of negotiating the treaty which ended that conflict, President Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

The President and wife became the first president and first lady to travel abroad while in office when they made a trip to Panama.

A perceptive aide described Edith Roosevelt as “always the gentle, high-bred hostess; smiling often at what went on about her, yet never critical of the ignorant and tolerant always of the little insincerities of political life.”

In 1905, Edith purchased Pine Knot, a cabin in rural Virginia, as a refuge for her husband. At Pine Knot, the Secret Service guarded him without his knowledge.

In 1902, Edith hired McKim, Mead & White to separate the living quarters from the offices, to enlarge and modernize the public rooms, to re-do the landscaping, and to redecorate the interior. Congress approved over half a million dollars for the renovation. The new West Wing housed offices while the East Wing housed the president’s family and guests. The plumbing, lighting, and heating were upgraded. Edith placed her office next door to that of her husband so they could confer frequently.

Edith took a historical view of the White House and saw that the Green Room, Blue Room, and East Room were redecorated with period antiques. McKim would have removed most of the existing furniture had Edith not intervened. It is because of Edith’s intervention that the Victorian furniture currently seen in the Lincoln Bedroom was retained.

A larger dining room translated into a need for more china, so Edith ordered a Wedgwood service with the Great Seal of the United States for 120 people. Interest in her own china fostered a curiosity about the services of previous first ladies. Edith completed the catalog of White House china begun by Caroline Scott Harrison. She added to the collection by purchasing missing items from antique shops and by the time she left the White House, there were pieces from twenty-five administrations. She created a display of the china on the ground floor of the White House. The White House china collection which was first exhibited by Edith Roosevelt is still on view today.

Across from the White House china, Edith displayed portraits of former first ladies. The formerly scattered portraits were a hit with the public. Now guests to the White House could view the historical china and portraits as they waited to enter receptions.

Edith called on former White House gardener Henry Pfister to help her design a colonial garden on the west side of the White House. A similar garden was eventually placed on the east side of the White House.

The White House renovations were revealed to the public during the 1903 New Year’s Day reception.

It was during Edith’s tenure as first lady that the White House became known as the White House. Previously, it had been known as the Executive Mansion.

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.