Item: i95826
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Lucy Hayes
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (32.58 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
LUCY HAYES 1877 1881 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Lucy facing 1/4 left.
Lucy Hayes 1831 -1889 First college graduate to preside as First Lady; knwn for her high moral standards and her humanitarianism., White House facade atop.

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

Lucy Ware Hayes (née Webb; August 28, 1831 – June 25, 1889) was the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes and served as first lady of the United States from 1877 to 1881.

Hayes was the first First Lady to have a college degree. She was also a more egalitarian hostess than previous First Ladies. An advocate for African Americans both before and after the American Civil War, Lucy invited the first African-American professional musician to appear at the White House. She was a Past Grand of Lincoln Rebekah Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, together with her husband.

Historians have christened her “Lemonade Lucy” due to her staunch support of the temperance movement; however, contrary to popular belief, she was never referred to by that nickname while living. It was her husband who banned alcohol from the White House.

The presidential election of 1876 was one of the most controversial in the country’s history. Hayes was not declared the winner until March 1, 1877, five months after Election Day. The declaration was so delayed that the Hayes family boarded a train to Washington without being sure if Rutherford was the president elect. The next morning, March 2, they were awakened near Harrisburg to receive the news that Congress had finally declared Hayes President of the United States.

In the early days of Rutherford’s administration, the North’s military occupation of the South and the Reconstruction era came to an end.

Restoration funds for the White House were unavailable when they first moved in, so Lucy retrieved old furniture from the attic and rearranged things to hide the holes in the carpets and drapes. According to executive assistant William Cook, “any really good things owed their preservation to this energetic lady.”

By the time of Rutherford’s inauguration, the position of First Lady was an increasingly prominent one. There were growing numbers of female journalists in the late nineteenth century. ^] Female reporters devoted much of their time and energy to covering the most visible woman in America: the First Lady. The attention began after Rutherford’s inauguration, with the New York Herald writing “Mrs. Hayes is a most attractive and lovable woman. She is the life and soul of every party … For the mother of so many children she looks … youthful.”

Lucy Hayes was the first wife of a President to be widely referred to as the First Lady by the press, when Mary Clement Ammes referred to the “First Lady” in a newspaper column about the inauguration. Advances in printing technology meant that a wide audience saw sketches of the new First Lady from the 1877 inauguration.

At this time it was not the custom for a president’s wife to have a staff of social assistants and, unlike some previous First Ladies, Lucy had no adult daughters to help shoulder the workload. Lucy depended on nieces, cousins, and daughters of friends to help with social events, and these young ladies also helped enliven the Hayes White House.

Lucy was fond of animals. A cat, a bird, two dogs, and a goat joined the Hayes family in residence at the White House.

In 1879, the Washington Post described Lucy’s dress at the White House New Year’s Reception, “The dress of Mrs. Hayes was at once simple and elegant … With accustomed good taste she wore no jewelry, and the white plume in her black hair fell gracefully in drooping folds.”

At the first official state dinner on April 19, 1877 to honor Russian Grand Duke Alexis and Grand Duke Constantine, a “full quota” of wine was served. But soon after this, President Hayes made it known that there would be no more alcoholic beverages served at future White House functions. The six wine glasses laid out at each place setting had angered temperance advocates and Rutherford believed the Republican party needed the temperance vote. The decision was Rutherford’s, although Lucy may have influenced him. Although the Hayes family were generally teetotal, they had previously served alcoholic beverages to guests at their home in Ohio. But because Lucy was a known teetotaler (Hayes sometimes had a “schoppen” of beer when he visited Cincinnati) she was blamed for the dry White House.

In general, Lucy had a more casual style that was reflected in the receptions she held during Washington’s winter social season. During the holidays, she invited staff members and their families to Thanksgiving dinner and opened presents with them on Christmas morning. The White House telegraph operator and secretaries were included in the Thanksgiving group. The group was so large it took three turkeys and a roast pig to feed them all. Lucy was generally kind towards the White House staff, she also allowed White House servants to take time off to attend school.

On December 31, 1877, Rutherford and Lucy celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in the White House.

The most significant change made to the White House during Hayes’ term were the installation of bathrooms with running water and the addition of a crude wall telephone. Lucy was the first First Lady to use a typewriter, a telephone, and a phonograph while in office, and was also the first to enjoy a permanent system of running water in the White House.

Lucy preferred to enlarge the greenhouse conservatories rather than to undertake extensive redecoration of the White House. The billiard-room, which connected the house with the conservatories, was converted into an attractive greenhouse and the billiard table consigned to the basement. Shuttered windows in the State Dining Room could be opened for dinner guests to look into the conservatories. Some Americans considered the billiard table as either a gambling device or a rich man’s toy, and the Hayes were glad to get it out of sight.

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.