Item: i95815
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Sarah Polk
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (33.37 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
SARAH POLK 1845 1849 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Sarah facing 1/2 left.
Sarah Polk 1803 – 1891 One of the most intellectual women of her time; first of First Ladies to be appointed secretary to the President., White House facade atop.

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Sarah Polk (née Childress; September 4, 1803 – August 14, 1891) was the first lady of the United States from 1845 to 1849. She was the wife of the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk.

During his political career, Polk assisted her husband with his speeches, using her insight to guide his outlines and provide needed assurance. She accompanied her husband as often as she could whenever he made trips to Washington and made sure to take an active political role. She even copied down his correspondence and developed notable social skills. Mrs. Polk was not a woman who chose to proclaim her sentiment openly, striving to maintain a humble demeanor. It was her husband himself who declared that his most active supporter and critique was his wife. She also gave him advice on policy matters and played an active role in his campaigns. Mrs. Polk maintained correspondence with national leaders gaining access to global issues that were relevant to her husband’s campaign. She was one of the first president’s wives to take an active role in her husband’s electoral process and campaign itself. Not only did she keep up with this measure of communication, but she also wrote for a local newspaper expressing her support for Jame’s Polk’s administration and his proposed policy initiatives. One of the more controversial topics she was able to write about was on the idea of expansionism which delved into the concept of manifest destiny pertaining to the United State’s rights as a sovereign power. In Washington as a congressman’s wife during the administrations of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren, Polk very much enjoyed her social duties. Mrs. Polk was a religious woman who openly refused to dance, attend horse races, or theater. She took great pride in being a sociable woman but maintained a great sense of integrity. Though she did not drink herself, she made sure to serve a decadent palate of drinks and assorted foods during promotional dinners being the queen of hospitality. She was a woman who “enjoyed wide popularity as well as deep respect”. In 1830 she risked a breach with Jackson, her husband’s mentor, by taking part in the social ostracism of Peggy Eaton, during the Petticoat affair, although she continued to greet Eaton, unlike Vice President John C. Calhoun’s wife, Floride Calhoun, and most of the cabinet members’ wives.

In 1845, Sarah Polk became the 11th First Lady of the United States. She was lively, charming, intelligent, and a good conversationalist. President Polk at times discussed policy matters with her. While she enjoyed politics, she also cautioned her husband, whose health was never robust, against overwork. A devout Presbyterian, as First Lady she banned dancing, card games, and hard liquor at official receptions. Unlike Julia Tyler’s waltzes, the Polk entertainments were sedate and sober affairs which earned the First Lady the nickname “Sahara Sarah”. Although some accounts stated that the Polks never served wine, a Congressman’s wife “recorded in her diary details of a four-hour dinner for forty at the White House—glasses for six different wines, from pink champagne to ruby port and sauterne, ‘formed a rainbow around each plate.'”

After attending the inauguration of Zachary Taylor on March 5, 1849, Polk and her husband left by horse and carriage to their new home, Polk Place, in Nashville, Tennessee. Upon arriving in Tennessee, to Polk’s disappointment, Polk Place was not yet fully finished or completed. They then went from Nashville to Columbia to spend two weeks with her mother-in-law before going to spend a few days in Murfreesboro with her family before returning to Nashville. Three months later, James Polk died of cholera, having had the shortest retirement of any U.S. president. Polk remained in Polk Place throughout these later years of her widowhood rarely leaving, becoming a bit of a recluse. She did not start hosting guests until a few years after her husband’s death. She hosted distinguished and popular guests throughout her widowhood, such as Abram Hewitt, Edward Cooper, John C. Calhoun II, John Catron, George Bancroft, among numerous others, including Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Grover Cleveland.

Once widowed, Polk unofficially adopted a grandniece, Sarah Polk Jetton, nicknamed “Sallie” (1847–1924), and saw her as her own daughter. After Polk’s niece died, she was brought to live with Polk. They lived together in Nashville until Polk’s death in 1891.

Polk faced small financial difficulties throughout her widowhood. Her primary form of income was coming in through a plantation she inherited from her husband. She was forced to sell the plantation before the Civil War in 1861. Later she received money through her younger brother John Childress. Starting in 1884 the United States government granted Sarah a pension of $5,000 a year until her death.

During the American Civil War, Polk was officially neutral, but she indicated sentiments in favor of preserving the Union during periodic visits to her home by several Union Army commanders, including Don Carlos Buell, George Henry Thomas, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Tecumseh Sherman. However, as a traditional Southern woman she also gave mention to Confederate sympathies during visits from Confederate generals in Nashville where Sarah would spend over 42 years of her widowhood. Sarah Polk lived at Polk Place for 42 years, the longest widowhood of any US first lady, and always wore black as a true Victorian widow. She visited her brother at his Childress-Ray House in Murfreesboro, whose daughter was married to Tennessee Governor John C. Brown. She also frequently visited her close friend Adelicia Acklen at Belmont.

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.