Item: i95804
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Sarah Jackson
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (33.15 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
SARAH JACKSON 1836 1837 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Sarah facing 1/2 left.
Sarah Jackson 1805-1897 Wife of President’s adopted son; she became First Lady in last year of Jackson’s term due to illness of Emily Donelson., White House facade.

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Sarah Jackson (née Yorke; July 16, 1803 – August 23, 1887) was the daughter-in-law of U.S. President Andrew Jackson. She served as White House hostess and first lady of the United States from November 26, 1834, to March 4, 1837.

Sarah was born on July 16, 1803, into a wealthy family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father Peter Yorke, a sea captain and successful merchant, died in 1815. Her mother Mary Haines Yorke died during a trip to New Orleans in 1820, leaving Sarah and her two sisters orphaned. She was raised by two aunts, Mrs. George Farquhar and Mrs. Mordecai Wetherill.

Sarah married Andrew Jackson, Jr., the adopted son of Andrew Jackson, in Philadelphia on November 24, 1831. After an extended honeymoon at the White House, the new couple left for The Hermitage, Jackson’s plantation in Tennessee. The couple remained at the Hermitage managing the plantation until a fire destroyed much of the main house in 1834. The couple and their two young children went to Washington to live with President Jackson at the White House.

Sarah arrived at the White House on November 26, 1834. She immediately began to take on the role as co-hostess of the White House along with the President’s niece Emily Donelson, who had served as White House hostess and unofficial First Lady since the beginning of the president’s term in office. The president referred to Sarah as the “mistress of the Hermitage” rather than White House hostess, apparently to avoid any possible ill feeling between the two women. The arrangement was somewhat awkward but appeared to work relatively smoothly. It was the only time in history when there were two women simultaneously acting as White House hostess. She took over all duties as White House hostess after Emily Donelson fell ill with tuberculosis and died in 1836.

Sarah remained at the White House until Jackson’s term expired in 1837, but made several lengthy trips including one to the Hermitage to oversee its reconstruction. After the death of General Jackson in 1845, debt accumulated during his time in office spiraled out of control under the continued poor management of the Hermitage by Andrew Jackson Jr. This forced the sale of the Hermitage to the state of Tennessee in 1856. With moneys from the sale, Andrew Jr. eventually purchased several properties near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where they would eventually move in February 1859. It was a short-lived venture due to both Andrew Jr’s bad judgement and weather-related disasters. By fall 1860, they returned to the Hermitage, where they ended up as tenants of the state. It would be a very meager existence for the Jacksons for the next 30 years. Sarah lost her husband to a hunting accident in 1865 and her son Samuel in the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War. Sarah died at the Hermitage in 1887, two years before the Ladies Hermitage Association acquired the Hermitage back from the state of Tennessee and began restoring it.

She died on August 23, 1887 in Nashville, Tennessee.

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.