Item: i95806
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Angelica Van Buren
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (32.70 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
ANGELICA VAN BUREN 1837 1841 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Angelica facing.
Angelica Van Buren 1820 – 1878 Martin Van Buren’s daugher-in-law; a popular White House hostess whose husband served as the President’s secretary., White House facade.

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Sarah Angelica Van Buren (née Singleton; February 13, 1818 – December 29, 1877), was the daughter-in-law of the eighth President of the United States Martin Van Buren. She was married to the President’s son, Abraham Van Buren II. She assumed the post of first lady because the president’s wife, Hannah Van Buren, had died and he never remarried. She is the youngest woman ever to act as the White House hostess.

In 1838, Angelica visited Washington, DC, with her sister. Former First Lady Dolley Madison, a cousin of Angelica’s mother Rebecca Travis Coles, decided to play matchmaker and introduced the Singleton girls to President Martin Van Buren’s bachelor sons. Eight months later, Angelica Singleton married Abraham Van Buren on November 27, 1838, on his 31st birthday in Wedgefield. The marriage strengthened President Van Buren’s ties to the Old South.

Following the wedding, Van Buren assumed the duties of hostess at the White House with great success.

In early 1839, the couple took an extended trip through England (where her aunt, Sally Coles Stevenson, and uncle, Andrew Stevenson, who was U.S. Minister the U.K., lived) and other European countries. The trip was a massive success and when Van Buren returned to Washington, she hoped to bring some European style to the White House. Angelica and other honored female guests began standing on a dais in the Blue Room to greet guests at the beginning of White House functions. Although the French Ambassador enjoyed the reception, Americans did not. The dais was soon removed.

In March 1840, Angelica gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Rebecca; the child died a few months later. After leaving the White House, the couple had four sons; the survivors were:

• Singleton Van Buren (1841–1885)
• Martin Van Buren II (1844–1885)
• Travis Coles Van Buren (1848–1889)

After Martin Van Buren was defeated for re-election in 1840, Angelica and her husband lived at the Van Buren home of Lindenwald, in Kinderhook, New York, wintering at her family home, Melrose House, in South Carolina. From 1848 until her death, she lived in New York City.

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.