Grace Coolidge

Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge was as friendly and outgoing as her husband Calvin Coolidge was stoic and reclusive, and her accessibility was central to his popular appeal. Before marriage, she taught lipreading to students at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts; she remained deeply involved with that institution until the end of her life. After Warren Harding suffered a heart attack in 1923 and her husband, the vice president, was sworn into office, Coolidge rapidly adjusted to the duties of being the first lady. Always a bit of a maverick, when she was presented with a raccoon as a gift for Thanksgiving dinner, she named it “Rebecca” and made it into a favorite pet, along with two dogs and five canaries.

Cutting an elegant figure, Grace Coolidge was a sought-after portrait subject. This painting by Howard Chandler Christy, a renowned portraitist and illustrator, shows Coolidge shortly after she became first lady.