Cookies and the first Ladies

See the photos

Discover the recipes

Read The Stories!

My Experiences with
​the first lady cookie project...

  • I had an incredible amount of fun doing the research, finding photos, searching for recipes, and putting it all together for all of America's First Ladies and cookies!  
  • I realized cookies weren't so popular in the Colonial Days of America.  In searching, I discovered that most of the favorite recipes for the First Ladies were not cookies at all.
  • I'm stubborn.  My mind was set on cookie recipes.  In many cases, after hours of searching, I had to settle on a recipe that was similar to their favorite food.  
  • One such case was Julia and President Grant.  There was no mention  anywhere of cookies; the couple loved Boston Cream Pies.  Ha!  I researched recipes for Boston Cream Pie Cookies and combined the best of all worlds. ​
  • The amount of history I learned was astonishing.  Even if you don't make the cookies, reading the short biographies and quotes of the First Ladies will have you chuckling, smiling, and in a few cases, shedding a tear.  Their lives were not all about cookies and milk.  The hardships for these families was all too often real.
Pull up a chair, get some cookies and milk, and enjoy a bit of history...
The First Ladies and Their Gents
1700s
​Martha Washington - George
Abigail Adams - John
1800 - 1850
Martha Jefferson Randolph - Thomas
Dolley Madison - James 
Elizabeth & Eliza Monroe - James
Louisa Adams - John
Emily Donelson, Sarah & Rachel Jackson - Andrew
Angelica Van Buren - Martin
Anna & Jane Harrison - William
Letitia, Priscilla, and Julia Tyler - John
Sarah Polk - James
Peggy Taylor & Betty Taylor Dandridge - Zachary
1851 - 1900​​
Abigail Fillmore - Millard
Jane Pierce - Franklin
Harriet Lane Johnston (niece) - James Buchanan
Mary Todd Lincoln - Abraham
Eliza Johnson - Andrew
Julia Grant - Ulysses S.
Lucy Hayes - Rutherford B.
Lucretia Garfield - James
Mary Arthur McElroy (sister)- Chester A. Arthur
Rose & Frances Cleveland - Grover
Caroline Harrison & Mary H. McKee (daughter)- Benjamin​
Frances Cleveland - Grover   (2nd Term)
 Ida McKinley - William
1900s
Edith Roosevelt - Theodore
Helen Nellie Taft - William Howard
Ellen, Margaret, & Edith Wilson - Woodrow
Florence Harding - Warren G.
Grace Coolidge - Calvin
Lou Hoover - Herbert
Eleanor Roosevelt - Franklin
Elizabeth (Bess) Truman - Harry S.
Mamie Eisenhower - Dwight D. (Ike)
Jackie Kennedy - John F.
Lady Bird Johnson - Lyndon B.
Pat Nixon - Richard
Betty Ford - Gerald
Rosalynn Carter - Jimmy
Nancy Reagan - Ronald
Barbara Bush - George H. W. 
Hillary Clinton - William (Bill)
2000s
Laura Bush - George W.
Michelle Obama - Barack
Melania Trump - Donald
Jill Biden - Joseph (Joe)
Melania Trump - Donald (2nd Term)
Portrait Credits*
Yale Miniature Locket Portrait - Dolley Madison - Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Michelle and Barack Obama - Courtesy Barack Obama Presidential Library, Public Domain
1700s Martha Washington - National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1800-1850 Sarah Polk - George Dury, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1850-1900 Frances Cleveland - Anders Zorn, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Frances Payne, Public domain
1900s Jackie Kennedy - Shaw, Mark, photographer. First official White House photograph of Mrs. John F. Kennedy 1961, Public Domain
2000s Michelle Obama - Joyce Boghosian, Public domain, via Wikimedia