arriet Lane was America's First Lady during the administration of lifelong bachelor President James Buchanan. Her mother died when she was nine, her father when she was 11, and the orphaned girl was remanded to the custody of her mother's brother, the future President Buchanan. He oversaw the remainder of her childhood, sending her to a prestigious private school in Washington while he was a Senator.

Always considered very attractive, Miss Lane had no shortage of suitors, but her loving uncle warned her against "rushing precipitately into matrimonial connexions". In her early twenties she joined Buchanan at his diplomatic post in London, where she acted as an ambassador's wife at official functions. When he was elected President in 1856, she lived in the White House, performing the social duties of a First Lady, and during the Buchanan administration she was thought to be his closest confidante. A brilliant student, she loved to discuss politics with her uncle. When Buchanan was elected in 1856, she became a great asset, both socially and politically. But Buchanan's reputation was tarnished during the years preceding the civil war.

She was the first First Lady to be regularly referred to as "First Lady", and perhaps the first First Lady to become a pop culture icon -- she wore scandalously low-cut gowns, her hair and clothing styles set trends, and thousands of parents named their daughters after her. She was the first First Lady to regularly invite artists, musicians, authors, and other non-political celebrities to White House functions, and she spoke often about the deplorable living conditions on Indian reservations, making her the first First Lady to take on a favored social cause. At an 1860 White House concert, the featured performance was the premiere of "Listen to the Mockingbird", a composition dedicated to the First Lady, which, according to news accounts of the time, was soon whistled, sang, and played throughout the city. Her popularity was also helped by her youth and cheerful, outgoing nature, in striking contrast to perpetually grieving previous First Lady, Jane Pierce.

When Buchanan left the White House, he and his niece retired to his estate near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When Buchanan died in 1868 she began to collect his papers for publication, in the hope of restoring his reputation. Though she had been pursued by banker Henry Johnston since her teens, she did not marry him until she was 35, a year and a half before her uncle's death. Both their children died in their teens of rheumatic fever, and in their memory Henry and Harriet Lane Johnston left a generous endowment to Johns Hopkins University, establishing the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. Now known as the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, this institution has long published The Harriet Lane Handbook, considered the definitive guidebook for physicians in pediatric residency.

Harriet Rebecca Lane
Born: 9-May-1830
Birthplace: Stony Batter, PA
Died: 3-Jul-1903
Location of death: Narragansett, RI
Cause of death: Cancer - unspecified
Remains: Buried, Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
High School: Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, Washington, DC (1848)
Occupation: First Lady, Relative