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Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy.
I'm your host, Thomas.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Tonight's story was written by Alicia Stephan. and will be read by Heather.
While visiting the United States capital of Washington DC, most visitors are likely to plan a trip to some part of the Smithsonian Institution, which is a network of 21 museums spanning subjects ranging from aerospace to African American history and culture.
Admission to all of these museums is free, making them a place where people of all nationalities and walks of life can gather to learn, to appreciate and to explore.
In 2023, more than 2 million visitors walked the halls of the Smithsonian's popular Museum of American History.
Many of them will have pored over the famous collection of gowns worn by historical first ladies.
Tonight we'll see part of that collection through the eyes of a high school history teacher named Natalie.
She'll enjoy some quiet time appreciating not just the dresses but the achievements of the women who wore them.
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Thanks so much everyone.
So, let's just take a moment to relax and unwind.
Give yourself some time to acknowledge any thoughts that might be lingering in your mind.
Whatever those thoughts may be, they can wait until tomorrow.
Now is the time. to let them go.
If you do find yourself having difficulty quietening your mind, try visualizing your thoughts as very small, light and fluffy feathers.
These feathers can gently rest on your palm, each one representing a different thought.
There may be just one or two, or perhaps several little feathers.
Just watch them on your palm for a moment.
Feel how soft and light they are.
Perhaps they feel gentle and calming just resting here on your palm.
As you sense yourself separating your thoughts from your consciousness.
And simply becoming the observer.
Then, when you're ready, stretch your hand out wide.
And let those lightweight feathers float off in the soft breeze.
So weightless that they're picked up on a gentle wind, floating higher and higher into the air and gradually fading out of sight.
Now that you've let your thoughts gently drift away, notice how your mind feels that little bit calmer and quieter.
With that, you've made space for your imagination to take you on the journey of tonight's story.
So, let's head to the US capital of Washington DC and meet Natalie.
This where our story begins.
The rain was falling heavily as Natalie made her way down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C.
To her right, the traffic of the city crept by.
Headlights shone through the gloom and windshield wipers ticked back and forth, back and forth on every single cab or bus that passed.
Pedestrians hurried across the road where the walk signs were green, eager to get out from their multicolored umbrellas and into one of the warm buildings nearby.
The scene to her left was quite different.
Stately buildings alternated with well-tended gardens and lawns.
These were some of the various museums of the Smithsonian.
On the other side of those buildings She knew was the enormous green space called the National Mall, but she was not staying outside today.
Instead, she was very much looking forward to reaching the doors of the Museum of American History.
Thankfully, this was not the high-traffic season for tourists.
Natalie knew well how congested the Smithsonian could be in the summer, when the sun beat down on lines of visitors waiting outside.
Living nearby, she had the privilege of timing her visit on a day when there would be few other guests there.
The schools in her district were having a holiday and, as a teacher, she was going to take advantage of her freedom to revisit one of her very favorite exhibits.
Natalie smiled to herself when she saw that there was nobody waiting outside the door.
Pushing her way in, she collapsed her umbrella and shook it lightly.
There was no wait to make her way into the hushed embrace of the lobby.
The security guards led her through quickly with a friendly greeting.
She stopped in the middle of the open space, looking around to get her bearings.
To the right was a café.
And to the left was the area currently housing displays about food and transportation.
These were tempting to revisit, but she had another goal in mind.
She would need to make her way up the staircase to the section of the museum that contained the carefully preserved collection of dresses belonging to historical First Ladies.
Natalie spotted the open entryway to the display she'd been seeking and slowly filed in behind a couple of other visitors.
Once inside, she was enveloped by a soothing darkness that was illuminated by expertly lit display cases and wall hangings with dedicated lighting.
She knew that one of the reasons for this carefully curated environment was preservation.
Exposing fabrics to light and consistent temperatures and other environmental factors made them deteriorate.
This was, in fact, why not all of the oldest dresses in the collection were currently on display.
She was curious to see which ones were available for viewing that day.
Feeling free to look at the display in any order she liked, she opted to steer clear of the most recent dresses.
The inauguration gowns of the First Ladies from the past few decades were all there, attracting much of the attention of the other people in the room.
She had seen these dresses before, but she yearned to spend some time farther back in history.
Observing the mannequins, she stopped in front of a gown once owned by Dolly Madison.
Dolly, for Natalie liked to secretly pretend she was on a first-name basis with these women, was back in the news of late.
It seemed that a daguerreotype of the former First Lady at age 78 had recently been acquired by the Smithsonian
It was thought to be the oldest existing photographic portrait of any First Lady.
Standing in front of her however, was the dress of a significantly younger version of Dolly Madison.
By all reports, Dolly had been a famously elegant social butterfly, and the dress and the display case supported that reputation.
Natalie soaked in, Its meticulously embroidered dragonflies, flowers, and phoenixes had admired its lush train, which fell from the shoulders.
The description stated that this beautiful robe was typical of the style in the late 1810s.
Natalie's mind sorted the rich depository of knowledge she had from teaching about the American presidency.
Dolly Madison was born Dolly Payne in 1768.
She would have been about 50 years old when she'd worn this lovely dress.
Tilting her head to the side, Natalie looked at its delicate decorations and mused that it would not have suited the Quaker lifestyle she'd been born into.
In fact, James Madison had not been her first husband.
Initially, she'd married a fellow Quaker named John Todd.
They had wedded in 1790 and had two sons, but tragically her first husband and youngest son had passed away early in the marriage, leaving her to manage alone with her eldest boy, also John Todd.
Back then, young widows generally sought to remarry.
Located, as she was, in busy Philadelphia, she was soon introduced to a representative from Virginia named James Madison.
Although he was 17 years her senior, they soon decided to marry, tying the knot later in the year 1794.
When she was in her late 20s.
Just three years after her second marriage, Dolly found herself moving to a plantation estate called Montpelier in Virginia with her son and her new husband.
Though she'd been raised a Quaker, many of whom were staunch abolitionists, she ended up taking charge of all the duties and day-to-day business Montpelier.
When Thomas Jefferson was elected to the presidency in 1800, James Madison was appointed to be the Secretary of State.
The Madison family moved to Washington, D.C.
Once there, Dolly became well known for her talent for hospitality.
Because Jefferson's wife passed away, Dolly sometimes hosted events for the president when his daughters were unavailable to fulfill hostess duties.
In 1809, James Madison became president, and Dolly moved with him to the White House.
Once there, she worked closely with an architect named Benjamin Latrobe to infuse the president's home with a style that would project sophistication.
She looked to classical Greek influences, incorporating American-made furnishings and art.
Dolly wisely believed that it was important to gain the esteem of political visitors who were used to established European culture in cities like London and Paris.
Dolly worked tirelessly, presiding over dinners and social events.
Not only did she organize the first inaugural ball, but she began having events on Wednesday evenings, called drawing rooms, which she used to engender respectful conversation among the sometimes polarized figures of Washington.
These gatherings were enormously popular, and her success allowed her to quietly wield her political influence at a time when women were confined by many societal limits on their activities.
Her work also benefited the public.
She was the first president's wife to associate herself with a public charity, sponsoring a home for orphaned girls in Washington DC.
But Dolly's legacy was not defined merely by her social finesse or her clever forms of persuasion.
One of her greatest moments came during the War of 1812.
In 1814, when British soldiers were about to burn down the White House, Dolly insisted on staying behind after her husband and his cabinet fled to safety.
Her mission was to save some of the precious items of the White House.
Most famously, this included the portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stewart, but she also saved household silver and important documents.
Dolly succeeded. earning a place in American history for her bravery and forethought.
The White House was rebuilt and the Madison presidency ended.
James and Dolly returned to Montpelier in 1817.
But Dolly's retirement was far from idle.
During that time, she was given an honorary seat in Congress and was even chosen by Samuel Morse to be the first private citizen to send a message via the New Telegraph.
Twenty years after retiring, James passed away.
At that time, Dolly was forced to sell most of her possessions and leave Montpelier.
This was due to a combination of factors that included losses in the financial panic of 1837 and debts incurred by her son.
After downsizing in this manner, Dolly lived out her days with her sister in Washington, reaching the ripe age of 81.
Natalie looked for one more moment on the graceful train of the silk dress behind the glass and pondered the legacy of the woman who had worn it.
Dolly had become first lady, with few examples to go on, but she had set the stage for so many successors, showing that the wife of the president could indeed make a big difference.
Natalie drifted a bit further and stopped in front of an entirely different kind of gown.
Dating to the 1910s.
Almost exactly a hundred years later, it was made of black silk charmeuse satin.
She considered its rich elegance.
The dress was black, a color famously preferred by its owner, First Lady Edith Wilson.
However, in keeping with her well-known embrace of the Parisian designer House of Worth, it was also trimmed out in stunning beads that draped in small loops around the white net overlay in the center of the skirt.
Peering at the date, Natalie was surprised to see that it was worn to a White House dinner party in 1915.
That had been a big year for the woman known at the time as Edith Gate.
She had met President Woodrow Wilson by chance after going on a muddy spring hike with his cousin Helen.
Some say it was love at first sight.
Despite the recent passing of his first wife, he had begun courting her.
They'd married over the strong objections of his advisors later that year in December.
Despite their dire predictions, His potentially unseemingly marriage to Edith such a short time after losing his first wife did not prevent him from winning re-election in 1916.
Edith Gate herself had already demonstrated a plucky willingness to to determine her own path in life.
Born in 1872 to an impoverished family with 11 children in the mountains of Virginia, she had made it to college.
Reportedly, however, she had left because her dorm room was cold.
After that, she went to Washington to live with her sister, soon marrying a wealthy jeweler.
Her first husband was much older than she, and Edith eventually found herself a wealthy widow.
Snobbery prompted the Washington elite to exclude her due to her nouveau riche status, but she paid them no mind and took to traveling in Europe.
Once there, she gained a fondness for Parisian fashion.
While back in Washington, She further displeased the establishment by being the first woman in town to drive her own car.
Perhaps it was her own experience of a lukewarm reception from the Washington elite, but Edith was not terribly interested in playing White House hostess once she was married to the President.
Instead of maintaining a major public presence, she preferred to take on an active behind-the-scenes role as First Lady.
Reportedly, she was always at the President's side, apprised of all his major affairs.
During World War I, Edith turned her energy to an embrace of the war effort.
She used the conflict as an excuse to eliminate the last of her public entertaining duties and endeavored to become a paragon of economy and patriotism.
Cleverly.
She was able to eliminate the White House groundskeeping burden by borrowing 20 sheep from a nearby farm to keep the lawn trimmed.
Then she auctioned off their wool, garnering 50000.
That was donated to causes related to the war effort.
In addition to the domestic tasks of knitting and sewing, she turned her efforts to promoting causes such as war bonds and responded to soldiers by mail.
Reportedly, she even decoded secret messages for the administration.
Edith was not a young woman when she married Woodrow Wilson, and he was additionally 15 years her senior.
In 1919, he suffered a major stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
This was not long prior to the adoption of the 25th Amendment, which provided a transfer of power to the vice president in case the president was unable to perform his duties.
Edith made the controversial decision to conceal the severity of his condition from the world.
For the next several months, she allowed almost nobody to see him.
Only family and doctors were admitted to his presence.
Even his own cabinet did not gain access to him until April of 1920, six months later.
During his convalescence, Edith took on a role she later characterized as a stewardship role.
Her husband was shielded from outside visitors.
She screened what papers he would see and controlled his schedule.
In her 1939 memoir, Edith insisted she never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs.
She insisted that her first priority had been to protect her husband, not preserve his political position.
Nonetheless, there are many who call her the first woman president, and there is no way for historians to truly understand where the line was drawn between Edith and her husband during those last years of his presidency.
Whatever role she did play, his legacy was intact.
Woodrow Wilson is now considered by many to be one of the greatest American presidents.
When Wilson left office in 1921, the couple retired to a townhouse in Washington, DC.
Woodrow passed away three years later, but Edith lived another 37 years.
Natalie gave Edith's sophisticated dress one final look and thought to herself that she was quite sure those 37 years had been on Edith's own terms.
Strolling around a bit more.
Natalie stopped in front of the dress that Eleanor Roosevelt had worn to the 1933 inaugural ball.
The gown was not a showy one.
In keeping with the era and the personality of its owner.
It was an understated blue silk crepe embroidered with a gold pattern of leaves and flowers.
It was sleeveless, but she read on the plaque that the dress had also had detachable sleeves.
Natalie smiled at this, thinking how that utility suited Roosevelt's personality.
However, in a nod to the glamour of an inaugural ball, there was a little sparkle.
The belt buckle and shoulder clips featured rhinestones and moonstone.
One didn't have to be a history teacher to be aware that Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most greatly respected American first ladies.
In contrast to Dolly Madison and Edith Wilson, she had married her husband young.
They had met when she was just 20. and he a Harvard student of 22.
Eleanor was from a wealthy family.
In fact, she was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and thusly Franklin's fifth cousin.
She had been taught privately until age 15 and then continued her education at the Allenswood Academy for Girls in England, where she was steeped in a culture of social responsibility and independence.
As was tradition in the well-to-do New York families, She returned to have her social debut at age 18.
However, she was more than just an idle debutante.
Once she was back in New York, she applied herself to social reform work, serving as a volunteer teacher for immigrants at the Rivington Street Settlement House.
She also worked for the National Consumers League with the goal of ending unsafe working conditions.
Therefore, by the age of 20, she was more experienced with social justice causes than many women were their entire lives.
Eleanor and Franklin were together as he traveled the long road to the White House.
First, he was elected to the New York Senate, then appointed to be Secretary of the Navy.
And in 1920 he made an unsuccessful run for vice president on the ticket of Ohio Governor James Cox.
In 1921, Franklin was paralyzed from the waist down by a bout with polio.
But Eleanor encouraged him not to abandon his political dreams.
With her support, he was elected to be governor of New York in 1928, and just six years later he ascended to the presidency.
Becoming a First Lady was not something Eleanor was looking forward to.
She had so many passions of her own related to social justice work, charity work and political activism in the Democratic Party.
However she overcame those concerns... and directed her energy to shaping her new position.
In doing so, she transformed the role of First Lady from that of a social hostess to one where she could meaningfully participate in the administration.
She was quoted by a reporter saying, I never wanted to be a president's wife.
Now I shall have to work out my own salvation.
Eleanor had progress on her side.
Unlike Dolly Madison, who could only influence via her traditional role in society, Eleanor could get out in public and set an example for activism.
She began her time as First Lady in 1933, when the United States was in the grip of the Great Depression.
Just four months after arriving at the White House, she boldly took a road trip to New England and Quebec with her friend Lorena Hickok.
Modern listeners will probably find this surprising, but she traveled with no Secret Service protection.
In the 1980 biography Reluctant First Lady, She is quoted as having joked about the unlikely chances of someone kidnapping a tall lady of 5'11, like herself saying.
Eleanor and Lorena hit the road like ordinary people, observing rural New England along the way.
Upon their return, she related all her stories to her husband.
His interest in her observations inspired more extensive trips around the country to report back to him on the state of the country.
During the Depression, she was his eyes and ears where he could not travel.
In addition to raising her five surviving children, Eleanor's impact on her husband's presidency provides a laundry list of important contributions.
She encouraged him to appoint more women to federal positions and supported female reporters who were struggling to gain access to press conferences.
She advocated for European war refugees and boosted morale for the war effort in the 1940s.
Eleanor resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when they refused to let African-American singer Marian Anderson sing at Constitution Hall pressing for racial equality.
In 1945, Franklin passed away while in office.
But Eleanor's work was long from over.
President Truman subsequently appointed her to the first US delegation to the United Nations, and she went on to chair the Human Rights Committee.
Presidents came and went, but Eleanor continued.
John F Kennedy asked her to head up the first Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and she further served on the board of the NAACP and the Advisory Council for the Peace Corps.
During her lifetime, she also somehow found the time to write 27 books and 8,000 newspaper columns.
When Eleanor passed away in 1962, her funeral was attended by three living presidents.
What a life. thought Natalie, taking one last look at Eleanor's dress.
Savoring each of the dresses on display, she continued to wander, soaking them in without any particular care for historical order.
The sober purple velvet of Mary Todd Lincoln, the cheerful red of Mamie Eisenhower, the luxurious train and the delicate lace of Lucy Hayes.
Each of these merited a good long look.
But she paused to spend a little extra time when she reached the inaugural gown that belonged to Lady Bird Johnson.
The plaque stated that Lady Bird had chosen this simple gold-colored coat dress with the knowledge that it would end up in the display at the Smithsonian.
Reportedly, she wanted it to stand the test of time fashion-wise.
Natalie recalled that a curator had related in an interview that the sable on the sleeve was only added at the urging of her husband Lyndon, who said Bird, you need to dress it up some.
This impressive forethought for posterity was so in character, with a woman Natalie felt was far ahead of her time.
Ladybird's platform as First Lady had been beautification, but the real story behind her work was far more meaningful than that.
Yes, she had sought to beautify Rhodes and was famous for the thousands of tulips and daffodils she had planted in the capital.
But her work had gone far beyond flowers.
Not only had she been a force for conservation, but her efforts had sought to support environmental justice.
Ladybird's birth name was Claudia Alta Taylor, but she got her nickname from a nurse at an early age and it stuck.
Born in Texas in 1912, she lost her mother at an early age and grew up with her father and her two older brothers.
She attended college and by 1934, she had a BA in history and another in journalism.
That happened to be the year she met Lyndon Johnson, while he was visiting Austin as the Congressional Secretary.
After a whirlwind seven-week courtship, they became engaged and then married.
Her road to the White House involved serious accomplishments.
Before becoming First Lady, she bought and revitalized a radio station in Austin.
Thanks to her hands-on hard work, it expanded to additional stations in Waco and Corpus Christi, eventually adding a cable system.
These were family holdings that were expanding over decades, which showed her intelligence and business savvy.
Lyndon became vice president under John F. Kennedy in 1961.
When he unexpectedly ascended to the presidency in 1963, it was said that Lady Bird's gracious personality helped heal the country in the wake of the tragic death of JFK.
One of Lady Bird's first and most well-known achievements in the White House was actively supporting the Highway Beautification Act of 1965.
This important piece of legislation spurred the cleanup of many roadside eyesores, such as junk yards and excessive advertising, and provided for scenic development on highways.
But her quest was not just cosmetic.
She also advocated broadly for clean water, clean air, and the safe disposal of waste.
Further, she was a great supporter of preserving old landmarks and parks and wilderness areas.
She sought to create green spaces and city areas that suffered from neglect.
Saying even in the poorest neighborhoods, you can find a geranium in a coffee can.
A window box set against the scaling side of a tenement.
A border of roses struggling to live in a tiny patch of open ground.
Where flowers bloom, so does hope.
Lady Bird further supported economically disadvantaged families. by co-founding Head Start.
Some of the things she fought for have benefited us far into the future in a way that people might not have understood at the time.
For example, her influence helped prevent construction of dams in the Grand Canyon in, and she supported the preservation of the redwoods.
She was partially responsible for the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Program.
All in all, 200 law relevant to the environment were passed during the Johnson administration and her husband explicitly credited her for 50 of them, gifting her 50 pens used to sign the legislation.
After LBJ left office, the couple returned to Texas. where Lady Bird continued her tireless efforts.
Among those, her crowning achievement may be the founding and expansion of what is now known as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a facility with 279 acres, more than 650 plant species on display and an active education program.
In 1999, she was presented with a Native Plant Conservation Initiative Lifetime Award.
Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, said on that occasion.
Mrs Johnson has been a shadow secretary of the interior for much of her life.
Natalie reflected on that statement as she gazed just a little longer the simple yellow silk gown behind the glass.
What a gorgeous and meaningful legacy, she thought.
Walking through the timeline on the wall, Natalie considered each of the women who had served in this oddly unofficial and yet highly public role.
Every one of them contributed in the way that she saw fit, putting her own personal skills to work as best she could and as history allowed.
What was showcased here, in most cases via a single dress, was so alluring and yet so insufficient to show what they contributed.
But this was why Natalie was a history teacher.
She knew she could fill in the gaps for her students and bring these important figures to life for them.
With that, she slowly turned and left the low-lit room behind.
As she made her way out into the brighter lights of the main hallway, she felt inspired and renewed.
She knew the spirit of these remarkable women would be waiting for her when she was able to return again on another rainy day.
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