As we part with an energized election season, welcome the new year, and look towards a presidential inauguration, New Canaan Library and the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society are pleased to collaboratively present “Presidential Trappings,” a series that explores the history of many intriguing aspects of our nation’s highest office. Presented via Zoom, the series begins on Tuesday, January 5 at 7 PM EST and continues Tuesdays throughout January. Please visit newcanaanlibrary.org for a full schedule and to register. Sign in information will be provided upon registration; each session must be registered for individually.
“Presidential Trappings” begins with a focus on America’s unelected leaders – our First Ladies. Katherine Jellison, Professor of History at Ohio University, will present an overview of the role first ladies of America have played from 1789 to the present. Attendees will learn about first ladies over the years and the four major categories they fall into: the celebrity, the controversial first lady, the reluctant first lady, and the political partner. Professor Jellison will focus particular attention on a first lady who embodied all four categories: Eleanor Roosevelt.
KATHERINE JELLISON is Professor of History at Ohio University, where she teaches courses on U.S. women’s and gender history. Her publications include Entitled to Power: Farm Women and Technology, 1913-1963 (University of North Carolina Press, 1993) and It’s Our Day: America’s Love Affair with the White Wedding, 1945-2005 (University Press of Kansas, 2008), both of which include “guest appearances” by a few first ladies. She also wrote the biography of Jacqueline Kennedy in Katherine A.S. Sibley, ed., Blackwell Companion to First Ladies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016).