Rose Cleveland

Rose Cleveland
Acting First Lady of the United States
In role March 4, 1885 – June 2, 1886
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	Mary McElroy (acting)
Succeeded by	Frances Cleveland
Personal details
Born	Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (1846-06-13)June 13, 1846 Fayetteville, New York, U.S.
Died	November 22, 1918(1918-11-22) (aged 72) Bagni di Lucca, Tuscany, Kingdom of Italy
Education	Houghton Academy

Rose Elizabeth "Libby" Cleveland (June 13, 1846 – November 22, 1918) served as first lady of the United States from 1885 to 1886, during the first term of her brother, President Grover Cleveland's two administrations. The president was a bachelor until he married Frances Folsom on June 2, 1886, fourteen months into his first term.

Early life

Rose Elizabeth Cleveland was born in Fayetteville, New York, on June 13, 1846. The ninth and youngest child of Reverend Richard Falley Cleveland and Ann Neal Cleveland, she was known as "Libby" within her family. Even as a young child, Cleveland rejected gender norms where she encountered them, preferring an active lifestyle outdoors over more traditional women's activities. The Clevelands moved to Holland Patent, New York, in 1853, and their father died shortly afterward when Rose was seven years old.

Rose's brother Grover Cleveland saw to it that she was well-educated, personally paying for her schooling. She attended Houghton Academy in Clinton, New York, from 1864 to 1866. Shortly after graduating, she took a position at the school teaching history and literature. The following year, in 1967, she taught literature, math, and Latin at the Collegiate Institute in Lafayette, Indiana. She then taught at Hamilton College and at a girls school in Muncy, Pennsylvania, before returning home to her family home in Holland Patent, "The Weeds", during a period of illness. Here she returned to Houghton Academy to again teach history, and she also began teaching Sunday school. Eventually, her time in Holland Patent was spent caring for her mother until her death in 1882. Besides teaching, Cleveland became a prominent lecturer in the state of New York, speaking at schools about things such as history and women's rights.

When her brother Grover was elected to be the governor of New York in 1882, Cleveland declined a teaching job in New York City so that she could assist him at the Executive Mansion. During this time she published her first two poems in The Independent.. Cleveland was with her brother at the Executive Mansion when he learned that he had been elected president, and she stood by him during his presidential inauguration.

Acting first lady of the United States

Rose Cleveland

When Cleveland's brother Grover became president of the United States, he had no wife to serve as first lady, so he asked her to fulfill the role. She accepted the position, though she had little interest in it; she preferred academic life to social life. As was typical of first ladies of the time, she was responsible purely for domestic aspects of the White House, including the organization of social events. To this end, she held a reception in the Blue Room. She grew bored with White House reception lines, and she once said that to pass the time she would conjugate Greek verbs in her head.

Cleveland was more academically-inclined than most women of her era, which was a distinction she held from the first ladies before her. Among the prominent guests that visited the White House, she was more interested in speaking to those such as historian George Bancroft. Her education served her well in the White House, where knowledge of history and foreign languages was an asset when speaking to dignitaries from around the world. Shortly after her time as acting first lady began, she published her first book: George Eliot's Poetry, and Other Studies. She also published a novel, The Long Run, in 1886. Her writings were treated less seriously because she was a woman. Despite this, her national renown as first lady helped sales, and she ultimately earned $25,000 (equivalent to $847,778 in 2023) in royalties across twelve published editions.

The president kept the press from taking pictures of Cleveland, meaning that descriptions of her were often second-hand. She was described by contemporaries as "masculine" and as a "bluestocking". Public descriptions of her short hair and her strong views on women contributed to this image. Many who knew her found her firm demeanor to be intimidating. Her seriousness was beneficial to her brother, as it gave a respectable image to the White House that the president was sometimes unable to convey. She was also praised for her ability to remember everyone who she interacted with.

Cleveland held strong progressive opinions, and she continued to express them while she was acting as first lady. She publicly supported women's suffrage, and she supported the temperance movement, banning wine in the White House. She lived by the ideal of the New Woman that was advocated by the feminist movement of the time. She was sympathetic to the Victorian dress reform movement, but she limited herself to wearing low-cut dresses that exposed her shoulders—still a controversial choice. Using her influence as first lady, Cleveland expressed support for the Women's Anthropological Society, which advocated the inclusion of women in science. She still held other prejudices common of the time, advising her brother not to appoint a significant number of Catholics to government positions.

While she was acting as first lady, Cleveland became the subject of a ballad by Eugene Field in which she asked President Cleveland about whether he intended to marry. When her brother's bride, Frances Folsom, arrived in Washington in June 1, 1886, Cleveland met her and her mother at the train station and escorted them to the White House. Cleveland approved of the marriage, in large part because it meant that she could return to her previous life. She helped organize their wedding, and she left the White House after they were married, though she often returned in a social capacity.

Later life

The graves of Cleveland and Whipple in Bagni di Lucca, Italy

A month after Cleveland left the White House, she moved to Chicago to become the editor of the magazine Literary Life. Her brother urged her to decline, fearing that the magazine only wished to take advantage of her relation to the president. He reportedly offered her an annual sum of $6,000 (equivalent to $203,467 in 2023) to decline such a position. She served as editor for only a few months before leaving, as she fell ill and the magazine was having financial problems. The following year, she moved to New York City to teach history at Sylvanus Reed's School for Girls, and she moved to Lafayette, Indiana, to serve as the head of the Collegiate Institute. In the final days of Grover's presidency, the first lady held a lunch in Rose's honor. Cleveland continued to express her political beliefs after leaving the White House. In 1887, published a short story that was critical of women's fashion, which she believed was detrimental to women's health. In 1909, she signed the national petition supporting women's suffrage.

In 1889, Cleveland began a romance with Evangeline Marrs Simpson while staying in Florida. Their relationship progressed over the following years, and their correspondences became more explicitly sexual. The relationship was known by their families, but there is no indication that the public knew of their relationship's romantic nature. Their relationship ended in 1896, when Simpson was engaged to the bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, despite Cleveland's protests. After the wedding, Cleveland moved to Europe, where she lived privately for the following three years. Her correspondences with Evangeline Whipple were formal and emotionless.

Cleveland and Whipple reunited after the bishop's death in 1901. When Whipple's brother fell ill in Italy in 1910, they moved to the country to care for him. They chose to remain in the country afterward, settling in Bagni di Lucca. Cleveland felt less of an inclination to write while living in Italy, as social norms were more relaxed in Italy regarding same-sex relationships. Together, they contributed to relief efforts in response to World War I and the Spanish flu. Cleveland contracted the flu, and she died on November 22, 1918. By Whipple's request, she was buried beside Cleveland upon her own death twelve years later.

Cleveland's romantic letters to Whipple were acquired by the Minnesota Historical Society as part of their collection on Henry Benjamin Whipple. They were kept sealed until the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association requested that they be catalogued in 1978. They were published as a full collection in 2019.

Selected works

Rose Cleveland wrote or contributed to multiple literary works in her lifetime. Her writings often explored themes of women's rights and social norms surrounding gender and sexuality. Several of her works of fiction involve a doctor treating an unknown illness. In some cases, the illness is an allegory for subjugation of women.

• "Sketches of History" – An 1885 collection of lectures
• George Eliot's Poetry, and Other Studies – An 1885 collection of literary analysis essays
• The Long Run – An 1886 novel
• Literary Life – A literary magazine of which Cleveland was the editor for several months in 1886
• "The Dilemma of the Nineteenth Century" – A satirical 1886 poem about women's rights, published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine
• "Woman in the Home" – An 1886 essay about women's rights, published in The Chautauquan
• "Robin Adair" – An 1887 short romance story, published in Godey's Lady's Book; Cleveland used the story to criticize women's fashion
• How to Win: A Book for Girls – An 1887 book co-authored by Cleveland with suffragist Frances Willard
• The Social Mirror – An 1888 etiquette guide with an introduction written by Cleveland
• "My Florida" – An 1890 essay encouraging readers to visit Florida
• Soliloquies of Augustine – Translated by Cleveland in 1910 with annotations

Further reading

• Ehrenhalt, Lizzie; Laskey, Tilly, eds. (2019). Precious and Adored: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890–1918. Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 9781681341293.
• Lillie, Lucy C. "The Mistress of the White House." Lippincotts Monthly Magazine 1887: 81–94
• "Society Stars." Boston Daily Globe (Mar 14 1886): 4.

External links

• Rose Elizabeth Cleveland works at Hathi Trust