Julia Gardiner Tyler (May 4, 1820 – July 10, 1889) was the first lady of the United States from June 26, 1844, to March 4, 1845, as the second wife of President John Tyler. A member of the influential Gardiner family, Tyler had many figures as suitors. She met the widowed President Tyler in 1842, and agreed to marry him after he comforted her in the aftermath of her father David Gardiner's death. They married in secret, making her first lady immediately upon their marriage, serving in the role for the final eight months of his presidency.

Tyler was delighted with her role as first lady, redecorating the White House and establishing her own "court" of ladies-in-waiting to mimic the practices of European monarchies she had visited years before. She also established the tradition of playing "Hail to the Chief" when the president arrived at an event, and she popularized the waltz and polka dances in the United States. Tyler was a fierce advocate for her husband's political priorities, organizing social events to lobby Congressmen, particularly for the Texas annexation. She is credited with revitalizing the position of first lady, both socially and politically, after several inactive first ladies before her.

After leaving the White House, Tyler moved to the Sherwood Forest Plantation in Virginia with her husband and had seven children. She became a prominent supporter of slavery in the United States, writing an influential pamphlet in 1853 that defended the practice. During the American Civil War, Tyler provided support to the Confederate States of America, creating a permanent rift with her family in New York. After the war, she was involved in a legal dispute regarding her mother's estate with her brother, who had been a loyal Unionist. Tyler returned to Washington in the 1870s as her reputation recovered, assisting first lady Julia Grant at the White House and convincing Congress to provide a pension for widowed first ladies. She spent her final years in Richmond, Virginia, living there in poor health. Tyler died of a stroke on July 10, 1889, in the same hotel where her husband had died from the same illness 27 years before.

Early life

thumb|upright|left|The advertisement for which Julia Gardiner posed.|alt=A man and a woman in Victorian-era clothing walk arm-in-arm along a street. The woman carries a handbag that advertises a local department store.

Julia Gardiner was born on May 4, 1820, on Gardiner's Island in New York to David Gardiner, a landowner and New York State senator (1824–1828), and Juliana MacLachlan Gardiner. Her ancestry was Dutch, Scottish, and English, and she was the third of four children. The Gardiners were a wealthy and influential family, and she was taught to value social class and advantageous marriages. She was educated at home until she was 16 years old, and she then attended the Chagaray Institute in New York, where she studied music, French literature, ancient history, arithmetic, and composition. She was raised as a Presbyterian.

As a young woman Gardiner closely followed fashions. She was introduced in Saratoga Springs, New York at the age of 15. In 1840, she shocked polite society by appearing in an advertisement for a department store, posed with an unidentified man and identified as "The Rose of Long Island". Her family took her to Europe, possibly to avoid further publicity, while the nickname "Rose of Long Island" became permanently associated with Gardiner. They first left for London, arriving on October 29, 1840. They visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and Scotland before returning to New York in September 1841.

Civil War

Though their allegiance was with the South, the Tylers did not want the Southern states to secede in the buildup to the Civil War. They went to Washington in early 1861 to alleviate the crisis, with Tyler involving herself in the city's social life to help improve Northern–Southern relations. By February, however, Tyler and her husband accepted secession and aligned themselves with the Confederate States of America. She volunteered to support the Confederate war effort during the civil war, and she cut ties with her family in New York when they remained loyal to the Union. She became further opposed to the Union after Union soldiers captured her summer home Villa Margaret.

When a nightmare caused her to worry for her husband's health while he was away, Tyler joined him at the Confederate House of Representatives in Richmond, Virginia. He died of a stroke on January 18, 1862, at the age of 71, days after she arrived. Tyler hired a manager and two employees to tend to Sherwood Forest Plantation. Then with her two youngest children, she traveled to Bermuda where she lived with other Confederates who had settled there, and she returned to her family home in New York in November 1862 She bitterly argued with her Unionist brother, who was eventually banished from the house after striking her. Tyler was upset to hear that Sherwood Forest Plantation had been captured while she was in New York, that her former slaves had been given the crops that they grew, and that the building was being used as a desegregated school.

Tyler continued to support the Confederacy throughout the war, making donations to the Confederate Army and distributing pamphlets in support of the cause. The day after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, three men broke into her home demanding that she turn over her Confederate flag, searching for it after she denied having one. She suspected her brother of orchestrating the attack. The Tylers remained unpopular after the war for supporting the Confederacy, so the Tyler children were sent out of the country for schooling.

Later life and death

Tyler's mother died in October 1864, writing a new will while she was on her deathbed. Tyler's brother challenged the will, arguing that Tyler had exerted "undue influence" over their mother. The dispute was resolved in 1868, when she was granted the Gardiner-Tyler House in Staten Island and three-eighths of the family's property in New York City. She moved into the Gardiner-Tyler House and lived there until 1874. Tyler was also involved in a separate legal battle to regain her summerhouse Villa Margaret, which she eventually won back in 1869. After trying to sell it to President Ulysses S. Grant, she was forced to sell Villa Margaret at a loss.

Tyler resumed her social life in Washington in the 1870s as the stigma of her Confederate sympathies subsided. She sometimes attended White House events, supporting first lady Julia Grant as hostess. In 1870, Tyler donated a portrait of herself to the White House, starting the first ladies portrait collection. In 1872, Tyler moved to Georgetown. Seeking meaning later in life, she and her daughter Pearl converted from the Tyler family's Episcopalianism to Roman Catholicism in 1872. The economic depression that followed the Panic of 1873 depleted her finances, forcing her to sell her other properties so she could purchase Sherwood Forest Plantation back from the Bank of Virginia that had come to control it. She lobbied Congress for a pension and was granted a monthly allowance in 1880. Following the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881, Congress granted an annual pension of $5,000 to widows of former presidents.

thumb|right|Grave of John Tyler and Julia Gardiner Tyler at Hollywood Cemetery

In 1882, Tyler moved to Richmond, Virginia. Toward the end of her life, she suffered from malaria. She made her final visit to Washington in 1887, when she met with first lady Frances Cleveland, to whom she would sometimes provide advice. Tyler suffered a stroke and died on July 10, 1889, while she was staying at the Exchange Hotel—the same hotel where her husband had died of a stroke 27 years before. She was buried next to him at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Tyler had lived the longest post-White House life of any first lady, living another 44 years after leaving the White House. She held this record until it was overtaken by Frances Cleveland.

Legacy

The papers of the Tyler family, including Julia Gardiner Tyler, are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary. Tyler's son Lyon, like his father, married his second wife late in life. As a result, Julia Tyler had two grandsons who survived into the 21st century: Lyon Jr. died in September 2020, while Harrison Ruffin Tyler died in May 2025.

Tyler was generally well received during her time as first lady, and she is credited with revitalizing social life in Washington after the death of her husband's first wife. She also provided a level of extravagance to the presidency, but she did little to change or expand the substance of the role of first lady. Instead, she strongly affected the role's imagery, incorporating regal elements. She is recognized as one of the most successful hostesses in the history of the White House due to her charm and the grandiosity of her parties, and she was one of the earliest first ladies to be directly active in politics. Her prominence in Washington has prompted greater historical interest in her life compared to the less active presidential wives that immediately preceded her.

Regard by historians

Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Tyler has been ranked in the lower half of first ladies by historians in these surveys. In terms of cumulative assessment, Tyler has been ranked:

  • 27th of 42 in 1982
  • 27th of 37 in 1993
  • 31st of 40 in 2020

In the 2014 survey, Tyler and her husband were ranked the 34th out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Finding aid for the Tyler Family Papers, Group A
  • Julia Tyler at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image