Little Known First Ladies: Harriet Lane Quiz

Answer: His niece

Harriet was the daughter of James Buchanan's sister Jane and her husband Elliott. Orphaned at 11, Harriet requested that Buchanan be her legal guardian. Buchanan used his status as a senator and Secretary of State to introduce Harriet and her sister to more worldly social circles.

Answer: United Kingdom

Buchanan had been Secretary of State during the presidency of James Polk. He then was appointed Minister to the United Kingdom by Franklin Pierce in 1853. Lane was received extremely well in Europe and Queen Victoria bestowed upon her all of the benefits of being the wife of an ambassador and often referred to her as "Dear Miss Lane."

Answer: He loved her like a daughter.

James Buchanan's only confirmed love Ann Coleman died in 1819 after she broke off the engagement. There were rumors that Buchanan was either cheating on her, marrying her for her money or both. Either way, Ann died shortly afterward of what recent evidence suggests is an overdose of laudanum. This left Buchanan miserable until Harriet came along and he was able to dedicate his time to her while balancing his political career. He did not raise her very strictly and she was allowed her personal freedom, but Buchanan did warn her about marrying just any man too soon.

Their relationship was also very political and Buchanan made sure Harriet Lane often attended meetings with other politicians and dignitaries. When Harriet was just 15, First Lady Sarah Polk was extremely impressed with her, whom she considered worldly and highly intelligent and could easily outthink any man.

Answer: "Listen to the Mocking Bird"

Lane was able to use her youth (she was in her mid-twenties while serving as first lady) to save Buchanan's presidency from being a total disaster on the social front. She was a popular hostess who would often spend days planning seating charts that separated pro-secessionists from pro-unionists while still trying to preserve the Union, something Buchanan failed to even try.

"Listen to the Mocking Bird" was a favorite of Abe Lincoln and the song was implemented into a Union Civil War march.

Answer: Improving conditions on Native American reservations

While Lane held progressive views toward women's rights and equality, improving the conditions on reservations was her number one priority. Historians are not sure why this was so important to her, but it is known that Lane had a love for Native art.

She once used her influence to remove a U.S. agent who was illegally using alcohol and converting the Native Americans upon the request of a Chippewa man named Wingematub.

Answer: Henry Elliot Johnston, a Baltimore banker

It has been reported that Harriet Lane liked to flirt with men but found them "pleasant but dreadful." A first lady of Harriet's prominence had never been so open to relationships with men before. Often at dinner parties she hosted, a man would pull her aside and propose marriage to her. She rejected them all at first because she did not want to become the traditional wife.

Lane married Henry Elliot Johnston, a man she had known from her schooldays in 1866. Lane had previously gotten in trouble in school for writing to Johnston without her uncle's permission. They kept in touch lightly through the years until they reunited once Buchanan left office.

Answer: Begged members of Buchanan's Cabinet to stay loyal to him.

Harriet Lane had the impossible job of trying to maintain the Union as her uncle seemed unlikely to put in the effort. Her popularity failed her and many Southern politicians and their wives ignored her, even though they respected her much more than they did the president.

Answer: She was never allowed to decide her own wardrobe.

Harriet Lane was known as a woman of fashion and she turned heads at the Inaugural Ball by wearing a dress with a neckline inches shorter than any other first lady had worn.

Lane would tell her personal friends to address letters meant for her to a trusty White House servant who then gave the envelopes to Harriet as way to avoid her uncle's nosiness. Harriet was close friends with the then-Prince of Wales Edward, and they would often dance off White House premises because of the dancing ban instituted by President Polk and maintained by Buchanan.

Correspondence between the president and his niece is limited during the presidency because they lived together, but all accounts say that he was very interested to hear her opinion on matters, although he rarely pursued any of them except for political appointments.

Answer: Johns Hopkins University

She endowed enough money for the university to open a treatment and housing center for sick and disabled children. The pediatric outpatient center that stands where the original home was is named after Harriet Lane, as is the handbook used by the pediatric nurses and officers.

Answer: Abandoned at sea

Confederate soldiers had captured the vessel during the Civil War, although the Union retook it almost immediately. Because it had been in enemy hands and damaged badly, the Union decided to retire it from service and sell it. Its buyer then renamed it the Elliot Ritchie and it became a trade ship. In 1881, the ship caught fire and was abandoned.

There was a second USCGC Harriet Lane used from 1924-1946. A third was commissioned in 1984 and was used during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.