Executive Mansion Card Signed
Washington DC: nd. SIGNED "Frances F. Clevelend in fountain pen on Executive Mansion Card Signed. 4.5" x2.75", 1p. 16mo. Fine signature is full breadth of the card dated 1887 in bottom left corner.
Grover Cleveland first met Frances when she was an infant and doted on her, even buying her a baby carriage. After her father, with whom Cleveland had a close friendship, died intestate, Cleveland was appointed guardian of the estate. Their relationship became romantic while Frances attended Wells College; shortly after her graduation, he proposed to her by mail. They were married at the White House making Frances, then 21 years old and 27 years younger than her husband, the youngest first lady in history, and a subject of intense public fascinationShe was first lady during both of Cleveland’s unusual non-consecutive terms, after which they settled in Princeton. A widow in 1908 at the age of 44, she married archaeology professor and Wells College president Thomas Jex Preston, Jr. in 1913. Very Fine. Item #898
"I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, and not let any of them get lost or broken, for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again four years from today" - Frances Cleveland upon her husband, Grover Cleveland leaving the White House after losing to Benjamin Harrison in 1893.
Price: $175.00