We have talked about a few different First Ladies during our time covering Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Women on Coins publication. With good reason, too, as they are notably some of the first women we as a country laid public eyes on. This famous First Lady was the partner to a major commanding general during this country’s greatest and most deadly war. With author Ron Guth guiding us along, we will take a deeper look into her life as the first wife to have served eight years since First Lady Elizabeth Monroe (President James Monroe, 1817-1825).
#46 – Julia Grant
Born in 1826 at her family’s White Haven plantation in Grantwood Village near St. Louis, Missouri, Julia Boggs Dent attended a boarding school in St. Louis as her slave-holding family was well off. She would eventually meet her future husband, Ulysses S. Grant, when he visited her brother at White Haven. They fell in love and were married in 1848. However, they spent a great amount of time apart in their early marriage years due to the American Civil War as Grant was a commanding general for the Union Army during that time. When he became the 18th President of the United States, she embraced her First Lady duties as hostess of the White House and delighted in the time she was able to spend with her husband.
She spent her final years writing memoirs until her death in 1902. She would outlive Grant by 17 years. Her memoirs were not published until 1975. She was buried alongside her husband in Grant’s Tomb which is now the General Grant National Monument in Riverside Park in New York City. It is the same park where Eleanor Roosevelt’s Monument can be found.
The United States would honor Julia Grant with a $10 gold First Spouse coin in 2011. The image on the obverse was taken from a portrait of Julia in the Library of Congress. The reverse depicts an image of her and a young Ulysses Grant riding horses at her family’s plantation at White Haven.
Collecting difficulty is easy for the First Spouse coin featuring her images, but it tends to be pricey as it contains a half ounce of gold. The coinciding bronze medal is a less expensive option.