[Ads-l] Antedating of "First Lady" (OED Sense 2)

[Dan Goncharoff]

Well done! Surprising, since Long Branch didn't formally exist, and the
shore area was called Elberon. But there you go!

On Fri, Dec 2, 2022, 11:12 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dan Goncharoff  wrote:
> > I've seen websites referring to Mary Lincoln visiting Long Branch in
> 1871,
> > but nothing referring to visits of any important people in 1861.
>
> There appears to be some contemporaneous evidence in "The New York Times".
>
> Newspaper: New York Times
> Article: THE GREAT REBELLION: Interesting News from the National Capital.
> Date: August 5, 1861
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/1861/08/05/archives/the-great-rebellion-interesting-news-from-the-national-capital.html
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Mrs. LINCOLN and her family will leave Washington on Thursday, on a
> visit to Long Branch. The increasing hospitalities of the White House,
> continued through the Summer, on account of the war, preclude the
> usual residence at the Old Soldiers' Home during the hot weather, but
> Mrs. LINCOLN finds it absolutely necessary to her health that she
> should enjoy a release from her arduous responsibilities in the more
> invigorating air of the sea shore.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The website of the “New Jersey Monthly” indicates that Mary Todd
> Lincoln stayed at  “the grandest hotel in town, the Mansion House” in
> 1861.
>
> Newspaper: New Jersey Monthly
> Date: February 4, 2008
> Article: Shore Lore: Hail to the Beach
> Author: Kevin Coyne
> https://njmonthly.com/articles/jersey-shore/shore-lore-hail-to-the-beach-2/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> In August 1861, just after the Union Army was routed at Bull Run in
> the first big Civil War battle, the new First Lady deemed it
> “absolutely necessary to her health that she should enjoy a release
> from her arduous responsibilities in the more invigorating air of the
> sea shore,” the New York Times reported.
>
> Long Branch, she decided, would provide the cure. It was a fashionable
> resort—a rival to Newport and Cape May and a destination for Parisian
> dress designers scouting the latest American styles—and Mary Todd
> Lincoln’s visit would give it lasting presidential cachet.
>
> She stayed at the grandest hotel in town, the Mansion House, whose
> gingerbread piazzas stretched along the beach like an elongated
> version of the steamboats that brought many of the vacationers.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Sadly, the Mansion House burned down, and the rebuilt structure was
> torn down in 1910.
> https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=46931
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The Mansion House was considered to be the finest hotel of its day. On
> August 22, 1861, the wife of Abraham Lincoln visited Long Branch and
> stayed at the Mansion House.
> . . .
> The hotel burned in 1884, was rebuilt, and was torn down in 1910 to
> make way for a new pier.
> [End excerpt]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org