Presidential Valentines
Match each of the selections below with the president (in the pull-down menu) who received or sent it.
1. 
John Adams, from Abigail Adams (pictured). Abigail Adams wrote this to her husband in a December 23, 1782 letter. The original letter can be read here, at the website of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
2. 
Woodrow Wilson, to Edith Bolling Galt (pictured). This is from a letter that widower President Wilson wrote from the White House on September 19, 1915, to Edith Bolling Galt, whom he would marry. The full text of the letter is in volume 34 of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, ed. Arthur Stanley Link (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), page 491.
3. 
Ronald Reagan, to Nancy Reagan (pictured). This is from a letter written on White House stationery by Ronald Reagan, to his wife Nancy on March 4, 1981. From Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 2002).
4. 
Theodore Roosevelt, about Alice Lee (pictured). This is from Roosevelt's diary entry of February 13, 1880. On that evening, he became engaged to Alice Lee, whom he married. On Valentine's Day, 1884, she died while giving birth to their daughter Alice. Roosevelt's mother died the same day. His diary entry for that day is simply a large black X with the words, "The light has gone out of my life." The Library of Congress has made scans of the original diary pages, available online here.
The relationship between John and Abigail Adams remains famous in U.S. history, largely due to the many letters they exchanged on issues both personal and political. In this Massachusetts Historical Society presentation, you can listen to politicians read aloud some of this correspondence; the full text of much of 1,198 of their letters can be read at the Adams Family Papers website.
For more on the First Ladies and their relationships to their husbands (and their accomplishments on their own), try a search in the upper right-hand corner of the website using the keywords "First Ladies." You'll find resources including a quiz on First Ladies' firsts while in office, Hillary Clinton's thoughts on the role of First Lady, a Library of Congress website featuring portraits of presidents and their wives, Ohio's National First Ladies' Library website, a Colonial Williamsburg re-enactor presenting Martha Washington's memories of the American Revolution, a National Portrait Gallery talk on the relationship between Mary and Abraham Lincoln, and more.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, "Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing slightly left," 1880-1884 (accessed January 8, 2010).
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, "Mrs. Woodrow Wilson (Edith Bolling Galt), bust portrait, facing front," 1915-1921 (accessed January 8, 2010).
- Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive (accessed January 8, 2010).
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Archives, Nancy Reagan at Rancho Del Cielo, 1983 (accessed January 8, 2010).
