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09/17/2026
FLARE Virtual Program - Julia Dent Grant: First Lady, Family & Legacy
September 23, 2026 at 7 pm ET
Explore the life and legacy of First Lady Julia Dent Grant through rare photographs, letters, personal belongings, and objects from her years in the White House and travels around the world.
Join FLARE (First Ladies Association for Research and Education) for a special program with Nick Sacco, historian and curator at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri, exploring the special exhibit Julia Dent Grant: A 200-Year Legacy. Sarah Fling, Public Historian at the White House Historical Association, will moderate the program.
Through more than 30 artifacts, the exhibition examines Julia not only as the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant, but as a family-oriented woman and public figure in her own right.
Among the objects on display are the oldest known photograph of Julia, dating to the early 1850s; correspondence spanning her life; a first edition of her Personal Memoirs; objects associated with Julia and Ulysses S. Grant’s 1848 wedding; and personal items from her years as First Lady and the Grants’ World Tour of 1877–1879.
Using these surviving objects as historical evidence, the program explores what material culture can reveal about Julia Dent Grant, her public and private worlds, and her place in the history of the American First Lady.
