First Ladies Historical Trivia Questions:150+Challenging

Think you know the women behind the presidents? These first ladies historical trivia questions will test you. You get 150 numbered questions, and each one comes with a short answer.

The list runs from Martha Washington to today’s first lady, Melania Trump. The U.S. has had 42 official first ladies and 45 first ladyships, because some presidents remarried in office and one never married. Use these first ladies trivia questions for study, class, or trivia night.

First Ladies Trivia Questions: Founding Era to the Civil War

These first ladies trivia questions cover the early republic through 1865. Expect burning buildings, secret hobbies, and a few famous nicknames.First Ladies Historical Trivia Questions.

Must visite:US Presidents Weird Facts Trivia: 150+ Epic Questions About Bizarre Presidential History

Who was the first First Lady of the United States?
Answer: Martha Washington, from 1789 to 1797. She was often called “Lady Washington.”
What was Martha Washington’s last name before she married George?
Answer: Custis. She was a wealthy widow when they wed in 1759.
Where did Martha spend a hard winter with her husband during the Revolutionary War?
Answer: Valley Forge. She helped with supplies and rolled bandages, says the Smithsonian’s Postal Museum.
About how many guests did the Washingtons host at Mount Vernon in seven years?
Answer: Over 2,000.
How did Martha describe her new life in a letter to her niece?
Answer: She said she felt like a state prisoner. Britannica covers the story.
On which note did Martha Washington’s face appear in 1886?
Answer: The $1 silver certificate, according to Reader’s Digest.
Which two grandchildren did Martha help raise?
Answer: Nelly Custis and George Washington Parke Custis.
Who was the first First Lady to live in the White House?
Answer: Abigail Adams, in November 1800. The house was unfinished, so she dried laundry in the East Room.
Which first lady was nicknamed “Mrs. President”?
Answer: Abigail Adams. She was a sharp thinker and a top adviser to John Adams.
Which first lady urged her husband in 1776 to “remember the ladies”?
Answer: Abigail Adams.
Who was the first First Lady to be both a president’s wife and a president’s mother?
Answer: Abigail Adams. Her son was John Quincy Adams. Barbara Bush was the second.
What gift did Thomas Jefferson give his bride, Martha?
Answer: A piano. The couple played duets at Monticello.
Which first lady saved a portrait of George Washington in 1814?
Answer: Dolley Madison. British troops burned the White House soon after.
Who was Paul Jennings in the 1814 story?
Answer: A 15-year-old enslaved man. Dolley ordered him to help save Gilbert Stuart’s portrait.
Which first lady made ice cream a regular dinner treat?
Answer: Dolley Madison, per Reader’s Digest.
Which first lady kept a parrot as a White House pet?
Answer: Dolley Madison, according to Wikipedia’s list of first lady firsts.
Which two early first ladies were widows when they married their presidents?
Answer: Martha Washington and Dolley Madison.
Which first lady earned the French nickname “La Belle Americaine”?
Answer: Elizabeth Monroe. She used her prestige to help Adrienne de Lafayette.
Which first lady was born in London?
Answer: Louisa Adams, in 1775. Her father was American, so she was a U.S. citizen by birthright.
Which first lady played the harp and raised silkworms?
Answer: Louisa Adams.
Which first lady died after the election but before the inauguration?
Answer: Rachel Jackson, on December 22, 1828.
Which president’s wife died in 1819, years before he took office?
Answer: Hannah Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren.
Which first lady never lived in the White House?
Answer: Anna Harrison. William Henry Harrison died one month into his term.
Which first lady was the first to die in the White House?
Answer: Letitia Tyler, in 1842.
Which first lady was the first to marry a sitting president?
Answer: Julia Tyler, in 1844. She also brought the polka to Washington ballrooms.
Which first lady was called “Sahara Sarah”?
Answer: Sarah Polk. She banned hard liquor from the White House.
Which first lady learned to shoot a gun on the frontier?
Answer: Margaret “Peggy” Taylor, an army wife.
Which first lady asked Congress for $2,000 to start a White House library?
Answer: Abigail Fillmore, a former teacher.
Which first lady prayed that her husband would lose the election?
Answer: Jane Pierce.
Who was Harriet Lane?
Answer: The niece of James Buchanan. She served as White House hostess.
Which president never married?
Answer: James Buchanan.
Which first lady held séances in the White House?
Answer: Mary Todd Lincoln. She hoped to reach her dead sons.
How tall was Mary Todd Lincoln, and how tall was Abraham?
Answer: She was 5’2″. He was 6’4″.
Who placed Mary Lincoln in an Illinois hospital in 1875?
Answer: Her son, Robert Lincoln.
Who was Elizabeth Keckley?
Answer: Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker and close friend. She had been born enslaved.

Hard First Ladies History Questions: Reconstruction Era to World War II

Now the first ladies history questions get harder. This set runs from the late 1860s through the 1940s, a time of big changes for the role.

Which first lady kept cows on the White House lawn?
Answer: Eliza Johnson, wife of Andrew Johnson.
Which first lady talked her husband out of going to Ford’s Theatre?
Answer: Julia Grant. She distrusted the man who delivered the invitation.
Which first lady wrote the first memoir by a president’s wife?
Answer: Julia Grant. It was titled The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant.
Which first lady welcomed the Easter Egg Roll to the White House lawn in 1878?
Answer: Lucy Hayes. Congress had banned egg rolling at the Capitol.
Why was Lucy Hayes nicknamed “Lemonade Lucy”?
Answer: She served no alcohol at White House events.
Which group commissioned Lucy Hayes’s portrait?
Answer: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. See the Smithsonian’s First Ladies page.
Which first lady pushed for equal pay for a female doctor?
Answer: Lucretia Garfield. The doctor had treated her dying husband.
Which soprano was married to Chester A. Arthur but never became first lady?
Answer: Ellen “Nell” Arthur. She died before he took office.
How old was Frances Cleveland when she became first lady?
Answer: 21, the youngest ever.
Whose wedding to a sitting president took place inside the White House?
Answer: Frances Folsom’s, in 1886, to Grover Cleveland.
Which child of a sitting president was born in the White House?
Answer: Esther Cleveland, in 1893.
Which first lady served in two separate stretches, 1886–1889 and 1893–1897?
Answer: Frances Cleveland. Grover was the 22nd and 24th president. Melania Trump later served two separate stretches too.
Which first lady is credited with the first White House Christmas tree, in 1889?
Answer: Caroline Harrison.
Which first lady began the tradition of choosing a White House china pattern?
Answer: Caroline Harrison, says Reader’s Digest.
How many slippers did Ida McKinley crochet for charity?
Answer: Over 3,500, even while ill.
Which first lady hired the first White House social secretary?
Answer: Edith Roosevelt.
Which first lady helped bring cherry trees to Washington, D.C.?
Answer: Helen “Nellie” Taft. Tokyo sent 3,000 saplings in 1912.
Which first lady was the first to own and drive a car?
Answer: Helen Taft, per C-SPAN’s First Ladies site.
Which first lady was the first buried at Arlington National Cemetery?
Answer: Helen Taft, in 1943.
Which first lady was a professional artist?
Answer: Ellen Wilson. She died in the White House in 1914.
Which first lady’s “stewardship” followed her husband’s 1919 stroke?
Answer: Edith Wilson.
Which first lady was a descendant of Pocahontas?
Answer: Edith Wilson. She also bought her own car before marrying Woodrow.
Which first lady faced poison rumors after her husband’s 1923 death?
Answer: Florence Harding. The rumors were never proven.
Which first lady loved the Boston Red Sox and sat in the dugout?
Answer: Grace Coolidge.
What was Grace Coolidge’s job before the White House?
Answer: She taught deaf students.
Which first lady studied geology at Stanford?
Answer: Lou Henry Hoover.
Which first lady once read her own obituary in a Beijing paper?
Answer: Lou Hoover, during the Boxer Rebellion era.
Which first lady flew with Amelia Earhart in April 1933?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt. She was the first first lady to fly in an airplane while in office.
Who served the longest as first lady?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt, for 12 years (1933–1945).
Which first lady began holding regular press conferences?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt.
What was the name of Eleanor Roosevelt’s newspaper column?
Answer: “My Day.”
Which first lady spoke at a national party convention in 1940?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt.
Which first lady helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt. She led the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1946 to 1951.
Who was Lorena Hickok?
Answer: An Associated Press reporter and close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. Historians study their letters.
Which two first ladies are often listed as the tallest, at 5’11”?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama.

Modern First Ladies Trivia Questions: Bess Truman to Today

These modern first ladies trivia questions cover the TV age, big causes, and record-setting careers. They end with today’s first lady.

Which first lady sent her laundry to Kansas City?
Answer: Bess Truman. She missed her home state of Missouri.
Which first lady inspired “First Lady Pink”?
Answer: Mamie Eisenhower.
Which first lady was famous for her short bangs?
Answer: Mamie Eisenhower.
Which first lady won an honorary Emmy?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy, for her televised White House tour in 1962. She is the only first lady to receive one, per Britannica.
Which first lady worked as a newspaper photographer-reporter?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy, for the Washington Times-Herald. She once interviewed her future husband.
Which first lady first chose a theme for the White House Christmas tree?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy, in 1961.
Which first lady hired the first White House curator?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy.
Which first lady championed highway beautification?
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson. Her work helped bring wildflowers to U.S. roadsides.
What was Lady Bird Johnson’s real first name?
Answer: Claudia. It was not Cecile.
Which first lady was the first born in Texas?
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson.
Which first lady stood beside her husband at his swearing-in on Air Force One?
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson, on November 22, 1963.
Which first lady is often credited as the first to wear pants in public?
Answer: Pat Nixon. She also modeled trousers in a national magazine.
Which first lady visited Africa, China, and the Soviet Union?
Answer: Pat Nixon. She was the first first lady to do so.
Which first lady did her husband praise for her “respectable Republican cloth coat”?
Answer: Pat Nixon, in the 1952 “Checkers” speech.
Which first lady opened a rehab clinic in 1982?
Answer: Betty Ford. She sought treatment in 1978.
Which first lady tap-danced on the Cabinet Room table?
Answer: Betty Ford, on her last day in the White House.
Which first lady trained as a dancer under Martha Graham?
Answer: Betty Ford.
Which first lady did TIME once call the “second most powerful person” in the U.S.?
Answer: Rosalynn Carter. She sat in on Cabinet meetings.
Which first lady was married 77 years?
Answer: Rosalynn Carter, wed to Jimmy Carter in 1946.
Which first lady led the “Just Say No” campaign?
Answer: Nancy Reagan.
What was Nancy Reagan’s stage name as an actress?
Answer: Nancy Davis. She made 11 films.
Which first lady was the first invited to address the UN General Assembly?
Answer: Nancy Reagan.
Which first lady wrote a book from her dog’s point of view?
Answer: Barbara Bush, with Millie’s Book.
Which first lady lived to see her son become president?
Answer: Barbara Bush. Her son was George W. Bush.
How long were Barbara and George H. W. Bush married?
Answer: 73 years and 101 days.
Which first lady threw the first pitch to open a baseball season?
Answer: Barbara Bush, according to Wikipedia.
Which first lady won elected office?
Answer: Hillary Clinton, as U.S. senator from New York in 2000.
Which first lady won a Grammy Award?
Answer: Hillary Clinton, for the audio version of It Takes a Village.
Which first lady ran for president?
Answer: Hillary Clinton, in 2008. She won her party’s nomination in 2016.
Which first lady was the first to earn a postgraduate degree?
Answer: Hillary Clinton. Laura Bush was second.
What was Laura Bush’s career before the White House?
Answer: She was a teacher and school librarian.
Which first lady delivered the weekly presidential radio address?
Answer: Laura Bush, in 2001.
Who was the first African American first lady?
Answer: Michelle Obama.
Which first lady was the first to attend an Ivy League school for her undergraduate degree?
Answer: Michelle Obama, at Princeton.
What was Michelle Obama’s Secret Service code name?
Answer: “Renaissance.”
Which first lady launched the “Let’s Move!” campaign?
Answer: Michelle Obama, in 2010.
Which first lady announced the Best Picture winner at the 2013 Oscars?
Answer: Michelle Obama.
Which first lady was born in Slovenia?
Answer: Melania Trump. She speaks several languages, including Slovene.
Which initiative did Melania Trump launch in 2018?
Answer: “Be Best,” which focuses on children.
Which first lady earned a doctorate and kept teaching in office?
Answer: Jill Biden. She earned an Ed.D. from the University of Delaware. She also taught English at Northern Virginia Community College.

First Ladies Trivia: Historical Firsts, Records and Oddities

This last set is for true history fans. These first ladies trivia questions dig into records, rare firsts, and recent history. For more, see the full list of first lady firsts.

How many official first ladies has the U.S. had?
Answer: 42, across 45 first ladyships.
Which first lady was Second Lady and First Lady on the same day?
Answer: Abigail Adams.
Which first lady was the first to be photographed?
Answer: Dolley Madison.
Which first lady was the first to answer a telegraph message?
Answer: Dolley Madison.
Which first lady received an honorary seat on the floor of Congress?
Answer: Dolley Madison.
Which first lady outlived all of her children?
Answer: Martha Washington.
Which three first ladies died in the White House?
Answer: Letitia Tyler (1842), Caroline Harrison (1892), and Ellen Wilson (1914).
Which first lady began the tradition of giving an inaugural gown to the Smithsonian?
Answer: Helen Taft, in 1912.
Which first lady founded the White House Historical Association in 1961?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy.
Which first lady was the first to wear trousers in her official portrait?
Answer: Hillary Clinton.
Which first lady was the first with an office in the West Wing?
Answer: Hillary Clinton.
Which first lady became chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast?
Answer: Hillary Clinton, in 2020.
Which first lady served as an Electoral College elector in 2020?
Answer: Hillary Clinton.
Which first lady was the first to marry a divorced man?
Answer: Nancy Reagan. Ronald Reagan had been married to Jane Wyman.
Which sitting first lady was the first to attend an Olympic Games?
Answer: Nancy Reagan, at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Which first lady was the first to attend a British coronation?
Answer: Jill Biden, for King Charles III in 2023.
Which first lady was the first to turn 70 while in office?
Answer: Jill Biden, in 2021.
Which first lady lived at both the Vice President’s residence and the White House?
Answer: Barbara Bush.
Which first lady was the first born in Nevada?
Answer: Pat Nixon.
Which first lady was the first born in Kentucky?
Answer: Mary Todd Lincoln, born in Lexington.
Which sitting first lady had a self-produced documentary released in theaters?
Answer: Melania Trump, in January 2026.
Which first lady donated two inaugural gowns to the Smithsonian?
Answer: Melania Trump. The second gown was accepted in February 2026.
Which first lady presided over a UN Security Council meeting?
Answer: Melania Trump, in March 2026.
Which first lady hosted leaders from 45 nations at the White House in one day?
Answer: Melania Trump, in March 2026.
Which first lady was the first to fly in a V-22 Osprey?
Answer: Melania Trump.
Which first lady was the first to visit Malawi?
Answer: Melania Trump, in 2018.
Which first lady made two official state visits to the United Kingdom?
Answer: Melania Trump, in 2019 and 2025.
Which first lady was the first born in a hospital?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy.
Which first lady rode in the Dallas motorcade in 1963?
Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy.
Which first lady sat in the box at Ford’s Theatre?
Answer: Mary Todd Lincoln.
Which first lady was recovering from malaria when her husband was shot in 1881?
Answer: Lucretia Garfield.
Which first lady hosted the first inaugural ball, in 1809?
Answer: Dolley Madison.
Which first lady planted a Victory Garden in 1943?
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt.
Which first lady planted a White House kitchen garden in 2009?
Answer: Michelle Obama.
Which first lady had a pet raccoon named Rebecca?
Answer: Grace Coolidge.
Which first lady led the push for mental health care in the 1970s?
Answer: Rosalynn Carter.
Which first lady served as honorary chair of Head Start?
Answer: Lady Bird Johnson.
Which first lady spoke openly about her 1974 breast cancer?
Answer: Betty Ford. She also backed the Equal Rights Amendment.
Which first lady led a national health care task force in 1993?
Answer: Hillary Clinton.
Which two women launched “Joining Forces” in 2011?
Answer: Michelle Obama and Jill Biden. The program supports military families.

FAQs

Which First Lady accomplished an important historical first?

Many did. Lucy Hayes was the first first lady to graduate from college. Helen Taft was the first first lady to own and drive a car. Martha Washington was the first American woman honored on a U.S. postage stamp. Eleanor Roosevelt held regular press conferences, and Hillary Clinton was the first first lady to win elected office.

Which First Lady was the first to earn a college degree?

It was Lucy Hayes. She graduated from Wesleyan Female College in 1850, becoming the first first lady to earn a higher-education degree.

Which First Lady was the first to ride in an automobile?

Records do not clearly name the very first first lady to ride in a car. The best-documented milestone belongs to Helen Taft. She became the first president’s wife to own and drive a car in March 1909. For context, William McKinley was the first president to ride in an automobile, in 1899.

Which First Lady was the first to appear on a postage stamp?

It was Martha Washington. Her eight-cent stamp of 1902 was the first U.S. stamp to honor an American woman. It was released on December 6, 1902. The USPS history page has the details.

Conclusion

You now have 150 first ladies historical trivia questions for study, class, or game night. Share your score with friends, and see who knows the most first ladies history. For more practice, try quizzes from Britannica, Factmonster, ProProfs, and FunTrivia.

Abroy Sohail

Abroy Sohail is the founder and lead content writer at TriviaQuestionsHub.com. Passionate about trivia, general knowledge, and helping readers learn something new every day, Abroy curates and writes engaging quiz content for readers of all ages.