Harriet Lane, the niece of James Buchanan (1791-1868; see entry in volume 2), was the White House hostess for America's only bachelor president. A well-educated, well-traveled young woman, Lane became a popular Washington social figure. The term "first lady" was first used in print to describe Lane in an 1860 illustrated newspaper.

Together after tragedies

Harriet Lane was born in 1830 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. She grew up in the well-to-do family of Elliot Tole Lane and Jane Buchanan Lane. Her mother was the sister of James Buchanan. By the time Harriet was eleven, both her mother and father had died, and her uncle James, a U.S. senator at the time, became her guardian. Lane was sent to a private school for girls in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was then moved to Buchanan's home in Washington, D.C. Buchanan enrolled Lane in a convent school, the Visitation Academy in Georgetown...