1136105
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland
Scarce Executive Mansion card signed by the President's sister and hostess
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, 1846-1918. First Lady, 1885-1886. Scarce Executive Mansion card signed Rose Elizabeth Cleveland and dated in her hand 19th March, 1886.
In the second edition of The History of Collecting Executive Mansion, White House, and The White House Cards, Lynne E. Keyes and Stephen Koschal say that Rose Elizabeth Cleveland's signed Executive Mansion cards "can be considered quite scarce." Our own search of auction records has not found any sold at auction over the past several years.
The youngest sister of President Grover Cleveland, Rose served as First Lady and the official Executive Mansion hostess for only 15 months at the start of her brother's first term, while he was a bachelor. She stood by him as First Lady during his inauguration. On June 2, 1886, President Cleveland, age 49, married Frances Folsom, age 21, at the White House. The new First Lady then took over as hostess.
This 2¾" x 4⅛" card is Variant 1 of three types of Executive Mansion cards that Keyes and Koschal have identified from Grover Cleveland's first term. This one has executive mansion, / washington. printed at the center of the card, while other variants have the imprint at the upper right or upper left. On this card, the printing runs slightly uphill to the right, although the card itself is cut square. So, too, does the printing on the December 2, 1885, card signed by Rose Elizabeth Cleveland illustrated on page 21 of Keyes' and Koschal's book.
The card has toning at the right and toning and mounting traces on the back. Overall it is in very good to fine condition.
Unframed.
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