Presidential Wedding Photos: When “Hail to the Chief” Meets “Here Comes the Bride”

Rutherford B. and Lucy Hayes

presidential wedding photos
IMAGE BY: Library of Congress / Public Domain

Lucy Webb first met Rutherford B. Hayes while visiting Ohio Wesleyan University at age 14. Five years later, the two were in the same wedding party together, and Rutherford fell quickly in love. They were married in Lucy’s mother’s house in 1852 and had eight children together: Birchard, Webb, Rutherford, Joseph, George, Fanny, Scott and Manning. During Rutherford’s presidency, Lucy was both the first college-educated first lady and in fact the first wife of the president to be referred to as “first lady.” She was an advocate of civil rights even before the Civil War, and regularly invited black performers to the White House.

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