First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is the title held by the hostess of the White House, usually the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been codified or officially defined, she figures prominently in the political and social life of the United States. Since the early 20th century, the first lady has been assisted by official staff, known as the Office of the First Lady and headquartered in the East Wing of the White House.
The 1830s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1830, and ended on December 31, 1839.
Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a long career as a literary expert, publishing 52 books and in over 300 periodicals in her lifetime. While some of her works were signed anonymously, most of her works were published with just her married name Mrs. Sigourney. During the lyceum movement that flourished in the United States in the 19th century, women named literary societies and study clubs in her honor.
Prudence Crandall was an American schoolteacher and activist. She ran the Canterbury Female Boarding School in Canterbury, Connecticut, which became the first school for black girls in the United States.
Dan Beach Bradley was an American Protestant missionary to Siam from 1835 until his death. He is credited with numerous firsts, including, bringing the first Thai-script printing press to Siam, publishing the first Thai newspaper and monolingual Thai dictionary, performing the first surgery in Siam, and introducing Western medicine and technology.
Asian Americans have been involved in the U.S. entertainment industry since the 19th century, when Afong Moy started a series of shows that evolved into essentially one-women shows. In the mid-19th century, Chang and Eng Bunker became naturalized citizens and were successful performers in the United States. Sadakichi Hartman, originally from Japan, was a successful playwright in the 1890s. Acting roles in television, film, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters. Early Asian American actors such as Sessue Hayakawa, Anna May Wong, and Bruce Lee encountered a movie-making culture and industry that wanted to cast them as caricatures. Some, like actress Merle Oberon, hid their ethnicity to avoid discrimination by Hollywood's racist laws.
Harriett Low Hillard was an American woman of letters and diarist. From 1829 to 1833 she lived in the Portuguese colony of Macau on the South China coast and she and her sickly aunt became the first American women to go to China. During her stay from 1829 to 1833, she wrote a journal in the form of letters to her older sister Molly, and became acquainted with many of the influential individuals in the colony. After her return to the United States, she married and moved to London, returning to New York with her husband and five daughters in 1848. Her journal is now part of the Low-Mills collection in the Library of Congress.
Jane Roberts was an English author active in the 1830s, best known for her account of a two-year voyage to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) during which she visited and described the Swan River Colony. She had a considerable number of literary and social acquaintances including Augusta Leigh and Lady Cork. During her own lifetime she was sometimes confused with Emma Roberts, with whom she corresponded, though the two women were not related. They were about the same age and they were both referred to as Miss Roberts. Unusually for single women of that era they had also both travelled separately to Calcutta within two or three years of each other.
Ching Lau Lauro and Professor Ching were the stage names of a juggler and magician who performed outdoors and in theatres in London and the provinces. His real name is unknown; he was possibly Cornish and he was popularly known as Ching. He was the first magician in Europe to perform the aerial suspension illusion, and possibly the first to use limelight, and one of the earliest Western magicians to perform in Chinese costume. In 1834 he played at The Theatre, Leeds.
David Washington Cincinnatus Olyphant was an American trader in the Far East and "the father of the American Mission to China". He was an elected member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), the organization that sent the first American missionaries to China in 1829.
Lai Afong was a Chinese photographer who established Afong Studio, considered to be the most successful photographic studio in the late Qing dynasty. He is widely acknowledged as the most significant Chinese photographer of the nineteenth century.
Francis R. Hanson was appointed by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America as one of the first two Episcopal Church missionaries to travel to China in 1835.
Chun Afong was a Chinese businessman and philanthropist who settled in the Hawaiian Kingdom during the 19th century and built a business empire in Hawaii, Macau and Hong Kong. He immigrated to Hawaii from Guangdong in 1849 and adopted the surname Afong after the diminutive form of his Cantonese given name, Ah Fong.
Vicky Tiu Cayetano is an American businesswoman and politician who was the first lady of Hawaii from 1997 to 2002. She and Governor Ben Cayetano were married on May 5, 1997, in Washington Place. During her tenure, she was instrumental in the construction of a new governor's residence building, turning the old Washington Place into a museum. She was a Democratic candidate in the 2022 Hawaii gubernatorial election. The Hawaii State Campaign commission fined Vicky Cayetano found there was evidence of collaboration between Vicky Cayetano's campaign and a super PAC which launched a negative campaign against current Governor Dr. Josh Green for more details read Civil Beat News Article and Hawaii News Now. As a result of being found guilty of breaking campaign spending laws Vicky Cayetano was fired as a guest writer for Civil Beat News
Jennie Quigley was a Scottish sideshow performer in the United States. She was billed as "The Queen of Scotland" and "the Smallest Lady in the World" by P. T. Barnum.
Hercules was built at Calcutta in 1814. She acquired British registry and traded between Britain and India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC), before returning to Calcutta registry. She then traded opium between India and China, and became an opium receiving ship for Jardine Matheson. In 1839 she was one of the vessels that surrendered her store of opium to be burned at the behest of Chinese officials at Canton. This incident was one of the proximate causes of the First Opium War (1839–1842). Her owners apparently sold her to American owners in 1839.
Julia Hope Kamakia Paaikamokalani o Kinau Beckley Fayerweather Afong was a Hawaiian high chiefess who married Chinese millionaire merchant Chun Afong with whom she had sixteen children. She was of British, American and Hawaiian descent.
Josephine Augusta Moy, known professionally as Lady Tsen Mei, was an American actress and singer. She was billed as "the screen's only Chinese star" in publicity for her first film, For the Freedom of the East (1918).
Jane Shirreff (1808-1883) was a British soprano opera singer. She was described as America's "most admired prima donna between the days of Mrs. Wood and those of Louisa Pyne".
Mary Amelia Swift was an American teacher and textbook writer. Little is known of her early life, though she was raised in western and central Connecticut. In 1833, she became the principal of the Litchfield Female Academy, leading the school for three years. That year, noting a need to teach basic science and finding no adequate textbooks, she wrote First Lessons on Natural Philosophy–Part First. It was one of the first scientific texts written by a woman and was based on her observations of teaching needs from her classroom experience. Three years later she wrote a more advanced textbook for older children, First Lessons on Natural Philosophy–Part Second.
