author

Lila G. A. Woolfall

b. 1864

Best known for a richly illustrated 1903 history of America’s first ladies, this early-20th-century writer brought together biography, White House tradition, and social history in one accessible volume. Her work remains a useful glimpse into how the role of the presidential hostess was understood in her own era.

1 Audiobook

Presiding Ladies of the White House containing biographical appreciations together with a short history of the Executive mansion and a treatise on its etiquette and customs

Presiding Ladies of the White House containing biographical appreciations together with a short history of the Executive mansion and a treatise on its etiquette and customs

by Lila G. A. Woolfall

About the author

Born in 1864, Lila G. A. Woolfall is identified in library and archival records as Lila Graham Alliger Woolfall. She is chiefly remembered for Presiding Ladies of the White House (1903), a book that combines sketches of the women who served as White House hostesses with a short history of the Executive Mansion and its customs.

The book was published with an introduction by Margaret E. Sangster and was illustrated with portraits, suggesting it was meant for a broad general audience rather than a strictly academic one. Today, Woolfall’s work survives through major public-domain and library collections, which is why modern readers can still encounter her account of the White House and the women connected with it.

Reliable online records for her life are limited, so many personal details remain unclear. Archival and memorial sources indicate that she was born in 1864 and died in 1931, but her lasting public footprint comes mainly from that single substantial volume and its place in the history of writing about America’s first ladies.