author

Lila G. A. Woolfall

b. 1864

Best known for a lively early-20th-century portrait of America’s First Ladies, this American writer brought presidential history closer to everyday readers. Her work blends biography, social detail, and a clear interest in the customs of the White House.

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

Lila G. A. Woolfall, also listed as Lila Graham Alliger Woolfall, was an American author born on January 20, 1864. Sources available here identify her as having lived until 1931.

She is best known for Presiding Ladies of the White House (1903), a book that sketches the lives of the women who served as hostesses and leading figures in the presidential household, from Martha Washington onward. The book also includes material on the Executive Mansion itself, along with its etiquette and social customs, which gives her writing a strong historical and domestic angle.

Although biographical information about Woolfall is fairly scarce in the sources I could confirm, her surviving work shows a talent for making political history feel personal and readable. For listeners interested in American history, especially the lives surrounding the presidency, she offers a window into how the role of First Lady was understood in her own era.