C-SPAN’s series on first ladies begins, but some legacies are still forming

Dolley made her mark as the quintessential hostess. Eleanor broke new ground by tackling liberal causes. Lady Bird, we learned, was a quiet but effective counselor to her husband.

And what of Michelle — what will be her legacy?

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The age of Michelle Obama: Nearly three-quarters of black women say it’s a good time to be a black woman in America, saying the first lady’s role in the White House has raised their profile, according to a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

Unlike the dozens of first ladies whose names and stories have been forgotten through the ages (ever had a dinner conversation about Anna Harrison or Jane Pierce?) the nation’s first African American first lady will surely be remembered in history books for a racial barrier broken. But what else will future generations find remarkable?

The year-long C-SPAN series “First Ladies: Influence and Image,” which launches Monday night, provides an opportunity to ponder the question.

The series starts with Martha Washington and winds through 220 years to Michelle Obama, providing one of the first deep looks at each of the 45 women who have held the title of first lady.

“Many of them are more interesting than their husbands . . . because their lives are not defined by political ambition,” said Richard Norton Smith, the presidential biographer and historian who is advising on the project.

Not that they did not have political aspirations — many did.

Two women who came soon after Martha Washington carved out the political and social proportions of the job that Michelle Obama would eventually inherit. (There’s still debate about whether being first lady is a “real” job, its duties being unofficial and unsalaried — much the same as was once said about housework and child rearing.)

Abigail Adams, the nation’s second first lady, knew the political power of the role. She wrote letter after letter to her husband in 1776 while he was serving as the Massachusetts representative to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. “[B]y the way in the new code of laws which — I suppose it will be necessary for you to make — I desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors,” wrote the woman who would become known as Mrs. President.

First lady Madison, who was raised as a Quaker but expelled from the community when she married Presbyterian-reared James Madison, made the position one of preeminent hostess. She was as charming as her husband was socially awkward and actively politicked for his causes by throwing lavish parties. After the British burned the White House in 1814, it was Dolley who rented another house in Washington and began hosting there.

“She doesn’t say a whole lot about it, but she makes clear the British are not going to run us out of town,” said Edith Mayo, author of several books about first ladies and curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Michelle Obama has gotten some flak from old-line Washington for not throwing herself more fully into the capital’s social scene. The Obamas have assiduously neglected the dinner-party circuit, where many presidents and first ladies throughout history have exercised their power. (The current first lady and president note that with young children, they do not have the time to be socialities, although they do make time for semi-regular date nights.)