Title: Oil Portrait of Julia Gardiner Tyler

Description: After his first wife, Letitia, died in 1842, President Tyler began to court a woman thirty years younger, Julia Gardiner. One afternoon Tyler and the Gardiner family were out on a cruise on the frigate, Princeton. A cannon exploded, killing Miss Gardiner’s father and seven other men. She fainted, and President Tyler carried her off the boat. In the months ahead he comforted her in her grief, and the couple married in 1844. This was the first President to be married in the White House.

Date: 1846-48

Creator: Francesco Anelli

Credit: White House Historical Association (White House Collection)