History Happy Hour: Florence Harding—The First Lady, The Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President

History Happy Hour is a weekly virtual program hosted by the White House Historical Association. Join us as experts weigh in on a variety of historical topics, share their insights, answer audience questions, and enjoy presidential-inspired libations.

Emerging from an emotionally traumatic early life, ambitious Florence Harding formed a partnership with newspaper editor Warren Harding, managing his career into the presidency. The first publicly-declared suffragist First Lady, she felt a sense of public duty, making the White House more publicly accessible. She engaged with the press, was a radical animal rights activist, was involved in domestic and foreign policy, and advocated for women's economic and political empowerment and care of disabled veterans. Anxious over her astrologer's accurate prediction of the President's death, she was then whispered to have been involved in his demise. Preeminent First Ladies biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony will reveal the story of First Lady Florence Harding's phenomenal rise to and fall from power in this week's History Happy Hour.