Governor Cameron Morrison and his daughter Angelia on his inauguration, 1921. H.19XX.429.14. Image from the North Carolina Museum of History. Used courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Women’s History Month @NCpedia: North Carolina’s First Ladies
From colonial times to the present day, many women — and one man so far — have occupied the role of “first lady” or “first gentleman” to a North Carolina governor. And in a few cases where a wife passed away before her husband, a daughter assumed the role of first lady or “little mistress of the mansion”.
In fact two young ladies, Helen Fowle and Angelia Morrison, each became the mistress of the mansion. Helen Fowle was just 20 at the time, and in 1891 she and her father were the first official inhabitants of the newly constructed Governor’s Mansion on Blount Street near the State Capitol. Angelia Morrison was even younger, just 9 years old when her father was inaugurated in 1921. No two of these spouses — or governors’ daughters — lived similar lives or inhabited the role of first lady or first gentleman in the same way. Their stories are as individual as they were and are.
NCpedia recently incorporated a new collection of biographies to share the lives of North Carolina’s “first spouses”. These biographies tell the stories of these individuals as they lived life for a time in the spotlight of the Governor’s Mansion. The stories also give a sense of their lives “behind the scenes”, as they went about everyday life, often in difficult times, many raising families, having careers and interests of their own, and making their own marks on their local communities and on North Carolina history. Each story is unique and also helps provide historical context, particularly for the women, on their roles and lives during the eras when they lived.
Twenty-five biographies have provided the seeds for germinating this new collection. This initial collection covers the women who have lived in the Governor’s Mansion beginning in 1891 with Daniel Gould Fowle and his daughter Helen. For the collection, NCpedia has republished in whole biographical essays included in the book North Carolina First Ladies, 1891-2001. The book was published in 2001 and written by Marie Sharpe Ham, then Curator at the Executive Mansion, and Debra A. Blake and C. Edward Morris, both at the State Archives of North Carolina. The collection appears in NCpedia courtesy of a collaboration with North Carolina Historical Publications, part of the North Carolina Department of Natural Cultural Resources. The collection includes many special photographs of the first ladies, both in portraiture and in scenes from daily life. Where available, photographs of their inaugural gowns have also been included. These have have been shared from the collections of the North Carolina Museum of History. And a special thank you to our colleagues at our sister agencies for sharing the content and images that have made this collection possible!
The NCpedia collection can be accessed from a collection browsing page that includes a listing of all known Governors’ spouses from colonial times to the present, along with links to the 25 biographies added so far and links to biographical entries for the Governors. As time goes on we hope to continue to add to this fascinating collection.
— Kelly Agan, North Carolina Government & Heritage Library
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