The states in which our presidents are historically attached aren’t necessarily the states where they were born. However, for this post, I wanted to review which states have produced a President of the United States by their home as an adult and where they ran for office.

In researching this subject, I found that some presidents are claimed by more than one state. Total number of states that can claim an elected president? Eighteen. FYI: All U.S. Presidents were born in America.

All information was found on History.com, Whitehouse.gov, Wikipedia.org, and Answers.com.

The National First Ladies’ Library website is a treasure of information about the fascinating lives of the wives of our nation’s presidents. The website is the online presence for a museum that resides in two buildings in Canton, Ohio: the former City National Bank Building and the Ida Saxton McKinley Historic Home.

According to the site: “As the first and only facility of its kind, the National First Ladies’ Library serves as a unique national resource for patrons from school children to serious scholars.  As a national archive devoted to educating people about the contributions of First Ladies and other notable women in history, the Library’s holdings fill an informational void that has long frustrated academicians and armchair history buffs alike.”

The National First Ladies’ Library website offers online videos, their library catalog, and all kinds of educational material for teachers and students.

If you wish to find fun trivia, you will love the Fascinating Facts page. Here are a few of the firsts that you’ll find: Martha Washington was the first to be given the title “lady” by the press. John Quincy Adams’ wife, Louisa, was the only first lady born in a foreign country (England). John Tyler’s first wife was a stroke victim and the first president’s wife to die in the White House. William Howard Taft’s wife was the first first lady to own and drive a car, and Warren G. Harding’s wife was first first lady to vote and fly in an airplane!

If it is pictures you want, try the Huffington Post’s “First Ladies in College” photo slideshow. How about this for a teaser: “Do you know where ‘Lou’ Hoover went to college? Curious to see Lucretia Garfield in her younger years? What are the names of Grace Coolidge’s two pet raccoons? Did Julia Grant have permanently crossed eyes? Look no further than HuffPost College’s ‘First Ladies In College’ slideshow!”

Have a great weekend everyone!

Photo of the First Ladies National Historic Site courtesy of Kralizec! on Wikipedia.

In honor of Presidents Day (I have opted for the Associated Press Stylebook spelling), I wanted to share two websites where you can explore and learn about the Presidents of the United States in a fun, new way.

The first one is Google Earth. Always a great site for seeing the world at warp speed, Google Earth has a feature called the U.S. Presidents Showcase. Of course, you have to download the software for Google Earth before you can take the ride, but it is quick and easy to install and worth the trouble. The U.S. Presidents showcase allows you to travel the country seeing the birthplace of each president. A brief profile of the president appears showing when and where they lived and when their term of office was. It also shows a shaded map of which states voted during each president’s election. You can even see the White House in 3D!

The second site is the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery Hall of Presidents. In this online exhibition of the museum’s south wing gallery, you can find the portrait of each United States president up until Bill Clinton – although on Clinton’s page they show a bust of the president by sculptor Jan Woods, and no portrait.

If you happen to be one of those people who is snowbound today, or just find yourself with a little time to kill, have a blast meeting Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, Ulysses S. Grant, and all the rest on Google Earth. Say hello to their portraits at the Smithsonian, too.

Have a terrific weekend.