Today in 1731, the birthday of Martha Washington, and therefore one of several days during the year to celebrate the First Ladies.
Some have been more prominent than others; probably more people remember Lady Bird Johnson than Eliza Johnson.
A few never wanted the job at all: it’s said that Jane Pierce prayed every night, unsuccessfully, that her husband Franklin would lose the 1852 election.
And one even has her own color: Mamie Eisenhower, the namesake of “Mamie Pink.”
The woman born Mamie Geneva Doud wasn’t necessarily setting out to change the worlds of fashion and style.
But she was a very well known woman who had a very specific personal style, and that combination can have an influence.
Mrs. Eisenhower liked long gowns, and she especially liked pink ones.
It’s said she thought the color just worked well on her.
So, when Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1953, Mamie wore a big pale pink gown, covered in thousands of pink rhinestones.
The new first lady also oversaw some redecorations in the living quarters of the White House in her favorite color.
The powder pink powder room even had pink cotton balls!
Some reporters started calling the building the Pink Palace.
And whether or not she’d set out to become a trendsetter, that’s what she became.
Pink became a very popular color for gowns, as well as for interior design.
Lots of homes built around this time had Mamie pink bathrooms and kitchens.
And while pink had started to become a color primarily associated with girls and women before Mamie pink, the first lady certainly furthered the trend.
She wasn’t the only one.
As the site Racked noted, pink was also the signature color for another super-famous woman in the 1950s: Jayne Mansfield.
The movie star not only had pink gowns and a pink house, she drove a pink car and had pink pets!
So even though pink kitchen cabinets have gone out of style, we still have pink razor handles and pink toothbrushes and pink makeup cases and the Pink Ladies in Grease and on and on and on.
This weekend in Lewes, Delaware, it’s the Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival.
Collectors will show off their collections of sea glass, antique glass and antique bottles.
Plus, you might hear a few tales of treasure hunting from long ago.
How Pink Became a Color for Girls (Racked)
Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival (Historic Lewes)
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