Frances Cornelia Folsom (1864-1947) of Buffalo, N.Y. had an influential family friend while growing up, a rising politician named Grover Cleveland who had served as executor of her father's estate. Cleveland began courting her soon afterwards, despite being more than twice her age, and she became First Lady in 1885 in the only presidential wedding ever held in the White House.
This collection consists of 46 letters from Frances to her friend Isabella F. "Belle" Keyes (b.1859) of Boston, after the Clevelands had left the White House, most of them from the family home in Princeton, NJ. Many of the letters discuss President Cleveland; for example, a lone typed letter from 1907 explains that she has just acquired a typewriter "as a surprise to my husband" and adds that "I can probably really help my husband with it because he will not have a secretary, and I feel sure he will let me do the things for him." Her 14 March 1904 letter discusses the death of her young daughter "Baby Ruth" Cleveland. with--3 manuscript telegrams from former president Grover Cleveland to Keyes re vacation plans, 1901-1902 2 letters from Keyes to Frances, 1901 and undated One letter from Mrs. J.O. Mahon (?) to Belle, Washington, 6 November 1884, giddy with the news that Cleveland has been elected 3 additional letters from the former First Lady to Belle's niece Gertrude Baker (b.1896) of Boston, 1921-1933, each signed "Cousin Frances" 3 related Cleveland family letters to Baker, 1925-1933 and--2 photographs of Frances Cleveland, one of them a cabinet photo dated 1886 and signed by her on the image, the other set into a calendar inscribed on verso by her for Christmas 1916.