Mary Ann Day

Mary Ann Day was born in Maryland around 1820.¹ Information about Day’s work at the White House is limited to a single source at this time. In August 1850, Day appeared on a financial document detailing wages owed to White House domestic workers compiled shortly after President Millard Fillmore took office. The list included staff names, as well as their position, salary, and race. Day was recorded among Black staff (alongside Benjamin Quarles, Charles Beal, William Williams, Robert Blaxton, and Julia Ball) and identified as a “hall maid” earning $6 per month.² 

Some of the other staff members on the list also worked for Fillmore’s predecessor, Zachary Taylor, but it is unclear if Day did.³ It is also unclear how long Day worked at the White House. There is no known evidence that she worked under President Franklin Pierce which would mean she ceased working there before Pierce’s Inauguration in March 1853. The 1870 Census identifies Day as still living in D.C.and working as a housekeeper, but it does not specify her employer.⁴ By 1880, she was still in D.C. working as a nurse.⁵ After this, Day disappears from the historical record. 

Thank you to Michael Cohen and Amy Larrabee Cotz, editors of the Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore papers, for providing research assistance with this biography.