White House Historical Association

Johanna Lyons

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"Johanna Lyons," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/435.
Position
Laundress
Years in President's House
circa 1870
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
Ulysses S. Grant
Biography
Johanna Lyons was born around 1845 in Ireland. She immigrated to the United States at an unknown date, and by 1870, she worked as a laundress at the White House.1 Laundresses cleaned clothing and other textiles such as bedding, tablecloths, and window treatments. It was a labor-intensive process that often included hauling and boiling water, scrubbing pieces by hand, and then pressing and folding clean items. Further information about Lyons’ time at the White House is limited, but she may have been employed at the White House beyond 1870. She appears on earlier and later D.C. directories as a “washerwoman” and “folder,” though her place of employment is unspecified.2
  1. “The White House-The Retinue of a Republican President,” The Greeneville Democrat (Ohio), June 1, 1870, pg. 2; the 1870 Census lists her place of work as “Govt. Folding Room.” Johanna Lyons in the 1870 United States Federal Census, Year: 1870; Census Place: Washington Ward 4, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: M593_124; Page: 708A.
  2. Boyd’s Directory of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria (1871), 211; Boyd’s Directory of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria (1865), 263.
Birthplace
Ireland
Unclear from Context