Eliza Parker
- Position
- Laundress
- Years in President's House
- circa 1895 – 1897
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Biography
Little is known about Eliza Parker’s early life.
In 1895, the government register listed her as an assistant laundress employed by the War Department, working under head laundress Jane Bell. Newspapers reported that Bell was assigned to the White House, which suggests Eliza Parker was as well.1 That same year, the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote a feature about First Lady Frances Cleveland’s servants, noting: “The family laundress is Hattie Parker, who is tall and slender.” It seems likely that this is a misidentification of Eliza Parker.2 Her duties would have included hauling and boiling water, scrubbing pieces by hand, and then pressing and folding the clean items. The 1897 register indicates that Parker was promoted to the role of head laundress, assisted by a woman named Alice Brooks.3
Parker may have worked there beyond this time, but she does not appear on future government registers.
- Several Eliza Parkers lived and worked in Washington, D.C., making it difficult to discern information about this individual. Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1895), pg. 443; “Filial Love the Stronger: Daughter of the White House Laundress Still a Maid,” The Washington Post, April 25, 1895, pg. 2.
- “A Modest Retinue,” The Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio), August 18, 1895, pg. 17.
- Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1897), pg. 470.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context
- Related Workers
- Jane BellHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1895
- Alice BrooksHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1897