In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave. A gifted seamstress, she earned her freedom by the skill of her needle.

Keckley first met Mary Todd Lincoln on March 4, 1861, the day of Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration as President. As she was preparing for the day’s events, the First Lady asked Keckley to return the next day for an interview. When she arrived, Keckley found other women there to be interviewed, but Mrs. Lincoln chose her as her personal dressmaker.

In addition to dressmaking, Keckley assisted Mrs. Lincoln each day as her personal dresser and helped Mrs. Lincoln prepare for official receptions and other social events. For the next six years, Keckley became an intimate witness to the private life of the First Family. Known for her love of fashion, the First Lady kept Keckley busy maintaining and creating new pieces for her extensive wardrobe.

In 1868, Keckley published a book “Behind the Scenes” in which she described her own rise from slavery to a life as a middle-class businesswoman. While acknowledging the brutalities under slavery and the sexual abuse that led to the birth of her son George, she spent little time on those events.

The book created a tremendous backlash in Washington D.C. as Keckley had unveiled what went on behind the public scenes of the First Family and revealed private and domestic information involving, primarily, a white family, at time when it was deemed inappropriate behavior to do so.

In 1892 Keckley was offered a faculty position at Ohio’s Wilberforce University as head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts. Within a year, she organized a dress exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair. She died in May 1907.