This photograph is of a portrait of White House hostess Letitia Tyler Semple by Charles King. She temporarily served as White House hostess or first lady for a few months in 1844. During the Civil War she served as nurse in a Confederate hospital. Near the end of the war she opened a school, the Eclectic Institute, in Baltimore. This portrait is believed to have been painted by Charles King (possibly Charles Bird King) while Letitia Tyler Semple lived at the White House, posing on the South Portico as she looked over the South Grounds.

This portrait is of Letitia Christian Tyler and was created sometime between 1830-1840 by an unknown artist. Mrs. Tyler was the first wife of President John Tyler. She died in 1842, a year into her husband's term in office.