After Jimmy Carter was sworn in as the 39th President of the United States, the Carters surprised onlookers when they left their car and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue during the inaugural parade on January 20, 1977. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter are shown here waving to inaugural ball guests on the evening of January 20, 1977. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Rosalynn Carter was the first First Lady to carry a briefcase to her office in the East Wing each day and established the Office of the First Lady’s Projects. Here she is with her personal assistant, Madeline MacBean, on March 17, 1977. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
First Lady Rosalynn Carter traveled to seven Latin American countries as the president’s official envoy, engaging directly with their leaders to improve ties with the United States. Here she speaks at a welcoming ceremony in San Jose, Costa Rica, on June 1, 1977. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Rosalynn Carter was a strong proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment. On the right is former First Lady Betty Ford, at the National Women’s Conference in support of the ERA on November 19, 1977. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Mrs. Carter holds a baby while Amy Carter looks on in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 2, 1978, during the first visit by a seated U.S. president to sub-Saharan Africa. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
As active honorary chair of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, Rosalynn Carter presented President Carter with the commission’s recommendations for sweeping reforms to mental health policy and programs on April 27, 1978. The report led to The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
President and Mrs. Carter visit one of the locks along the Panama Canal on June 17, 1978, the day after the president participated in a signing ceremony for the Panama Canal treaties his administration brokered. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Rosalynn Carter talks with Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Carter on September 7, 1978, during negotiations between Egypt and Israel at Camp David. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Rosalynn Carter testifies on behalf of the President’s Commission on Mental Health before the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources on February 7, 1979. She was the second first lady to appear before Congress. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
President and Mrs. Carter on a train to Alexandria, Egypt, during a trip to the Middle East on March 9, 1979. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
White House portrait of Rosalynn Carter taken on August 16, 1979. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
Mrs. Carter raised tens of millions of dollars to ease the plight of refugees. Here she holds a child at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand, November 9, 1979. (Credit: Jimmy Carter Library)
