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Happy Birthday to America—and her First Daughters

President Obama isn't just celebrating the birth of the nation on July 4, he's celebrating the birth of his daughter Malia, who is turning 14. In honor of both milestones, TIME looks back through the years at other First Daughters, whose youthful exuberance reflects the best of America on her 236th birthday

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Ellen “Nell” Herndon Arthur

By July 04, 2012
William Kurtz / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Ellen Herndon Arthur, daughter of President Chester Arthur, in 1883

President Chester Arthur’s sister Mary McElroy took care of the widowed commander-in-chief’s only daughter, whom he kept as far away from the press as he could. His private life was “nobody’s damn business,” Arthur once said, but we know this much: Nell had a Scottie named Tot and did a lot of volunteer work—she helped serve Christmas dinner to disadvantaged children and oversaw the collection of 20,000 items of clothing and toys for a holiday gift drive run by St. John’s Guild of the Holy Child.

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