Highly educated and knowledgeable of Washington politics, Garfield was a regular adviser for her husband, and she assisted him in his front porch campaign for the presidency.

She was well regarded during her brief period in the White House, but after only a few months contracted malaria and went to Long Branch, New Jersey, to recuperate.

Garfield returned to her former residence in Ohio after being widowed, and she spent much of the rest of her life preserving her husband's papers and other materials, establishing what was effectively the first presidential library.

Her father co-founded the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College), and she began attending the school in 1850.

[4]: 256  Only after returning home and being allowed to read Rudolph's diary did Garfield realize the extent of her commitment.

Both had serious doubts about the wedding in the time leading up to their marriage, as they both felt that they had to marry because they were expected to do so,[1]: 134  and Rudolph was worried that she would lose any independence that she had obtained with a career.

[5]: 99  Her husband was rarely home, away as a preacher, as a state legislator, and then as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

[2]: 157 The Garfields did not develop a close relationship until James returned home from the Civil War, on leave after falling seriously ill with dysentery.

[1]: 135 [4]: 257 Shortly after their daughter's death, James moved to Washington, D.C., as he had been elected to the United States House of Representatives.

[4]: 258  The extent of James's actions are unknown;[3]: 234  he traveled to New York on Lucretia's request to retrieve the compromising letters he sent and destroy them.

[1]: 136  She did not play a direct role in her husband's Congressional career, hosting and attending very few Washington social events.

[4]: 258 Garfield was dismayed when her husband was only raised as a compromise presidential candidate during the 1880 Republican National Convention; she wished that he would be nominated because he was the most popular choice.

[3]: 236 [7]: 235–236  Over the following months, they held a front porch campaign in which countless voters visited the Garfield home to meet the candidate.

When he was choosing members of his presidential cabinet, she insisted on the inclusion of James G. Blaine, whom she admired, while she rejected Thaddeus C. Pound because his wife had once been involved in a scandal.

[1]: 137 [3]: 238  Her interest was in the opportunity to meet prominent writers and artists, and she entered the White House with a list of names she wished to invite.

[7]: 240 Unlike her predecessor, Lucy Webb Hayes, Garfield did not have strong opinions about the temperance movement, and she resumed the serving of alcohol at White House events.

[4]: 259  This was a decision of some political consequence, as the temperance movement was a predominantly Republican voting bloc, but the banning of alcohol displeased prominent Washington figures and foreign diplomats.

[7]: 238–239 As her tenure began, Garfield took on the responsibility of refurbishing the White House and lobbying Congress for funding to this end.

[3]: 240 [7]: 241  Her health began to return by June, and her husband rented a cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey, for her to live in while she recuperated.

[2]: 160 [4]: 260  Charles J. Guiteau waited to intercept them with the intention of shooting the president, but the sight of Lucretia, still visibly ill, caused him to hesitate.

In addition to an annual $5,000 pension granted by Congress (equivalent to $157,862 in 2023), Cyrus W. Field saw to the creation of a donation drive for her and her children that accumulated a large sum of money.

She worked with historian Theodore Clarke Smith to organize her husband's papers and to document her own memories of the presidency.

[4]: 261  This short tenure precluded any direct influence that she may have had on the position,[3]: 241  but her practice of preserving her husband's documents in a library was adopted by other first ladies, such as Edith Wilson and Nancy Reagan.

[4]: 256 Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president.