Woodrow Wilson was president at a pivotal time in our country’s history as the world was caught up in a war and as women fought for the right to vote. Not only was he dealing with the challenges of the office, he also saw his beloved wife pass away and fell in love again in his eight years as president. I was fascinated to learn the story of the first Mrs. Wilson and to find out the real history of the much maligned second Mrs. Wilson during this month.
Each month, I’ll detail the life of the first lady and their legacy. Then I’ll share what I learned while studying them, along with ways you can travel in their footsteps through historical sites and museums. I’ll also share books, podcasts, TV shows, and websites where you can learn even more about that first lady. Read all of the way through the blog post or click on the links below to go straight to those sections.
Life
Ellen Axson Wilson
Childhood
Ellen Axson was born on May 15, 1860 to Edward and Janie Axson in Janie’s childhood home in Savannah, Georgia. Edward was a Presbyterian minister in Aiken, South Carolina, and a family story says that a fellow minister’s young son held baby Ellen on the day of her baptism, a three and half year old Woodrow Wilson whose father was a Presbyterian minister in Augusta, Georgia.
Soon after Ellen’s birth, the Civil War broke out, and her father served as a chaplain in the Confederate Army until December 1863. In 1866, the Axson family moved to Rome, Georgia where Ellen was taught in the home by her mother until she turned eleven and could attend the Rome Female College. Ellen was an excellent student, excelling at reading, writing, and especially art. When she graduated in 1876, she wanted to attend college in Nashville but there was no money to do so. Instead she took postgraduate lessons at her school.
An art teacher saw Ellen’s promise and sent her art to an international exposition. She won a bronze award and began making money through art commissions. She dreamed of pursuing art as a career and didn’t want to settle for marriage. She was even known as “Ellie the man hater!”
Her family life prevented this dream from becoming a reality. She had two brothers and a sister to look after, especially after her mother’s death from childbirth complications in 1881. Her father descended into a deep depression which left Ellen to care for the children. Her art dreams on hold, she decided to be open to marriage.
Courtship
In April of 1883, a young lawyer attended First Presbyterian Church in Rome while in town on business. Woodrow Wilson was captivated by the beautiful young woman with lively eyes sitting in the church bench ahead of him and learned from his aunt and uncle that she was Ellen Axson, the minister’s daughter and their next-door neighbor. He made sure to meet her and asked her to go on picnics and rides in the country during his next visit. He was smitten.
Ellen and Woodrow wrote letters to each other during the summer of 1883, and Woodrow’s ardor was evident. They found themselves in Asheville at the same time and he hurriedly proposed. She surprised herself by saying yes. He sent her a beautiful ring through the mail, and they planned for a two-year engagement so he could finish his studies to become a history and politics professor. Over the next almost two years, they exchanged hundreds of ardent and intimate letters, some of which racy even by 21st century standards and many of which tell of his great need for Ellen.
“Love certainly leads a man into writing as he never dreamt of writing before!”
“You are the presiding genius of both my mind and heart.”
Woodrow Wilson to Ellen Axson
Her father had resigned from his ministerial duties due to his declining mental health, and he died in 1884 by suicide, leaving a substantial estate. Woodrow came to help Ellen with the funeral and making sure her brothers and sisters were taken care of, and he supported her decision to attend art school in New York City afterwards. Finally, Ellen could focus on her art. She loved attending the Arts Student League on West 14th Street and even carved out time to teach at an African-American school, but Woodrow constantly worried about her safety. While there, however, she realized she would never be good enough to make art her profession, so she decided to make Woodrow’s career her focus. He wanted to move the wedding up once he got a position at Bryn Mawr College and she agreed.
Marriage
Ellen and Woodrow were married in a simple ceremony on June 24, 1885 at her grandfather Axson’s Savannah home – the same place she was born. She wore her mother’s lace wedding veil, and the couple honeymooned in Arden, North Carolina before heading to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in September.
Ellen was meant to be a professor’s wife. She loved the intellectual stimulation of being around college students, and she studied history and politics so she could help Woodrow. She also took classes in Philadelphia on household management and cooking. She wanted to be the best wife she could possibly be.
She traveled back to Georgia to give birth to their first daughter, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, in the spring of 1886. She was soon pregnant again and gave birth to Jessie Woodrow Wilson at her aunt’s home in Gainesville, Georgia just sixteen months later.
Woodrow didn’t like teaching the young women at Bryn Mawr, so he accepted a position at Wesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut in September of 1888. The following year, Ellen gave birth to their last child, Eleanor “Nell” Randolph Wilson, but she suffered kidney complications that threatened her health. She eventually recovered, but they knew they could not have any more children.
Woodrow was happy to move to Princeton, New Jersey when he was offered a professorship there. Ellen loved being a popular professor’s wife and kept busy with entertaining and teaching her girls at home. They built a larger home to accommodate their family which included many relatives such as her brother and his cousin.
She still pursued her art as a hobby and took up painting for the first time in ten years when Woodrow went to England for some much needed rest. His health was tenuous with undiagnosed high blood pressure which caused a potential stroke and hand tremors.
Woodrow became president of Princeton in 1902, and while Ellen loved entertaining the students and faculty and designing the gardens at the president’s house, she worried about Woodrow’s health. Her own mental health took a turn for the worse as health conditions threatened her family and as her brother and his entire family were tragically killed.
On May 28, 1906, Ellen’s worst fears came true as Woodrow woke up blind in one eye from a burst blood vessel. His doctor prescribed rest so they headed to the Lake District in England for needed restoration. While Ellen came home to help Nell through a surgery, Woodrow instead went for more relaxation on Bermuda where he met a vivacious young widow, Mary Allen Hulbert Peck. Their relationship deepened, and it’s unclear whether this emotional affair turned physical. Ellen had often encouraged his friendships with other women, but Woodrow’s relationship with Mary was different, more intimate. Ellen tried to make the best of it, even acquiescing to visiting Mary with Woodrow and passing her off as a family friend.
She turned to her philanthropy work and art as solace. She volunteered with the Princeton Ladies Auxiliary, raising money for expanded student facilities, and designed a Tiffany stained glass for their home. She even founded the Princeton Present Day Club which was focused on the reform movement.
Political Wife
Woodrow’s health had recovered by the time he was asked to run for governor of New Jersey in 1910. After winning, he and Ellen left their Princeton home but since there was no governor’s mansion, they resided at a hotel.
As the presidential election of 1912 began, Ellen was Woodrow’s most valuable political advisor, and her political acumen helped soothe ruffled feathers from Woodrow’s rigid views. This was the first election where women were organized to participate, and while she didn’t publicly support suffrage, she was thought to be sympathetic to the cause especially because of her daughters.
The Wilsons were shocked when Woodrow won against the split Republican ticket. They went to Bermuda to recover, and upon return, Ellen was horrified at the overwhelm of office seekers, reporters, and politicians who were on their doorstep. She was worried it would keep her from her art but was excited about making an impact on societal reforms.
“I am naturally the most unambitious of women and life in the White House has no attractions for me! Quite the contrary in fact!” Ellen Wilson to President William Howard Taft
First Lady
Ellen and Woodrow arrived the day before the inauguration on a train which wasn’t met by any crowds as most people were involved with or watching the massive women’s suffrage march. They didn’t hold a ball after the inauguration since the Wilsons were not financially well off and to adhere to Jeffersonian democratic ideals. Ellen did host a reception the day after the inauguration, and the Washington socialites thought she was plain and intellectual with a slow, Southern drawl.
She rehired Edith Roosevelt’s White House social secretary and made sure to have time to ride for hours in the afternoon with Woodrow. She renovated the White House using crafts from Appalachian women, leading her to be named the honorary president of the Southern Industrial Educational Association, and created the White House rose garden. She continued to be interested in reform causes, focusing on cleaning up the alleyways in Washington where the poor lived, and toured the Home for the Incurables, the first First Lady to do so. She even lobbied on legislation to end the use of alleyways for living spaces (the Ellen Wilson bill passed the day she died).
Much like Helen Taft, she was interested in the working conditions of government employees and toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Surprised by the sight of blacks and whites working together, she commented on this to Woodrow. Whether that contributed to his policy of resegregation in the federal workforce, we don’t know.
Her main job was to support Woodrow, and she was the first First Lady to be present at Woodrow’s address to Congress (the first address given to Congress by the president). Also at this momentous event was a vivacious Washington widow, Edith Galt.
She continued pursuing her art, creating a studio space at the White House. She sold some paintings whose proceeds were donated to scholarships. She also attended an artists’ colony in New Hampshire and sold those paintings as well (see this link to view her lovely artwork).
Her girls were moving out on their own with Jessie’s wedding held at the White House in 1913 and Nell’s in 1914. Daughter Margaret was pursuing a singing career but often helped her parents with entertaining.
Ellen’s health began to deteriorate in the White House and even restful trips to New Hampshire, Mississippi, and The Greenbrier didn’t help. She continued to decline from Bright’s disease (kidney complications) over the summer of 1914. Poor Woodrow was faced with a dying wife at a terrible moment in history – the start of WWI. He kept the news from her as she lay on her deathbed, calling for him continuously. She died in the White House on August 6, 1914 at the age of 54. Her funeral was held in the East room and she was buried with her parents at a cemetery in Rome, Georgia. The White House was in mourning during a fraught time, and Woodrow floundered without a helpmeet. He brought his cousin, Helen Bone, to serve as his hostess but they both were so lonely.
Edith Bolling Wilson
Childhood
Edith Bolling was born into one of the First Families of Virginia, but one that found itself down on its luck after the Civil War. She was born on October 15, 1872 in Wytheville, Virginia to a prominent circuit court judge William Bolling, a descendent of Pocahontas, and his meek southern wife, Sallie. The Bollings had eleven children, nine of which survived, and Edith was their seventh child. An aunt said she was the ugliest child her mother had given birth to, but her grandmother Bolling saw a spark in Edith. She lived with the family in their cramped and modest home above a row of storefronts in downtown Wytheville where grandmother Bolling lorded over the home from a rocking chair and kept 27 pet canaries. Edith was the special pet of her grandmother and received encouragement from her to make something of herself.
Little Edith was educated at home until she was sent to boarding school in Abingdon, which she hated. She then was sent to school in Richmond, which she loved, but she had to leave just a year later when the school closed.
At eighteen years old, Edith moved to Washington, DC to live with her older sister, Gertrude, who had married into the prominent Galt family. Edith adored the hustle and bustle of the big city and loved the high society and fashion scene.
First Marriage
Edith soon met her brother-in-law’s cousin, Norman, who was the heir of the famous Galt jewelers. Norman fell instantly in love with this bright, brash, and beautiful young woman, but it took Edith four years to agree to marry him. While it wasn’t love, it was an acceptance of a secure and stable life. They married on April 30, 1896 at St. John’s Church in Wytheville.
The newlyweds moved into a small home in Washington and enjoyed spending time together. They dealt with several losses, including her father’s death which led them to bring her three brothers to Washington to work at Galt’s. Another loss came in September of 1903 as Edith gave birth prematurely to a baby boy who died three days later. It seemed to come as a shock to her family, based on surviving letters, and complications from the birth left Edith unable to have children. This crushing loss is not mentioned in her memoirs or was ever talked about again.
As the business grew, they moved into a nice home on Twentieth Street, and Edith tooled about town in an electric car as the first woman in DC to have a license. She and Norman traveled to Europe where Edith loved ordering beautiful gowns at the House of Worth in Paris.
When they returned from Europe, however, Norman became sick and died of a liver infection in January of 1908, leaving the jewelry store to Edith.
She was now young (35 years old) and wealthy. She spent time traveling back and forth to Europe with her sisters and a family friend, Alice Gertrude (Altrude). Altrude soon began seeing Dr. Cary Grayson, President Wilson’s White House doctor, which brought Edith and Woodrow together.
Courtship
Edith had seen Woodrow’s speech in Congress two years before, but she wasn’t interested in politics and avoided all political events including his inaugural parade. When Cary told her how lonely Woodrow’s cousin, Helen, was at the White House, Edith agreed to befriend her. She and Helen loved traipsing about Rock Creek Park and having tea at Edith’s home.
One day after a walk, Helen invited Edith back to the White House, assuring her that Woodrow wasn’t home. It was a set-up, and once Woodrow laid eyes on the sparkling 43-year-old Edith, he was instantly smitten.
She dined at the White House for the first time on March 23, 1915 and wore an elegant gown with a purple orchid pinned to her left shoulder. The White House staff were impressed, saying Edith was a “looker” and Woodrow was a “goner.” She was soon dining at the White House several times a week and going on drives with Woodrow through the Virginia countryside where they could reminisce about their childhoods in the post-Civil War South.
By the end of April, Woodrow was ready to marry, but Edith said it was too soon after Ellen’s death just eight months before. She agreed to continue seeing him and wanted to prove to naysayers that she wasn’t after his power. Even while dealing with a world increasingly tilting towards war, Woodrow found time to write longing love letters to Edith daily. Edith enjoyed his romantic prose but was more interested in the policy discussions they contained. She advised him on presidential matters and became his most trusted advisor, much like Ellen before her.
Woodrow’s daughters accepted Edith because they saw how happy she made their lonely father. The couple outsmarted the press for a while but it was apparent that the president was a man in love. Edith and Woodrow announced their engagement on October 6, 1915 (ironically the same day the White House issued a press release about Woodrow’s support for women’s suffrage in New Jersey). They shopped for an engagement ring in New York City and attended the World Series.
Woodrow was like a besotted young man again, foregoing his presidential duties to spend every free moment with Edith. The White House was swamped with hundreds of gifts from Americans and foreign leaders. Edith and Woodrow married in her home on December 18, 1915 where she wore a black velvet gown with purple orchids at her shoulder. They had a buffet supper of ham and biscuits and wedding fruitcake before taking a train to the Homestead for their honeymoon.
White House Years
Edith got a glimpse of her new life when her honeymoon was cut short by the tragic torpedoing of a ship near Crete. The Wilsons headed back to the White House where Edith made it her life’s goal to focus solely on Woodrow and his best interests. With no children and no agenda for social reform, she could focus solely on him and his health. She made sure he got exercise and recreation, encouraging him to attend the theater, baseball games, and other entertainments.
She redecorated the presidential bedroom, ridding it of the two twin beds and bringing in the massive Lincoln bed. She organized her day around Woodrow’s schedule and spent evenings with him as he went through his papers. She hosted receptions where she had to deal with warring countries, and while she handled it with aplomb, she didn’t really enjoy it.
As the winds of war threatened to engulf America, Woodrow and Edith were involved in a fight for his reelection. She went with him on campaign stops and attended political functions, which was the first time a First Lady had waded into the political world publicly. They rented a home in Asbury Park, New Jersey to conduct the campaign outside of the White House.
Woodrow won reelection but faced the possibility of war and a fight over women’s suffrage which he supported at the state level but not the federal level. Edith was incensed at the suffragists who protested daily outside of the White House gates; she thought it was in bad taste. She never supported suffrage, even after the 19th amendment passed and she was able to vote.
Woodrow’s second inaugural was a somber affair due to the war tensions. Edith wore black and worried over his safety. She became the first First Lady to sit beside the Chief Justice and stand behind the president while he took the oath of office. When Woodrow became sick soon afterwards, she corresponded with the cabinet herself and attended a political meeting with the president and a cabinet member – the first First Lady to become involved in cabinet matters.
With the declaration of war on April 2, 1917, Edith joined Woodrow in the Congress at his momentous speech. She saw her main job to be the protector of his health during this trying time. She became very frugal and joined in food conservation efforts. She used her personal sewing machine to sew pajamas, pillowcases, and sheets for the Red Cross and volunteered at a Red Cross canteen. Check out this homemade Red Cross hat that Edith wore during her volunteer duties.
The most visible way she supported the war was the decision to allow sheep to graze on the White House lawn. The sheep yielded 98 pounds of wool which were auctioned off to raise thousands of dollars for the relief efforts.
She helped Woodrow by learning how to decode military and political messages and was by his side as they traveled to Europe for peace negotiations in late 1918. This was the first time a president, much less a first lady, was absent from American soil for so long – six months! They were feted as conquering heroes in Paris with a parade numbering over 2 million strong. They also visited England and Italy before spending time in Paris in the negotiations. Edith visited wounded soldiers in hospitals along with a young Eleanor Roosevelt and toured a munitions factory with women workers.
After Woodrow proposed his League of Nations, he and Edith sailed home to America to encourage ratification. Even without the Senate’s approval, they headed back to Paris for the final signing ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. While in Paris, Woodrow came down with the flu and may have had a stroke. His behavior changed and he was weak on the ship home.
Woodrow realized he needed to promote the League of Nations to the American people so he and Edith set out on a grueling train trip to the West coast. After constantly speaking for days, Woodrow became very ill and Edith and the doctors decided to force the train back to Washington. Edith never left Woodrow’s side as he continued to decline and just a week later on October 2, he had a massive stroke. His entire left side was paralyzed.
Madam President
In an unprecedented move, Edith decided to not let the public or anyone outside of the immediate family and doctors know about Woodrow’s dire condition. She claims the doctors told her that stepping down from the presidency would kill Woodrow as would continuing in the role, so she had no choice. Whether this is true or not, she decided that she would weigh matters and only take the most important ones to him. Since she knew Woodrow better than anyone, she reasoned that her decisions would reflect his wishes. Any other matters she left to the cabinet heads to determine.
She refused to let the vice president see him, and without a clear delineation of power (the 25th amendment wouldn’t come for decades), no one was certain who was in control. Congressmen called it a “petticoat government” and were suspicious that Edith was in charge. Edith called it a “stewardship” in her memoirs that saved her husband’s life and insisted that she made no decisions on her own.
“Woodrow Wilson was first my beloved husband whose life I was trying to save, fighting with my back to the wall – after that he was the President of the United States.”
By the end of the month, Woodrow showed some signs of improvement but he was still weak. With his beloved League of Nations up for a vote, he (or Edith) wouldn’t compromise so it was defeated. They went into the last year of his presidency resigned and stressed.
Edith even kept the details about his condition a secret from Woodrow himself, and he was deluded enough to think he would get a nomination for a third term.
“I felt that life would never be the same; that something had broken inside me; and from that hour on I would have to wear a mask – not only to the public but to the one I loved best in the world; for he must never know how ill he was, and I must carry on.”
He didn’t get nominated, however, and they both got to vote in the 1920 election – the only time Edith would vote in a presidential election (as a resident of Washington, DC for the rest of her life, she couldn’t vote in presidential elections). She was the first sitting First Lady to vote! She gave a tour to the incoming First Lady Florence Harding and prepared for life outside of the White House. As she left, she ordered more White House china using an American company for the first time.
Post-White House
Woodrow and Edith moved into a home in Northwest Washington on S Street which Edith, with the help of the White House staff, made ready the morning of the inauguration so Woodrow wouldn’t be bothered. She spent most of their time on correspondence, playing cards, and reading novels aloud to Woodrow. The only time she spent away from him was one night in New York at the inaugural award ceremony for the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. She was totally devoted to him.
They were shocked when President Harding died just two years into his term, and they joined the funeral procession in a car since Woodrow couldn’t get out. Edith called on the new First Lady Grace Coolidge and soon started a tradition of having each First Lady for lunch at her home.
She took a respite from caring for Woodrow in 1923 and was shocked at his decline upon her return. He rallied for a radio address in the fall, and they were touched by the 20,000 people who came by their home on Armistice Day. Just a few months later, Woodrow took a turn for the worse and died with her by his side on February 3, 1924. He was buried at the new Washington National Cathedral which was still under construction. She made sure his political enemies didn’t attend.
Edith would go on to live another 37 years and made it her life’s goal to shape how history viewed Woodrow. She protected his letters (suing those who used them without her permission) and attended memorial unveilings even in Poland. She worked with Woodrow’s choice of a biographer and insisted on seeing his work before it was published. She even wrote her own memoir but embellished the truth to control the narrative of their White House decisions.
Edith stayed involved in politics and attended Democratic conventions, even speaking at the 1928 convention where she had been encouraged to run as vice president. She enthusiastically supported Franklin D. Roosevelt as president and was in the audience at that fateful speech the day after Pearl Harbor. Edith was close with Eleanor and was with her when the First Lady heard of Franklin’s death.
She continued to control Woodrow’s legacy as she helped his birthplace memorial foundation with fundraising and by donating items to display. She even authorized a movie about their lives which won several Academy Awards but was a financial flop.
She traveled but was frugal with her funds. She sold the jewelry business and got a widow’s pension from the government. She supported her brothers and sisters while they were alive as she outlived them all. She even outlived two of Woodrow’s girls with Jessie and Margaret dying before Edith.
She loved attending presidential events and was a wholehearted supporter of President Kennedy and his wife, Jackie. She was beside President Kennedy when he signed legislation to name a bridge connecting Maryland and Virginia after Woodrow. She hoped to be at its dedication on December 28, 1961 (Woodrow’s birthday) but that was the day she died. She was buried at the National Cathedral alongside Woodrow, the only First Lady to be buried there.
Legacy
Ellen’s legacy is one shrouded in mystery as she is outshone by Edith. She seems to be an intellectual woman who loved the arts and helping the less fortunate. She was one of the earliest activist First Ladies (I would say Helen Taft was the first), and she was the first First Lady to have legislation that she supported (on alleyways) to be passed by Congress. She was also the first First Lady to earn money from an outside endeavor not connected with politics. It’s too bad her short time in the White House gets overshadowed by Edith.
Edith has a checkered legacy with most historians believing she overstepped constitutional boundaries when she made decisions on behalf of the president. Was it Edith or a stubborn Woodrow who decided not to compromise on the League of Nations vote? Did this failure have any bearing on the inevitability of the coming war in 1939? It’s a big what-if in history – what if Woodrow hadn’t been sick in Paris during the negotiations or infirm afterwards during Congress’ vote? How different would world history be?
Both Ellen and Edith are tainted by Woodrow Wilson’s increasing disapproval in today’s world. His views on race are abhorrent, and his support of resegregation and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan tarnish any good done in his presidency. Also anyone who reads about the torture the suffragists underwent after protesting at the Wilson White House (see my review of the Lucy Burn Museum for more information) will have a bad opinion on Woodrow. Ellen and Edith, with their unwavering support, are included in the decreasing popularity of his administration.
My Time with The Wilson Women
I had a hard time connecting with either Ellen or Edith this month. While very different, both women had a blind devotion for their husband that seemed almost worship-like. He could do no wrong in their eyes, even when he was clearly making bad decisions in politics or in his personal life. I just didn’t get how two very smart women could fall for that.
I also found his wooing of both women icky. His severe countenance contrasted with the flowery language of his letters made them hard to read. Plus his weirdly intimate friendships with other women, even after his wife’s objections, made me angry. I don’t think Woodrow was a good husband and can’t imagine how his rigidity affected both women as they tried to make his world perfect. I didn’t like him as a person or a president.
Ellen seemed like a meek woman who didn’t know how to handle Woodrow’s distant yet constant neediness. I like how she had her art to return to, her only real refuge from his world. I was cheering her along as I read about her art sales and how she also was focused on reform causes. She humanized Woodrow’s policies.
Edith was an interesting woman to learn about, especially as a Virginian. She was such a go-getter and seemed like a fun woman to know. However, her blind devotion to Woodrow was inexplicable to me. I can see Ellen being like this as she was a young, sheltered woman when she married, but Edith was a worldy widow in her forties when she married Woodrow. How did she reconcile her independence with this need to be dedicated to him and to downplay her own actions? Maybe it was just sheer love.
Travels with the Wilson Women
Ellen’s travels led her from Georgia to New Jersey to Washington, DC while Edith was a Virginian who made the nation’s capital her home.
Washington, DC
You can visit Edith and Woodrow’s final home where they both died on S Street in Washington. It’s on my list to visit soon – it reopens for the season next week! I especially want to take the special tour on the three generations of Wilson women and how they impacted the president.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
In the First Ladies exhibit, you can see the china Edith purchased right before leaving the White House on display as well as one of her beautiful black evening gowns. Ellen’s dress and Edith’s evening cape along with several dresses and hats are in the archives and not on display.
See Edith’s final resting place in this beautiful cathedral.
Virginia
Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum, Wytheville
I have done the fascinating tour at Edith’s birthplace and really felt how it must have been for a young, ambitious girl to grow up in such humble surroundings. You can see why she left for Washington at the age of eighteen and never looked back. The owners of the museum have done a great job with preservation and are now working on restoration. Just down the street is St. John’s Church where Edith and Norman were married and where Edith installed a stained glass in honor of her parents. And don’t miss staying at the neighboring Bolling Wilson Hotel to learn even more about Edith!
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, Staunton
This museum includes Woodrow’s birthplace and an excellent museum about Woodrow’s time in office, including a moving WWI trench exhibit and his still-working car. There are many artifacts including Ellen’s artwork.
I loved seeing Woodrow and Edith’s wedding invitations and some of the White House wool leftover from Edith’s war work!
Martha Washington Inn, Abingdon
You can now stay in Edith’s old boarding school that she hated! Have a rest in the Edith Wilson parlor and explore its beautiful grounds. I stayed here a long time ago and was struck by its elegance and rich history.
The Homestead, Hot Springs
Spend some time at this grand resort where Edith and Woodrow honeymooned. It’s great for families as well as couples!
New Jersey
Prospect House, Princeton
This is where Ellen and Woodrow lived while he served as president of Princeton University. You can still see the gardens that Ellen designed in the university’s seal!
72 Library Place, 82 Library Place, and 25 Cleveland Lane, Princeton
These are the known homes of Ellen and Woodrow while in Princeton. They all seem to still be standing and remain private homes.
Shadow Lawn, West Long Branch
This mansion is the one Edith called “awful” on her first impression. It is grand and ostentatious and is now a part of Monmouth University. It was the place where Woodrow ran his second campaign and Edith grew to enjoy spending time there. Now it’s best known as Daddy Warbucks’ mansion in the 1983 movie, Annie! I have to visit this place now!
Georgia
Independent Presbyterian Church, Savannah
The manse where Ellen was born and married Woodrow seems to be gone but you can still visit the beautiful church her grandfather pastored.
This is the city where Ellen met Woodrow at the First Presbyterian Church and is now her final resting place at Myrtle Hill Cemetery (see a picture of her tombstone here). Don’t miss Ellen’s statue with its detailed historical marker in the town green!
Historic Piedmont Hotel, Gainesville
Ellen gave birth to Jessie at her aunt’s home here. Ellen was a cousin to Confederate General James Longstreet and this building now houses a historical society and museum dedicated to him.
To Learn More
Books to Read:
There are many books about Edith and her history-making time as First Lady, but not so many about Ellen.
Links are Amazon affiliate links. Be sure to see my Bookshop.org list for all of the books related to my Booking It Through History: First Ladies project.
Nonfiction:
Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson by Rebecca Boggs Roberts
My favorite of the Wilson biographies, this book will make you fall in love and be frustrated with Edith all at the same time! The writing style is easy to read and explores the challenging history just as much as the history-making events.
Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson’s First Ladies by Kristie Miller
This is the only biography of Ellen, so it’s a worthwhile read just from that perspective. The author also appears in the C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence and Image show.
My Memoir by Edith Bolling Wilson
This hard-to-find book tells Edith’s story in her own words – some factual, some not so much. I bought my copy at her birthplace!
President in Love: The Courtship Letters of Woodrow Wilson & Edith Bolling Galt, edited by Edward Tribble
If you can stomach the saccharine, this book may be interesting!
Fiction:
The President’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood
I thoroughly enjoyed this fictional look at Edith’s White House years. The ickiness of Woodrow’s courtship definitely comes through in this novel!
The Women’s March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini
Learn more about the women’s suffrage march that took place the day before Woodrow’s first inauguration in this detailed novel. Ellen is briefly mentioned.
Kids’ Books:
How the Sheep Helpd Win the War by Joyce Covey and Farron Smith
This adorable book tells the story of the sheep grazing on the White House lawn. Kids will love it!
TV Shows/Movies
C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence and Image
Wilson (1944 movie)
Podcasts
Here’s Where It Gets Interesting
Edith! – a satirical, fictional podcast – language warning
Websites
White House Historical Society
Ornament: The Wilson White House ornament honors Woodrow’s commitment to peace.
The Wilson women made a huge impact on the White House. Edith looms large in history but Ellen deserves her time in the spotlight as well.
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