However, Edith did not grow up in luxury; her paternal grandfather had lost his plantation after the Civil War , and the large Bolling family lived in cramped quarters above a storefront in Wytheville, Virginia. Edith met Norman Galt, a partner in a prominent Washington , D. After a lengthy courtship of more than four years, the two were married from until Galt died unexpectedly in Edith then took over ownership of the store, overseeing its day-to-day operation while hiring a manager to handle the business minutiae.
The arrangement proved successful, as Edith earned enough income to make regular trips to Europe and motor around town in a fancy new electric car.
Her courtship with Woodrow Wilson lasted just a few months. He invited her to dinner a few weeks later, and soon began discussing matters of state with his new companion, such as whether or not to declare war on Germany after the attack on the Lusitania in May.
The smitten president typed up a press release in October announcing their engagement, which was followed by their wedding on Dec.
As first lady, Edith delegated traditional ceremonial duties to a secretary and retained a close interest in presidential affairs. A staunch supporter of John F. She was stricken with a respiratory infection later that year and passed away on December With war raging in Europe and his beloved wife Ellen dead, Woodrow Wilson was a lonely and unhappy man. But all of that changed one afternoon in , when the doors of the White House elevator opened to reveal a striking woman in walking clothes and muddy boots.
The president wasted no time introducing himself to Edith Bolling Galt, a year-old widow. Edith lived most of her life either within or near the American capital, rarely bothering to follow politics. She was born on October 15, , in the rural Virginia town of Wytheville. One of eleven children, Edith claimed a lineage of southern aristocracy extending back to Pocahontas, the 17th century Native American woman who married into the English settlement at Jamestown.
Edith married the heir of a prominent jeweler in Washington, D. Friendship with Woodrow Wilson's cousin led to the widow Galt's chance meeting of the president in the White House. Over fifteen years Wilson's junior, Edith captivated him with her charming, independent vitality. She donated the proceeds of the sale of the wool to the Red Cross, for which she also volunteered. After the war, she accompanied her husband to France, visiting hospitals and troops.
She also attended the peace conference where Wilson presented his plan for the League of Nations. The Wilsons famously introduced a flock of Shropshire sheep to the White House lawn, allowing the grounds crew to be free for wartime service. That same year, she became the first woman to sign a registration card for the U.
Food Administration, promising to follow directions and advice as administered by the government. Several babies in the front row play in the sand, oblivious to the photographer taking a group photo at Hampton's Locust Street Social Settlement on "Baby Day.
Founded and overseen by Janie Porter Bennett, the Locust Street organization offered social clubs and classes devoted to the domestic arts, agriculture, and education; recreational opportunities; and childcare support for the local Black community.
A group of women work on a large quilt spread out across a long table while several of the quilters take a break with a cup of tea. Northern philanthropists helped finance this settlement house in Virginia, as well as similar endeavors in other parts of the south. This photograph is mounted in an album that is part of the holdings at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. The printed headline at the top of the page reveals the philanthropists' stated intention to teach the mores of white society to members of the Black race here referred to as "Negroes," as they were commonly called at the turn of the twentieth century and beyond.
In a circa photograph, a group of young women and girls work on their sewing while seated on the front porch at the Locust Street Social Settlement in Hampton.
In a photograph taken circa , a group of girls in light-colored dresses pose on a seesaw in the play area at the Locust Street Social Settlement in Hampton.
This was one of several photographic prints mounted on an album page captioned "The Playground. In this circa photograph, an unidentified woman at left oversees children as they tend to a garden at the Locust Street Social Settlement in Hampton. Wilson trained her to use his personal code, entrusting her to encode his handwritten replies into clusters of numbers. She sat behind a curtain because the presence of non-delegates was prohibited.
Newsreel Footage of Woodrow Wilson In September , while on a cross-country speaking trip defending the Treaty of Versailles and the proposed League of Nations, Wilson became ill and was rushed back to Washington. In the first days of October, he suffered a major stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side and blind in one eye, the latter a problem that began with an earlier stroke.
In the meantime, Wilson developed a life-endangering urological infection. Historians have cast doubt on this version of events, arguing that a doctor would have been unlikely to advise a patient to remain in such a stressful job while also insisting he avoid stress. Among the responsibilities she took over, perhaps the most important was deciding which matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs.
The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband. More consequential, perhaps, were the circumstances that led to the failure of Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and its provisions for the League of Nations.
At issue were fourteen reservations to the treaty proposed by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, the majority leader and a Republican. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suspecting that the president may have suffered a stroke, questioned members of the White House staff. Senator Albert B. The meeting, also attended by Senator Hitchcock, went well enough to ease the political pressure. The controversy in part stemmed from a lack of constitutional guidance, which did not arrive until February 10, , and the adoption of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
It detailed the terms of succession should a president die or become incapacitated in office. In , when the former president made the first live remote national radio broadcast, honoring Armistice Day, Edith Wilson was by his side.
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