President Wilson’s First Lady

It’s a mistake to treat these private love letters as a Victorian bit of lace, with their old-fashioned courtship in which young Woodrow rejoiced because Ellen Axson signed her letters to him not merely “Sincerely yours,” but “Sincerely your friend,” or when she progressed from “Mr. Wilson” to “Mr. Woodrow” to “My dear friend,” or even to wonder at the ardent passion which seeps through. More important is the sheer ability of Ellen Axson Wilson, her wisdom, and her powerful will. The picture of her in the American mind has been that of a gentle, sweet woman, not too intelligent. Gentle she was, and sweet. But her political understanding and strength have been overshadowed by the glittering second Mrs. Wilson.

These letters show Ellen as one of the greatest of our Presidents’ wives. In intelligence perhaps only Mrs. John Adams and Mrs. Herbert Hoover rank above her. She was a Southern girl, brought up in the small town of Rome, Georgia, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She was trained in the Greek and Latin classics and was free of the gushing supposed to be the mark of a Southern girl.

HW

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Helen Woodward

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It’s a mistake to treat these private love letters as a Victorian bit of lace, with their old-fashioned courtship in which young Woodrow rejoiced because Ellen Axson signed her letters to him not merely “Sincerely yours,” but “Sincerely your friend,” or when she progressed from “Mr. Wilson” to “Mr. Woodrow” to “My dear friend,” or even to wonder at the ardent passion which seeps through. More important is the sheer ability of Ellen Axson Wilson, her wisdom, and her powerful will. The picture of her in the American mind has been that of a gentle, sweet woman, not too intelligent. Gentle she was, and sweet. But her political understanding and strength have been overshadowed by the glittering second Mrs. Wilson.

These letters show Ellen as one of the greatest of our Presidents’ wives. In intelligence perhaps only Mrs. John Adams and Mrs. Herbert Hoover rank above her. She was a Southern girl, brought up in the small town of Rome, Georgia, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She was trained in the Greek and Latin classics and was free of the gushing supposed to be the mark of a Southern girl.