Ellen Axson Wilson

Ellen Louise Axson Wilson (May 15, 1860 – August 6, 1914)^[1] was First Lady of the United States from 1913 until her death in 1914, as the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson. Like her husband, she was a Southerner, as well as the daughter of a clergyman. She was born in Savannah, Georgia, but raised in Rome, Georgia. Having an artistic bent, she studied at the Art Students League of New York before her marriage, and continued to produce art in later life.

During her tenure as First Lady, she arranged White House weddings for two of their daughters. She was the third First Lady and the most recent to die during her tenancy.

Ellen Louise Axson, born in Savannah, Georgia,^[1] was the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Edward Axson, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Margaret Jane (née Hoyt) Axson. Ellen became a woman of refined tastes with a fondness for art, music, and literature. When she was eleven years old, she began studying art at Rome Female College in Rome, Georgia. After her graduation in 1876, Ellen's drawing titled School Scene was submitted to the Paris International Exposition.^[2] where it won a bronze medal for excellence.^[1]

In April 1883, she met Woodrow Wilson when he was visiting his cousin Jesse Woodrow Wilson in Rome, Georgia, on family business. At that time, she was keeping house for her widowed father. Woodrow Wilson thought of Ellen, "What splendid laughing eyes!"^[3] They were engaged 5 months later, but postponed the wedding while he did postgraduate work at Johns Hopkins University and she nursed her ailing father. Ellen's father committed suicide while hospitalized for depression, after which she went North to study at the Art Students League of New York.^[4]

Wilson, who was 28 years of age, married Ellen, age 25, on June 24, 1885, at her paternal grandparents' home in Savannah, Georgia. The wedding was performed jointly by his father, the Reverend Joseph R. Wilson, and her grandfather, the Reverend Isaac Stockton Keith Axson. They honeymooned at Waynesville, a mountain resort in western North Carolina.

That same year, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania offered Dr. Wilson a teaching position at an annual salary of $1,500. He and his bride lived near the campus, keeping her little brother Eddie with them.^[4]

Together, the Wilsons had three daughters:

• Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886–1944) - singer, businesswoman, Hindu nun (1940–44)
• Jessie Woodrow Wilson (1887–1933) - she worked three years at a settlement house in Philadelphia. She married Francis B. Sayre at the White House in 1913.^[4] They settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Sayre joined the faculty of Harvard Law School. Jessie was active in the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, and as secretary of the Massachusetts Democratic Committee.
• Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889–1967) - she married Secretary of the TreasuryWilliam Gibbs McAdoo.^[4]

Insisting that her children must not be born as Yankees, Ellen went to stay with relatives in Gainesville, Georgia for Margaret's birth in 1886 and Jessie's in 1887. But Eleanor was born in Connecticut in 1889, while Wilson was teaching at Wesleyan University.^[5]

After Edward’s death in 1905, Ellen set up a scholarship in his memory at the Berry College; the college held an Ellen Axson Wilson Homecoming event in 2014 to commemorate the centenary of her death.^[5]

Wilson's career at Princeton University began in 1890. At that time Ellen worked as researcher and translator for several of her husband’s books.^[6]

In 1898, Ellen–along with other Princeton women–founded The Present Day Club, a private women's club.^[7]

Wilson was elected as president in 1912, bringing Ellen new social responsibilities. She took refuge from such demands in her art. As First Lady, she drew sketches and painted in a studio set up on the third floor of the White House. During her time at the White House, she continued to paint, but exhibited her work under an assumed name.^[8] She donated much of her work to charity. She arranged the White House weddings of two of her daughters.^[4]

Los Wilson prefirieron comenzar su mandato sin un baile inaugural. Las recepciones de la Primera Dama eran sencillas, pero su cordialidad natural garantizaba el éxito de sus fiestas. En su primer año, convenció a su escrupuloso esposo de que sería perfectamente apropiado invitar a legisladores influyentes a una cena privada.

Wilson se crio en una familia esclavista. Como Primera Dama, dedicó grandes esfuerzos a la causa de mejorar la vivienda en los barrios marginales, en su mayoría negros, de la capital. Visitó callejones en ruinas y llevó a congresistas a visitarlos. ^{[ 8 ]} El proyecto de ley sobre callejones fue promulgado por el gobierno el día de su muerte. ^{[ 6 ]}

Murió de la enfermedad de Bright en la Casa Blanca el 6 de agosto de 1914. ^{[ 1 ]} Fue enterrada en Rome, Georgia, entre su familia en el cementerio Myrtle Hill .

En diciembre de 1915, el presidente Woodrow Wilson volvió a casarse con Edith Bolling Galt . ^{[ 9 ]}

• Texto original basado en "Biografía de la Casa Blanca" .Primeras Damas

• Burns, Lisa M. (2004). «Ellen Axson Wilson: Una reevaluación retórica de una primera dama olvidada». Inventando una voz: La retórica de las primeras damas estadounidenses del siglo XX . págs. 79-102 . 
• Miller, Kristie (2010). Ellen y Edith: las primeras damas de Woodrow Wilson . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
• Saunders, Frances Wright (1985). Ellen Axson Wilson: Primera Dama entre dos mundos . University of North Carolina Press. pág.  359.
• Weinstein, Edwin A. (2014). "CAPÍTULO XV. Un golpe inoportuno: La muerte de Ellen Axson Wilson". Woodrow Wilson . Princeton University Press. págs. 245–264 . 
• Wilson, Woodrow ; Wilson, Ellen Axson (1962). El regalo invaluable: Las cartas de amor de Woodrow Wilson y Ellen Axson Wilson . McGraw-Hill.

• "La otra esposa del presidente Wilson" . Presidentes estadounidenses . Marzo de 2007. Archivado del original el 19 de febrero de 2012.Analiza a Ellen Wilson prestando especial atención a su pintura.
• "Ellen Wilson" . Primeras Damas: Influencia e Imagen . C-SPAN .
• "Placa conmemorativa de Ellen Louise Axson Wilson " . georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu