Woodrow Wilson and the Women Who Inspired Him

Woodrow Wilson is a beloved Princeton figure and much is known about his career, which began as a professor and ended as President of the United States.

Much less is known about Wilson’s personal life, including the women who inspired him.

Kristie Miller, author of 2010’s “Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson’s First Ladies,” described those female influences at the 's annual meeting at The Nassau Club.

“Arthur Link, a professor at Princeton, edited 69 volumes of Wilson’s letters,” Miller told about 100 people in attendance. “He said that Woodrow Wilson was utterly dependent on the women in his life to fulfill his powers."

“Ellen got him to the White House,” Miller said. “(Ellen’s) devotion kept him steady. She made her home a refuge for him. She gave him tactical advice about people. She helped him with his speeches.

“Mary Peck provided friendship and passion as the pressure grew on Woodrow Wilson to run for the White House. Edith kept him in the White House. She preserved his health by urging him to play and when he did become ill she lied about it so he could stay in office.”

Wilson married Ellen Axson in 1885. Ellen studied art and spent time tutoring underprivileged children. She told her husband, “We ought to at least try to improve society.”

Ellen bore and raised the couple's three children and helped her husband read and translate political works from German into English.

When Wilson became a Princeton University professor in 1890 and later, president of the University, Ellen regularly hosted faculty and students, even advocating for the adoption of a University honor code based on student concerns.

“Being a professor’s wife was the pinnacle of happiness for Ellen,” Miller said. “I think she was never as happy as when Woodrow Wilson was a professor here. But she wanted him to have his heart’s desire and she would do everything she could to achieve that.”

Ellen suffered personal sadness. Her father and a brother spent time in mental institutions while another brother and his family died in a tragic accident.

In May 1906, Wilson awoke on day blind in one eye due to hypertension. Because no medication existed, Wilson’s doctor prescribed vacations.

During a solo vacation to Bermuda, Wilson met Mary Peck, a woman with whom he began to correspond. Later the couple became closer.

“There is a scrap of paper in his handwriting, in his shorthand that he used, that says, 'My precious one, my beloved Mary,'” Miller said.

Yet Ellen still stood by her husband’s side as he became governor of New Jersey in 1910. When Wilson decided to run for president, Ellen brokered a meeting between him and Williams Jennings Bryan, whom Wilson had insulted. Jennings ultimately endorsed Wilson, helping him earn the Democratic nomination.

Ellen dreaded going to the White House because three of the five previous first ladies had either died or become very ill there.

But once in Washington, D.C., Ellen sold her art for charity, designed the famous Rose Garden (modeled after her garden in Princeton) and advocated tearing down and rebuilding the dark, dirty and unsanitary housing behind the Capital in favor of new construction

“I think Ellen was the first to campaign for a cause outside of her husband’s,” Miller said.

Yet by the spring of 1914, Ellen could no longer get out of bed due to kidney disease, with which she was diagnosed during her third pregnancy. She died soon after, leaving Wilson devastated. 

But Wilson did not turn to Mary Peck as their relationship had already cooled.

In 1915, he met Edith Bolling, a vivacious woman 15 years younger. Less than nine months later, they married.

Wilson was narrowly reelected president and shortly after his inauguration, the U.S. entered World War I.

Edith was a Red Cross volunteer and helped her husband decode message from Europe, while at the same time making her husband relax by playing golf.

Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 and Edith lied about his condition to keep her husband in office. She controlled whom he saw and the issues discussed. Wilson’s term ended 18 months later and he died three years after that. Edith devoted many years trying to resurrect her husband’s image.

“All three woman associated with Woodrow Wilson paid a high price,” Miller said. “Ellen died in the White House. Mary wanted to be in the White House, but she wound up in a boarding house on the wrong side of the tracks. Edith had to nurse an invalid in the White House."

Yet all of the women may have agreed their experiences were worthwhile, Miller said, excerpting part of a letter that Ellen wrote to her husband near her death.

“She wrote him, ‘It has been a most remarkable life history I’ve ever even read about and to think that I have lived it with you. I wonder if I am dreaming and will wake up and find myself married to a bank clerk.’” 

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Wilson's election as President of the United States. The art of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson is currently on display at the Historical Society of Princeton's Updike Farmstead Location, 354 Quaker Road. Additional events are planned.