Edith Bolling Galt - Fate Postcard

Telling Herstory: Edith Bolling Galt Wilson - Wilson was the first First Lady to travel to Europe with the President. While attending functions relating to the Paris Peace conference of 1919, she was to be found among the queens and other royal women, creating further definition of the role of the President’s wife for the US and the world. A widow when she met President Woodrow Wilson after the death of his first wife, they married prior to his presidential campaign for his second term. Due to the timing of WWI, she became a First Lady who did not perform many traditional hostess duties at the White House. During the President’s post war illness, she put herself in the position of steward of his affairs, deciding what matters he heard and when. While she insists she made not executive decisions, many feel her choices created a situation where she changed the course of US history.