While rehousing some items from the Rare Book Collection, we came across several books from the years between 1915-1919, intended for young readers in the United States. These books basically tell rousing stories about children going off to witness and even take part in the fights of the Great War. Despite what you might expect, the authors do not sugar coat modern battle.
Read MoreAfter returning from the Paris Peace Conference, Woodrow Wilson was determined to see the United States join the League of Nations, as he told the members of Congress. Still, many American politicians were unsure of whether entry into the League would be good for the United States. In order to fight for ratification, Wilson began a public speaking tour of the country in order to convince the American people to sway their senators in support of his plan.
Read MoreA 1915 letter from Colonel House in London, published in the Woodrow Wilson Papers, gives us a good idea of how that State Department encrypted their letters:
Read MoreOne hundred years ago, in June of 1919, President Wilson took a break from the peace conference in Paris to take a trip through Belgium by automobile. In a letter to his wife, after a long anecdote, Dr. Grayson mentions that he, himself, will be glad to go on the trip, suggesting the frustrations of their time facing off with diplomats in France. A memo to one of the drivers beforehand shows that this would include several cars from America and suggests the complexity of planning the tour.
Read MoreThe golf resort and spa in Hot Springs, Virginia, known as the Homestead, has been host to visitors since 1766, including many presidents. Thomas Jefferson made the trek to the Allegheny Mountains to visit the springs in 1819, attempting to ease his rheumatism.
Read MoreThe Mexican Revolution was well underway by the time that Woodrow Wilson became the American president. When the government of Porfirio Díaz failed after thirty-five years in power with a botched attempt to rig elections in 1910, a revolt and then new elections the following year brought Francisco I. Madero to power.
Read MoreOne thing we often find ourselves doing at the WWPL Library & Research Center is helping people even when we do not have what they are looking for. Suppose you read that Woodrow Wilson met Harry Houdini. You might want to find additional information about what actually happened at such an exciting event.
Read MoreDuring the nineteenth century, Mayday was one of the few holidays in Germany without any religious significance, but workers still got the day off. Typically people would enjoy the spring weather with some beer and dancing.
Read MoreEllen Wilson’s brother, Edward Axson, who graduated from Princeton, wrote to the Wilson children in 1900 about his new job, but they were probably more interested in his reports about Christmas and about his puppy, Prince. “I think he will make a good hunting dog when he gets bigger.” Prince liked to steal shoes from the mine foreman. There are references to dogs scattered throughout the collections, but nothing on the Wilson family having a dog. Margaret Wilson wrote to her father a couple of years later about Cousin Mary having a dog with distemper.
Read MoreWhile President Woodrow Wilson was in Italy as part of his triumphant tour in Europe to mark the end of the war and the negotiations for peace, he is likely to have thought of his first wife, Ellen Axson Wilson.
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