Edith Bolling Galt Wilson - Infinite Women

Born: 15 October 1872, United States
Died: 28 December 1961
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Edith Bolling, Edith Galt

The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.

Edith Bolling Galt was a 42-year-old widow when she met Wilson in 1915. Although she’d lived near or in Washington, D.C. for most of her life, she had little interest in politics. A friendship with Wilson’s cousin led to a chance meeting, and they married only nine months later. As First Lady, she was kept apprised on state matters, even decoding secret transmissions during World War I. She also did her best to keep her husband’s health from failing faster than it already was, begging him not to subject himself to a national tour to rally support for his League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations that would earn him the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. It was during this campaign that he would suffer what was likely the first in a series of strokes in September 1919, with a severe one on October 2 incapacitating him for the remainder of his presidency. With Wilson refusing to leave office, the First Lady would later write,
So began my stewardship. I studied every paper, sent from the different Secretaries or Senators, and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband.
Although she steadfastly denied making any decisions herself, she was a powerful gatekeeper dictating who, and what, her husband saw. A White House employee later recalled, “If there were some papers requiring his attention, they would be read to him—but only those that Mrs. Wilson thought should be read to him. Likewise, word of any decision the president had made would be passed back through the same channels.” As one historian observed, “She was, essentially, the nation’s chief executive until her husband’s second term concluded in March of 1921.” Wilson died a mere three years after leaving office, with the now twice-widowed Edith outliving him by more than 37 years, publishing My Memoir in 1938.

The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

Raised in a formerly prominent Southern aristocratic family, Edith Bolling moved to Washington, DC and married jeweler Norman Galt in 1896. A few years after her husband’s unexpected death, Edith Galt caught the attention of widower President Woodrow Wilson, who was grieving the loss of his first wife, Ellen. The two fell in love and became inseparable, marrying in 1915. As First Lady, Edith Wilson frequently traveled with her husband, and even ran the affairs of the Executive Branch after Woodrow Wilson fell ill in 1919.

Timeline
1872 Edith Bolling is born in Wytheville, Virginia.
1896 Edith Bolling marries Norman Galt.
1908 Norman Galt dies, leaving Edith Bolling Galt to manage his jewelry store.
1915 Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt announce their engagement in October and are married in December.
1918 Edith Wilson travels with her husband throughout Europe.
1919 Woodrow Wilson has a stroke and Edith Wilson de facto controls the executive branch during his illness.

The following is republished from the US Mint. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was born in Wytheville, Virginia, on October 15, 1872. At 15, she went to Martha Washington College to study music and later to a smaller school in Richmond. She married her first husband, Norman Galt, in 1896, and he died unexpectedly in 1908. Through friends, she met President Wilson and they married on December 18, 1915. She is often described as America’s first woman president because of the important role she played after her husband’s massive stroke in 1919. She chose which visitors he saw and what papers he read, though she insisted she never made a single decision on public affairs. After they left the White House in 1921, President and Mrs. Wilson lived in a comfortable home in Washington, where he died in 1924. She lived on there nearly 40 years until December 28, 1961, the anniversary of her husband’s birthday.