toured last year. to learn more about our tour, visit c-span.org/localcontent. in march of 1921 president woodrow wilson and his wife edith left the white house and moved into a home on s street, near embassy row in washington. operated by the national trust for historic preservation, the woodrow wilson house is now a museum. executive director frank aucella gave american artifacts a tour of the home and discussed the life and presidency of woodrow wilson. this is part one of a two-part program. >> woodrow wilson moved into this house in march of 1921. so 90 years ago on the old inauguration day, he left the white house, attended the ceremony for president harding and then immediately move in to a private home here in washington, d.c. really among few of our presidents ever choose to live

in washington, d.c., in their post-presidential years. woodrow wilson decided this would be the perfect place for him to reside since his second wife, edith, was a washingtonian. here in the entrance hall of the house, visitors who visited wilson were greeted at the front door. wilson's brother-in-law served as his secretary, took his appointments. few visitors visited the house, however, people who did arrive would see wilson generally about 3:00 in the afternoon. wilson would then either accompany them on a motor ride through the parklands in and around washington, d.c. if they were family guests, they would be invited to dine here in the house. and on saturday evenings they would attend the theater. they'd go to keith's vaudeville house. wilson was a regular attendee and each saturday evening the crowds would wait expecting the former president at that time to

take his seat up in the balcony. the house was built in 1915. the wilsons were the second occupants of the house. mrs. wilson had the task of finding a suitable home for her husband. wilson had received the nobel peace prize in december of 1920. along with that came a $50,000 cash award. wilson used that money to put a deposit down on the house. and ten friends, friends from princeton and white house associates, helped make the $150,000 asking price for the house. the great thing about the house and collections here, is that everything was brought in with the wilsons when they moved in in 1921. so items from wilson's home in princeton, items from edith wilson's home here in washington, and the things they had acquired together in the white house, including gifts of state, personal gifts, wedding gifts were all brought here to s street. they remain here today, and so

we serve as the presidential museum for woodrow wilson. great things in the collection, including his cabinet chair, that we see behind the desk. as tradition, the cabinet on the last day of a president's administration reach into their own pockets and pay the government for the president's chair. that was brought here to s street. along with other great items. including his inaugural bible. one of our treasures here in the case, unfortunately, it's too delicate, it's just a soft bound bible. so it's usually kept closed here in the case. but inside there's an engraved sheet, has wilson's signatures for the governorship of new jersey in 1910 as well as two signatures for each of his inaugurations, in 1913 and 1916. the painting, again, really sums up wilson and his career. it was done in 1945, and mrs.

wilson added it to the library here. it shows a map of europe, and those countries outlined in red are really the countries that came in to being at versailles at the time when world leaders gathered with woodrow wilson to redraw a map of modern europe. countries like poland, czechoslovakia, yugoslavia, many of which were could out in wilson's 40 points, his terms of peace he issued in january 1918 came into being after the versailles peace conference of 1918. as a scholar, author of over 28 volumes, countless articles. you see in the glass case toward the back of the room here a collection of wilson's writings. along with his library of books. there are 9,000 volumes here in the house.

wilson had promised his collection of books to the library of congress. and after his death, the books moved over to the library of congress. his papers also were given to the library of congress. the last of our presidents in the jeffersonian tradition to give their libraries. now our presidents have presidential libraries and museums, operated by the national archives. or national park service unit. wilson house is a private nonprofit organization, operated by the national trust for historic preservation. mrs. wilson gave the house to the national trust in 1955 and lived here until her death in 1961. we opened as a museum in 1963. mrs. wilson called this a small home suited to the needs of a gentleman. again, wilson's library and you see his very comfortable chair, along with one of his walking sticks would sit there

close to the fire in the winter months. edith sat in this very comfortable rocker here, wilson would greet his guests who would be seated at either one of the chairs here in the room or across the way on the very comfortable sofa. friends from his administration, cabinet members were frequent visitors to wilson here on s street. the premier of france, lloyd george, the prime minister of great britain visiting wilson here. it was as i said, a regular routine. you would meet with wilson about 3:00 in the afternoon. and then you would have about 45 minutes with him. again, he was recovering from that illness that forced him to leave office, and, however, was able to entertain guests with conversation.

if you weren't invited to the theater, wilson's secretary john randolph bowling would go down to the local movie house and get a feature film. douglas fairbanks and mary pickford gave that projector to wilson, the first of our presidents to have a theater in the white house. over the library bookcase, they put up a movie screen. so guests would gather again, pull up some chairs and watch films. if you visit our website today, woodrowwilsonhouse.org, you can see a list of the films that the wilsons enjoyed here in the house. along with john randolph bolling's daybook. we have a great understanding of their day-to-day activities in the years that wilson lived here in this house. gave a few press interviews from the house. but, again, when he moved in, he really wanted to not use his status as a former president as a means of influencing anyone.

he actually told a reporter that he wanted to teach former presidents on how to behave. that was oiz his whole aspect of how he no longer wished to influence policy. but he did still have opinions. he gave from this room a radio address, it was the first remote, nonstudio broadcast ever given in the nation here on the anniversary of armistice day in 1923. where wilson was still fighting for our participation in his league of nations. >> woodrow wilson became president in 1913. war erupted in europe a year later. america entered in 1917. when the war was won, wilson sailed for france to receive their heartfelt welcome. at the peace conference, he worked tirelessly to weld the covenant of the league of nations into the versailles treaty.

the president returned to america and still more honors were heaped upon him. for his labors for peace, he was awarded the nobel prize. but his endeavors had taken a severe toll. although the president continued to toil with his remaining energies for lasting world peace. >> let's go over to the dining room. on our way you'll see the beautiful solarium, sunroom. unlike the older neighborhoods in washington, capitol hill or georgetown, embassy row is a 20th century plan. so there's wonderful gardens, landscapes. we see beyond the terrace garden a busy massachusetts avenue. in here, you turn around 24th

street onto a very quiet residential street, 2340 s street. during the summer months, wilson and mrs. wilson enjoyed this room, taking in the sun, going through his mail and reading up on the latest newspapers. they had a small radio set, where wilson could listen to the broadcasts of baseball games. he was an avid baseball fan. through here, however, is the dining room. woodrow wilson was a very formal man. he felt uncomfortable coming to the table not being fully dressed. since he had suffered the stroke in 1919, it was a grueling activity for him to be dressed in his dinner jacket and formally attired and then to be able to sit through the rigors of a three-hour meal. wilson would generally excuse himself from dinner after guests were entertained in the library. perhaps viewed a film in the library, and then edith wilson would have her seat here and

preside over dinners as she does with the portrait of herself hanging over the dining room here in the house. a lot has been said about edith wilson and her stewardship of the country. and it was really the stewardship of woodrow wilson in that period after wilson's illness. more and more scholars are looking at this time. and, yes, she did shield associates, cabinet members. members of congress from woodrow wilson. however, she never really interfered with the day-to-day operations of the government. the cabinet members were running their agencies. congress was doing its business. and it was through edith and dr. grayson that messages were getting in and out of the president's sick room. and again scholars are telling us now that it was generally only that four-month period between october of 1919 and then

just after the first of the year when wilson regained his ability to sit up and to attend the matters directly. so that whole issue of was edith wilson the first president of the united states, certainly warrants a lot more scholarship. however, i certainly believe that she was basically stewarding the health of her husband and not running the country. here in the dining room, we have it set for a small family meal. edith was a member of the bolling family of virginia. large virginia family. her mother still lived in washington, d.c., and her brother john randolph bolling lived in here on s street. they were frequent guests to the house. wilson's physician, dr. grayson was also a frequent visitor to the house. along with his wife would dine

on many occasions here in the household. wilson's daughter margaret, who was living in new york would be a frequent visitor as would wilson's other daughters, jesse who married a promising diplomat named francis bosaire. eleanor mcado who married wilson's treasury of the secretary, william gibbs mcado. the kitchen is on the ground floor of the house, so isaac and mary, who the wilson's brought with them from the white house service continued to help maintain the house and cook the meals. the service pantry is through the leather door toward the back of the room. and very much a formal house. edith may have called this a small home suited to the needs of a gentleman, but there are 28 rooms in this small house. and though the scale is small and comfortable, it's a rather large house. wilson enjoyed as a southerner

born in virginia, grew up in georgia, south carolina, north carolina, enjoyed his hams. each meal was always started with a soup. edith wilson was particularly fond of mock turtle soup. there were always cheese straws and various other tidbits on the table. and each meal was followed by a light dessert. wilson wasn't fond of heavy cakes and sweets, however, he did enjoy a simple custard or a pudding at the end of most of his meals. certainly, you know, this room has been called one of the most beautiful serving spaces in all of washington, d.c. the butler's pantry here on s street enjoys this beautiful

palladium window, in order to maintain the balance on the front of the house. the architect thought he would -- felt that he needed to include another full palladian window. this was not a public part of the house, it was a service space. he didn't, however, want people to be able to look in from the street and see folks washing dishes, so he moved the sink into the room a little bit, and to maintain the sense of symmetry that was one of the hallmarks of his work, he made sure he created balance by putting two pipes. one does absolutely nothing, the other does vent the sink, so that again the sink would still be functional. it is the original sink. it's a zinc sink. this soft nickel-style metal that is coated in zinc, that was meant to be quiet and not damage the fine china and crystal. which never left this floor of the house. edith wilson had certainly many, many, many services to choose

from. including a set of dessert plates that were given to her by the king and queen of belgium, which depicts scenes of belgium. much of which had been devastated during the first world war. we have on loan to us a piece of a set of the wilson's state service. again, edith wilson was the first first lady to actually choose an american company to create a state service. she chose lenox of new jersey. still used today, and certainly the hallmark of many of the state services at the white house to follow. she never had a chance along with president wilson to use it, since the war had intervened, the order had to be put on hold and it wasn't really delivered to the white house until after the wilsons had left office.

going downstairs we continue on the servants' part of the house. very functional metal stairway. had the best communication from the servants' quarters on the fourth floor, all the way down to a wine cellar in the basement. this is a great treat for your viewers to be able to see. a president's wine cellar, and indeed, president's wine cellar during the prohibition years. you know, the '20s were roaring when woodrow wilson lived here. the other great historical note is that you could own liquor, you could have and possess spirits. you couldn't sell or trade spirits. and so wilson was able to move the contents of his cellar from the white house. the treasury agents came in and

inventoried the contents of wilson's wine cellar and transported it here to s street just after they moved in. we have one bottle which is great fun, which is whiskey and it says there beneath the dust, for medicinal purposes only. so there were some exceptions to prohibition. some great bottles of french wine going back into the 1920s. and some of the items certainly remain in the cellar, some vintage from 1949. that edith wilson probably enjoyed in her time in the house as well. you know, we associate woodrow wilson with prohibition. but as a constitutional amendment, wilson really played no large role in its promotion, and in fact, wilson vetoed the act. it passed over his veto and the

act was what meant -- led to the -- how the amendment would be enforced. so wilson said there was no prohibition. there was no temperance in the prohibition amendment. he was certainly in favor of temperance but not a strict prohibition. this leads us into the kitchen here. waiter brought the flood up to the second floor. sort of inconvenient to have a kitchen below your dining room, but indeed very much as practiced in the time, we see an old icebox. we also know from that tax inventory that the wilsons also had an electric refrigerator. here are some of mrs. wilson's grandmother's china. a full set of flow blue porcelain.

>> we have the servant call box. again it was a very modern house. it ran very efficiently. and as you can see, a servant could be called from anywhere in the house. the nurse's room, the dining room, the bell would ring and it still rings today, actually. you could push one of the little mother of pearl buttons that are discreetly hidden in some of the door jambs and moulding in various rooms of the house. you press a button and someone would appear. most likely it would be the isaac. and here we see isaac scott, as i mentioned, accompanying president wilson and one of wilson's walking sticks here on the front of s street. isaac here with his wife may. and mary served as the cook here in the house. and they lived up on the fourth

floor of the house. our curator john powell has done a lot of great work in the lives of isaac and mary scott. they actually had been brought to the white house by edith wilson and worked at the white house, and then here to s street and stayed with edith wilson until she bought them a home in the 1950s. so actually stayed here on s street. here in the kitchen in the house, again state-of-the-art for 1920, in the pantry you can still see some of the early packaging. campbell's soups and kelloggs products, a bottom ol of tabasco and heinz ketchup and maxwell house coffee on the range there. this was again a modern house when it was built in 1915.

again always electrified, always had a modern heating system. oh, an old steam coal-fired steam boiler system. and we still use these old radiators today. part of our modernization that we are envisioning for the centennial is to do a new geothermal state-of-the-art system that will be certainly more energy-efficient, perhaps offset with some solar panels up on the roof on the top of the house that would not be visible from the street. all right. well, beyond the beautiful brick facade of the house on s street in northwest washington, d.c. is the drawing room. two great grand windows that overlook s street. but one floor above street levellers it's an american-style townhouse. -- wadney butter woods bit the

house in 1915 for fairbanks and his family. the wilsons used the drawing room again as a very formal room as it would have been for any family in the 1920s. the large piano that's in the room came from the white house family quarters. it was actually used in the family quarters at the white house and the wilsons moved it here. wilson's daughter margaret was a pianist, an accomplished musician. margaret never married. she had her singing career. she recorded for columbia records, did a red cross tour during the first world war, and used this piano both at the wilson's homes in princeton as well as in the white house for eight years. on the piano we see some popular music from the time, including some campaign songs. one of our favorite certainly "we take our hats off to you, mr. wilson" and "four more years

in the white house should be the nation's gift to you." these were re-election songs for the campaign in 1915-1916. >> wilson was on many many occasions seen walking out of the white house grounds. he actually purchased this painting in 1915 from the corcoran gallery of art, which again is still across from the white house today. it's an elliott clark landscape. and elliott clark was a contemporary of wilson's first wife, ellen, who in her own right was a painter. she painted the painting that we see across the room here of the madonna and child. this is a painting that she painted in the 1890s while wilson was a professor at princeton university. and it hung in each of the wilson's homes, at library place in princeton and prospect house when wilson was the president of the princeton university and in

the white house for eight years. we know from the accounts of wilson's funeral which was conducted in this room in 1924 that this painting hung above the casket. the gifts of state that wilson received, again first of our american presidents to travel to europe while president, less than a month after the signing of the armistice in november of 1918, woodrow wilson boarded a ship and headed off to europe to personally negotiate the treaty that would bring an end to the first world war and to put forth his concept, his covenant of the league of nations. before the treaty got under way the talks got under way at versailles, wilson had the occasion to visit great britain where he was received by king george v at buckingham pal as, actually wilson celebrated his birthday with the king and queen mary and was presented with their presentation portraits

here that we see here in the drawing room. and wilson would become the first american president to have an audience with the pope. wilson met with pope benedict xv who wilson actually had corresponded. benedict also was concerned in the area of peace and finding a peaceful solution to the first world war, which was devastating europe and had corresponded with wilson prior to the war's conclusion and actually prior to our involvement in the war. so wilson when in rome decided that he would make an official visit and had the first american president to have an audience with the pope. to mark the occasion, pope benedict gave wilson this wonderful mosaic that was done in the vatican workshops. the painting over the mantle, wilson acted in 1918 and sent american troops to help quell

the turkish invasion of armenia. and for this time people of armenia gave wilson this wonderful painting called "esperanze" or hope. aside from the piano the tappest triwas a wedding gift since wilson married edith in december of 1915. he chose not to have a large, elaborate white house wedding. they had a small private ceremony from edith's house on 20th street. however, the gifts certainly were quite magnificent. the french ambassador sent this tapestry over to mrs. wilson to choose after she returned from her honeymoon. ike hoover, who was the famous celebrated usher, chief usher at the white house for over 40 years, called mrs. wilson down and said, "madam, the french ambassador is here and he has some gifts for you to choose as a wedding gift." and edith says, "oh, well by all

means please escort the ambassador upstairs." and hoover said, "no, madam, you'll need to come down to the east room." well, that should have been an indication that it was no small gift. ambassador had brought along three tapestries that were here in the united states at the panama pacific exposition in san francisco in 1915. wilson, we may add, opened the panama canal to trade in 1915 and to celebrate the opening of the panama canal a wonderful exhibition was held in san francisco. so in the french pavilion where these works of france, including these gobelan tapestries. so edith came down to the east room, and the usher had rolled out these beautiful full-length tapestries. and the ambassador said, please, choose whichever that you like. and she was particularly fond of this one, which actually depicts

a marriage scene. the marriage of eros and psyche from greek mythology. it's a riotous occasion. the tapestry would become a little bit of a problem because edith wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with it. certainly there was not even in the white house a place to hang it. and she had quietly asked the ambassador at a later occasion, well, i'd love to leave this to the national museum, to the smithsonian, and perhaps they c can display it. the ambassador protested and said, no, madam, the french government gives plenty of things to the national museum. this was a wedding gift, this was a personal gift. so when edith set out to find a suitable home for her husband to move to after leaving office, she had the dimensions of this tapestry written down on a little card. she did okay. she was able to fit the width of