Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson
Channel: US National Archives
Date: 2023-03-23

The first woman President was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She hightailed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power. In 1919 (before women could even vote), she effectively became the first woman President of the United States when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. Beautiful, brilliant, charismatic, catty, and calculating, she was a complicated figure whose personal quest for influence reshaped the position of First Lady into one of political prominence. Untold Power is a nuanced portrait of Edith Wilson written by Rebecca Boggs Roberts, a leading historian on woman suffrage and power.

Women’s History Month programming is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Denise Gwyn Ferguson.