Wilson-McAdoo Collection, ca. 1859-1967

Summary

Abstract:

Three series: (1) Personal papers and records of President Woodrow Wilson's daughters Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, her husband William Gibbs McAdoo, and their two children Ellen Wilson Mcadoo Henshaw and Mary Faith McAdoo Haddad; (2) Personal papers and records of President Woodrow Wilson, his first wife Ellen Axson Wilson, and their two children Margarent Woodrow Wilson and Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre; (3) Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs of the Wilson family, and typescripts of Eleanor Wilson McAdoo's three books.

Extent:

10 linear feet (21 boxes, 2 oversize boxes, and 3 sound recordings).

Language:

English, French

Preferred citation:

Wilson-McAdoo Collection. Bernath Mss 18. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection is divided into fourteen series. Series I-IV contain personal papers and records of President Woodrow Wilson's third and youngest daughter, Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, her husband William Gibbs McAdoo, and their two children Ellen Wilson McAdoo and Mary Faith McAdoo. Series V-VIII contain personal papers and records of President Woodrow Wilson, his first wife Ellen Axson Wilson, and their first two children Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Jessie Woodrow Wilson. Series IX-X contain Wilson family clippings, photographs, and ephemera. Series XII contains the McAdoo family childrens collection. Series XIII contains Wilson family oversize materials. Series XIV contains audiovisual materials.

Series I: Eleanor Wilson McAdoo (boxes 1-7, 18-20). The largest series in the collection, containing family, personal, and professional correspondence, as well as material relating to publications, radio broadcasts, and speeches by EWA. Also includes some financial records and personal ephemera.

Series II: Ellen Wilson McAdoo (box 7). Contains a small amount of family, personal, and professional correspondence.

Series III: Mary Faith McAdoo (box 7). Contains a small amount of family and personal correspondence.

Series IV: William Gibbs McAdoo (box 8). Includes family, personal, and professional correspondence, as well as some financial and legal records.

Series V: Ellen Axson Wilson (box 9). Contains family correspondence, including cablegrams to Woodrow Wilson (1904) and photostatic copies of other correspondence to Woodrow Wilson.

Series VI: Jessie Woodrow Wilson (box 9). Contains correspondence to sister Margaret, ca. 1910-1930.

Series VII: Margaret Woodrow Wilson (boxes 9-13). Includes correspondence to Woodrow Wilson and material relating to her stay Sri Aurobindo's ashram in India, from the late 1930s to early 1940s.

Series VIII: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (boxes 14-15). Contains a small amount of outgoing personal, family, and professional correspondence, some as photostatic copies. Also includes a Wilsoniana section, with correspondence, unpublished and published material, about Wilson.

Series IX: Wilson Family Ephemera (box 15). Includes early (1859-1929) Axson family correspondence, as well as correspondence among other family members.

Series X: Wilson Family Clippings (box 16). Contains material relating to various family members, including Woodrow Wilson and Eleanor Wilson McAdoo.

Series XI: Wilson Family Photographs (box 17). Contains photographs of various family members, including Woodrow Wilson, Ellen Axson Wilson, and Eleanor Wilson McAdoo.

Series XII: McAdoo Family Childrens Collection (box 21). Includes correspondence among several family members.

Series XIII: Oversize Wilson Family Ephemera (boxes 22-23). Includes photographs and a scrapbook.

Series XIV: Audiovisual Materials. Includes sound recordings, in various formats.

Biographical / historical:

Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo (1889-1967). Youngest daughter of Woodrow and Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, born in Middletown, Connecticut, 5 October 1889. Married to William Gibbs McAdoo, at the White House, 7 May 1914. Divorced 1934. Well known public speaker and radio commentator. Author of numerous short stories and two books, The Priceless Gift, a collection of her parents love letters, and The Woodrow Wilsons, a memoir. Longstanding interest in world peace movements; present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco. Active in the United World Federalists movement. Died in Montecito, California, April 1967.

Ellen Wilson McAdoo (1915-1946). Daughter of Eleanor Randolph Wilson and William Gibbs McAdoo.

Mary Faith McAdoo Bush (1920-1988). Daughter of Eleanor Randolph Wilson and William Gibbs McAdoo. Born in New York, 6 April 1920. Graduate of Girls Collegiate School of Claremont. Published several books, including a biography of her father. Died in Santa Barbara, California, November 1988.

William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941). Born near Marietta, Georgia, 31 October 1863. Married Eleanor Randolph Wilson, 1914. Secretary of the Treasury and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson; U.S. Senator from California, 1933-1939. Resident of Santa Barbara, California. Died 1 February 1941.

Ellen Louise Axson Wilson (1860-1914). Wilson's first wife, born in Savannah, Georgia, 15 May 1860. Married to [Thomas] Woodrow Wilson, from 24 June 1885 to her death, at the White House, 6 August 1914.

Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre (1887-1933). Second daughter of Woodrow and Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, born Gainesville, Georgia, 28 August 1887. Married at the White House, Washington, D.C., 25 November 1913, to Francis Bowes Sayre, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, diplomat, and sometime Assistant Secretary of State. Died 15 January 1933.

Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886-1944). Eldest daughter of Woodrow and Ellen Louise Axson Wilson. Spent several years in India, late 1930s-early 1940s, as a follower of Sri Aurobindo.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). Born in Staunton, Virginia, 28 December 1856. Married Ellen Louise Axson, 1885. Inaugurated President of Princeton University, 1902. Elected Governor of New Jersey, 1910. 28th President of the United States, 1913-1921. Died 3 February 1924.

Physical location:

Boxes 1-16 (SRLF); Boxes 17-21 (Del Norte); Boxes 22-23 (Del Norte Oversize); sound recordings (Annex 2).

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Related resources

Related material:

Manuscript Sources:

• McAdoo, William Gibbs. William Gibbs McAdoo letters to his wife, Eleanor (Wilson) McAdoo, 1914-1938. University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library (BANC MSS 70/127c).
• William Gibbs McAdoo Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
• Woodrow Wilson Papers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. Available on microfilm, 540 reels. Covers Wilson's personal life and public career.
• Woodrow Wilson Papers, 1913-1921. The National Archives, Washington, D.C. Includes presidential documents.
• Woodrow Wilson Papers. Princeton University Library, Princeton, N.J. Includes personal correspondence with many of Wilson's closest friends and associates.

Published Sources:

• Axson, Stockton. Brother Woodrow: A Memoir of Woodrow Wilson by Stockton Axson, ed. Arthur S. Link. Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Supplementary volume. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. Memoir, covering Wilson's years as President of Princeton, by his brother-in-law and friend.
• Craig, Douglas B. After Wilson: The Struggle for the Democratic Party, 1920-1934. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Includes chapter on William Gibbs McAdoo.
• Elliot, Margaret Randolph Axson. My Aunt Louisa and Woodrow Wilson. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944. Recollections by the sister of Wilson's first wife.
• McAdoo, Eleanor Randolph Wilson, in collaboration with Margaret Y. Gaffey. The Woodrow Wilsons. New York: Macmillan Co., 1937. Memoir by Wilson's daughter.
• McAdoo, Eleanor Randolph Wilson. The Priceless Gift: The Love Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson. New York: McGraw-Hill and Co., 1962. A selection, compiled by their daughter.
• McAdoo, William Gibbs. Crowded Years: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo. Boston: Jonathan Cape, 1931.
• Mulder, John M. Woodrow Wilson: A Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. Contains numerous further references to manuscript and published sources.
• Saunders, Frances Wright. Ellen Axson Wilson: First Lady between Two Worlds. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
• Wilson, Woodrow. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966-1994. Extensive multi-volume edition of public and personal papers.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Presidents -- Family.

Names:

McAdoo family -- Archives.
Wilson family -- Archives.
McAdoo, Eleanor Wilson, 1889-1967 -- Archives.
McAdoo, Ellen Wilson, 1915-1946.
Bush, Mary Faith McAdoo, 1920-1988.
McAdoo, William Gibbs, 1863-1941.
Wilson, Ellen Axson.
Sayre, Jessie Woodrow Wilson, 1887-1933.
Wilson, Margaret Woodrow, 1886-1944.
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.

Restrictions:

Part of collection is stored off-site; advance notice required for retrieval.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred citation:

Wilson-McAdoo Collection. Bernath Mss 18. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:

UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections

UC Santa Barbara Library

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US

Contact:

(805) 893-3062

special@library.ucsb.edu

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