American Homespun for the President's House: Ellen Axson Wilson and the Decoration of the Blue Mountain Room
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Date
1998
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Publisher
Woodrow Wilson House
Abstract
An Exhibition Organized by the Woodrow Wilson House, A National Trust Historic Site, October 23, 1997 - April 20, 1998.
As an artist and a southerner, Ellen Axson Wilson, the wife of the twenty-eighth president of the United States, saw first hand the expert craftsmanship of women during her travels to the North Carolina mountains and understood their struggle as artists and wage earners. By decorating the White House with handcrafted fabrics, she focused wide spread attention on the lives, financial needs, and talents of mountain women. The exhibition Homespun for the President's House - Ellen Axson Wilson and the Decoration of the Blue Mountain Room is a unique opportunity to look inside the most famous house in the land for a better understanding of the compassionate spirit of artist Ellen Axson Wilson and to view striking examples of early twentieth-century American hand weaving by two extremely gifted Appalachian women, Allie Josephine Mast and Elmeda McHargue Wallzer.