First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson, Georgia-born artist

About a month or more ago I was reading about events in our area.  I found out that the museum at the Berry College in Rome, Georgia, was having an exhibition, ending on November 1st, 2014, of Ellen Axson Wilson's paintings.  Ellen was the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924.)

I had been to Berry College in Rome several times, the last time in August two years ago.  It has a beautiful campus; actually it is the world's largest contiguous college campus with more than 27,000 acres (109.256 km.)  The college was founded in 1902 by Martha Berry (1866-1942.)  I took many pictures in August 2012 but never wrote a post about the college - we will go back there in the next few days to take fall color pictures.  The home of Martha Berry named "Oak Hill" has been preserved with 170 acres of gardens, trail, and more, and was opened in 1972 to visitors.  In addition the Martha Berry Museum, a large white columned building, was opened that year, too.

Ten days ago, on October 27, 2014, we drove to Rome, Georgia, to take a look at this exhibition.  It was a warm afternoon for the end of October with 86 degrees F in the shade (30C) but it cooled down in the evening.  The college is 75 miles from Atlanta (120 km) but only 49 miles from our house (79 km,) taking about one hour of driving on small roads.  Oak Hill and the museum are not on the college campus.  We did not go to visit the house again - Oak Hill - as now photographs are not allowed - they were two years ago and I took several (to be seen in a future post.)  Some trees were starting to show autumn colors and looked good against the white Martha Berry Museum building.

Since this visit I read more about Ellen Axson Wilson, her life and her art.  I also bought the museum book on the exhibition because it showed all the paintings exhibited there - photographs were no longer allowed in the museum either.  These paintings can be shown under "Fair use."

 

Ellen Axson was born in Savannah, Georgia on May 15, 1860, just about one year before the start of the Civil War and she died, aged 54, on August 6, 1914, as the First World War was starting.  In March 1866, Ellen moved to Rome, Georgia, when her father became the pastor of Rome's First Presbyterian Church (both of Ellen's grandparents were Presbyterian ministers too.)  From an early age Ellen showed a talent for art.  When she was 18 years old, one of her drawings was submitted by her teacher to the International Exposition in Paris in 1878, and she won a medal.  She graduated from Rome Female College in 1876 and attended the New York Art Student League in 1884-1885.  Below is a picture of Ellen in 1882.  (All the photos I'll be showing, under Fair use, are courtesy of President Woodrow Wilson House, a National Trust Historic Site, Washington, D.C., or the Library of Congress.)

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Virginia but soon moved with his parents to Augusta, Georgia, where his father was a Presbyterian pastor.  In 1883 when Woodrow was a 26 years old lawyer and living in Atlanta he visited his uncle in Rome, Georgia.  There he attended church at the First Presbyterian Church and saw Ellen Axson in the congregation.  Ellen, an attractive 22 years old, was wearing mourning clothes because her mother had just passed away after childbirth.  Woodrow thought she was a young widow but when he learned that she was the pastor's eldest child he arranged for an introduction to meet her father and her.  He met her again several times and proposed.  They started a correspondence as Woodrow was completing graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland (where he earned a PhD in Political Science) and Ellen was studying art in New York City.  They exchanged passionate letters, I understand, that were gathered into a book.

Ellen had thought she would become a professional artist and I believe she would have been successful.  At 18 years old she was already earning a significant income by drawing crayon portraits and selling them.  At 23, when Ellen Axson became engaged to Woodrow Wilson she was studying under leading American artists of the day at the Art Students League in New York, such as George de Forest Brush, Thomas W. Dewing, Frederick Warren Freer and Julian Alden Weir - some of their paintings are below.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

On June 24, 1885, Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson were married by her grandfather in Savannah, Georgia.  From 1885 to 1888 Woodrow was professor of political economy and public law at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.  Then he became a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey and, in 1902, president of that university.  Woodrow had ten books published including a five-volume history of the United States and a biography of George Washington.  Ellen was also an intellectual, excelled in French and German, literature and art.  She continued post graduate studies in these languages and in art. The couple had three daughters, Margaret, Jessie and Nellie and in 1902 the family moved into Prospect House, the president's house of Princeton University.  Ellen restored the mansion and redesigned the garden.  She had a fountain placed in the center of the new garden.  She also designed an exquisite stained glass window for the house depicting Aristotle that was executed in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Below is a vintage postcard of the house and garden and a painting of those gardens by Ellen.  There she entertained celebrities such as Mark Twain and African-American educator Booker T. Washington.

Even though she had polished manners, Ellen Wilson had a strong character and a social conscience.  While in New York she went to theatre shows, attended lectures at night in the city and visited museums and art galleries.  But she also volunteered as Sunday school teacher for underprivileged children with an African-American student body.  She was very interested in national politics and started a subscription to The Nation magazine.  Ellen was a devoted mother and dutiful wife, supporting her husband's political ambitions.  Woodrow Wilson became Governor of New Jersey in 1911.  Below are more of her paintings.

Starting in 1905 she studied at the Old Lyme artist colony in Connecticut.  These she learned to paint landscapes en plein air (outdoor) under the expert direction of famous painters such as Will Howe Foote, Walter Griffin, Childe Hassam, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Chauncey Foster Ryder and Robert Vonnoh.  She returned to the colony almost every year.

Ellen Wilson's paintings are classified as American Impressionist.  Light seems to flow through her paintings.  She enjoyed the interplay between texture and color.  She received excellent reviews in art competitions.  She was represented by an outstanding agent in New York City and several of her paintings were acquired by museums.  More of her paintings below.

English painter Frederic Yates (1854-1919) made a pastel portrait of Ellen that her daughter Eleanor (Nellie) declared to be an exact likeness of her mother - see below.

Woodrow Wilson won the 1912 presidential election, but before his inauguration Ellen opened, to great reviews, a one woman show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 50 of her landscape paintings.  More of her paintings below.

On March 13, 1914, Woodrow Wilson was sworn in as the 28th President of the United States.  President Wilson, Ellen and their three adult daughters moved into the White House.  Ellen redecorated the presidential bedroom with fabric, hand-woven rugs and some furnishings from poor craftswomen in Appalachia to help raise awareness and bring needed funds to that area.  She also created a small space on the 3rd floor of the White House as an art studio - but she had little time to paint.

She designed the first White House Rose Garden.  As a First Lady, Ellen's responsibilities were numerous, in addition to making all the plans for daughter Jessie's wedding in November 1913 and the May 1914 wedding of daughter Nell.  Her American Impressionist friend, Robert W. Vonnoh (1858-1933) made a portrait of Ellen with her three daughters, Margaret (1886-1944,) Eleanor (1889-1967) and Jessie (1887-1933.)  Below is Mrs. Wilson and Her Three Daughters, 1913.

 First Lady Ellen Wilson became actively involved in public and humanitarian causes.  She supported children's issues, child labor laws, and education.  She used the profit from her sketches and paintings to establish scholarships at the Martha Berry College in Rome, Georgia for poor children.  Her biggest crusade was to bring attention to the alleyway slums of Washington, DC, an area where most poor American-Africans lived.  Her activism resulted in the Alley Dwelling Act of 1914.  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, known to be active in many social issues, was said to have viewed Ellen Wilson as a "mentor."

Ellen still tried to find time, as First Lady, to paint and exhibit her paintings.  Here are two of her winter landscapes below.

The public admired her and a beautiful lake in Glacier National Park in Montana was named Lake Ellen Wilson in her honor.

She was in poor health however and losing her strength.  The doctors did not tell her until almost the end that she suffered from Bright's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the kidneys.  She died on August 6, 1914.  Her coffin traveled by train to Georgia, accompanied by her family.  She was buried next to her parents in the Myrtle Hill cemetery in Rome, Georgia.  (We are planning to visit it in the next few days.)  The Congress passed the alley-clearance bill as a tribute and in recognition of her continuous efforts to address the problem through federal legislation.

The city of Rome, Georgia, had prospered.  The newly elected Chamber of Commerce President was organizing a large event celebrating the city's progress, to be held in late October 1914.  Famous former residents of Rome, Georgia, had been invited and First Lady Ellen Wilson was to be Guest of Honor of this "Homecoming."  There was a homecoming for her, indeed, but a sad one, in August 1914, when the event was turned into a "memorial."  Buildings and bridges were draped in black and white with a multitude of flowers (sent from the US and many countries.)  Thousands of people came to pay their respects.

And so now, a hundred years after her death, the Rome Area Council for the Arts and the Martha Berry Museum were having this centennial commemoration from July to the end of October 2014, with an exhibition of 19 of her beautiful landscape paintings.  We really enjoyed seeing it.

Visiting the Archibald Smith Plantation, Roswell, Georgia

In my post of October 14, 2014, I mentioned that we had planned to visit the Archibald Smith Plantation that past week-end but instead we went to the ChalkFest festival in Marietta.  A week ago on Friday October 17, 2014, the weather was quite warm and sunny so we did go to Roswell to see the third antebellum home owned by the city of Roswell, the Archibald Smith Plantation.  Seasonal decorations had been placed by the front door - and pumpkins, of course. 

Since visiting this plantation I have read up on its history.  Archibald Smith was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1801, and had married his cousin, Anne Magill, in 1830.  They had two plantations along the coast near St. Mary, Georgia,  (below Savannah,) which were struggling financially.  The Smiths were strict and devout Presbyterians.  Another Presbyterian, Roswell King, was founding a small town in North Georgia, named after him, and invited the Smiths to come up and settle there.  Archibald Smith moved to Roswell with his wife, their four children and 30 of their slaves in 1838.  Archibald was the only farmer among the founding fathers - the others were involved in the cotton mill.  The Smith farmhouse and outbuildings were built, between 1843-1845, a mile from the Roswell town square.  The Smith plantation included 300 acres (1.2 km2) of cotton-producing land.  Below is a picture of Archibald and his wife Anne.

Three generations have lived in this house and saved many family belongings which are on display.  Arthur William Smith (1881-1960) the grandson of Archibald married Mary Norvell in 1940 and they renovated the historic home.  Arthur had studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and his wife had a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University.  The house was in the Plantation Plain-style and had been left unoccupied for 25 years.  Below is how the house looked before and after renovation.  (Courtesy Georgia Archives.)

The house, a two-story wood structure, is the standard two-story four-square, i.e. four rooms down and four room up with a central hall.  It originally had a full width one-story front porch.  Mary Norvell Smith, who was a fan of Gone with the Wind, had the original front porch replaced in 1940 with a two-story porch with square columns.  An indoor kitchen, indoor plumbing and electricity were added as well. A back view of the house shows a one-story porch.

Apart from these renovations the house has been left pretty much the same during these past 169 years.  As we entered the house, we went back in time.  A docent took us to look at several family photographs and explained the family tree.  Archibald and his wife Anne raised two daughters (who stayed single) and two sons in this plantation home.  Both sons fought in the Confederate Army.  Archibald, Jr., "Archie" (1844-1923) was the only child to marry.  Archie's son, Arthur William Smith, was the last Smith descendant who married Mary Norvell when he was almost 60 years old.  They had no children and when Mary died on New Year's Day 1981 the house passed to her niece, Josephine Skinner.  Below are the family pictures with enlargements of Archie, Mary and William Smith.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

We passed from the hall to the office library.  It has original family furnishing from the first to the last generation, such as Archibald's desk to an old television console and small portable record player.

The parlor also contains fine antiques.  When the Smiths fled Roswell during the Civil War they moved their 1833 piano to the Georgia-Florida frontier - to Valdosta, Georgia.

A black trunk can be seen in the picture above - this is William Smith's (1834-1865) trunk.  "Willie" as he was called - the other son of Archibald Smith - was stationed near Savannah during the Civil War.  As General Sherman of the Union Army was taking control of the Savannah area, Willie sent his trunk with his belongings back to the family.  Unfortunately Willie died during the long march home, two weeks after the Civil War ended.  The family was devastated.  The trunk was put away in the attic.  (Pictures below courtesy Roswell Historic and Cultural Affairs.)

There Willie's trunk stood, undisturbed, until Arthur Skinner, one of the heirs of the estate, found it in 1987 - 122 years later.  The trunk contained letters, clothing and more.  Arthur and his brother, Dr. J. Lister Skinner, selected some of the letters and published them in a book "The Death of a Confederate" (which I found second-hand and have ordered.)  Willie had written a list of the items contained in his trunk, and most of them were still there.  Below is the trunk which contained Willie's coat as well as a little box of quinine pills among other personal items.  The trunk was donated to the Smith Plantation in 2006.

A lovely seasonal arrangement was centered on the banquet-size walnut table in the dining room.  The table is original to the house.

There was also an Empire style crotch mahogany sideboard from the 1860s.

We went upstairs to view the bedrooms.  Some clothing from the 19th century was displayed as well as a "washing tub."

The last resident of the house was the housekeeper Mamie Cotton.  She started working as a cook for the Smith household in 1940 and was in their employ for 54 years.  When Arthur Smith died in 1960, Mamie Cotton moved into the house to take care of Mary Norvell Smith until Mary's death in 1981.  When the Smith property was sold to the city of Roswell one of the stipulations of the sale was that Mamie Cotton be allowed to live the rest of her life in the house.  Mamie passed away in 1994.  Here is her picture below, courtesy Roswell Historic and Cultural Affairs.

Below is the kitchen now.

On the back porch is a door going to a small room that was called a "Traveler's or Parson's Room."  It used to be left unlocked so that any passing traveler or preacher who needed a room for the night could stay there.  In the morning he would have had breakfast with the family and provided them with any news he was aware of.  Below you can see the wall of that room on the right, next to the window.

As you can see it was a warm and bright day - not much fall color showing and a temperature of 80 degree F (26.5 C) in the shade.  In 1980 the Skinner family sold 32 acres of the plantation land to the city of Roswell for a municipal complex.  Then in 1984 they sold the plantation home and 10 original outbuildings on the 8 acre-grounds for $125,000 to the city of Roswell also.  This was a much lower price than had been offered by developers to the Skinners, but they wished to have the property preserved.  The house has been opened to the public since 1992 (while Mamie Cotton still lived there.)  We walked around the house to the cookhouse, which was used as a kitchen for the plantation until 1915.  Now it is used for cooking demonstrations.

Then we walked by the caretaker's house.  Originally built in 1844 it was destroyed in 1996 when a huge tree fell on it.  A sign indicates that this was the second oldest white oak tree in the State of Georgia (250 to 300 years old.)  Below is a picture showing the tree, when standing and when it fell (courtesy Jim Skinner.)  The house is now an office.

The carriage house built in the 1850s was converted into a garage in the 1940s.

The slave cabins were torn down a long time ago but there is a slave dwelling representative of such a building.  Being close to the house this would have been used by house servants.  There is an old picture of a slave cabin, but the type that would have been for slaves in the fields.

Walking around the house and in the gardens, I was surprised to see so many tall lamp posts.  I found out that Mary Norvell Smith purchased approximately 39 London street lights from the City of London in 1960.  They were shipped on the Queen Mary.  They were electrified and placed on the Smith Plantation grounds.  Here is one below in front of the house.

Below is another London lamp post on the grounds.

Here is an interesting fact that I discovered: on the information panel in the slave cabin (shown above) I read that Archibald Smith's farm in St. Mary in coastal Georgia had been named "Appenzelle" which I thought an unusual name for a southern farm and believed it was for a reason.  I knew of Appenzell, a city and canton in Switzerland.  So I did some digging and found out that around 1730 or so the new colony of Georgia, had sent PR leaflets to Europe to entice immigrants to settle in this new southern frontier.  In 1737 two hundred Swiss immigrants from Canton Appenzell relocated close to Augusta, Georgia, near the Savannah River, in Beech Island.  The leader of these German and French speaking Swiss settlers was John Tobler.  Anna Tobler (1725-1765) came to Georgia from Appenzell and was the great-grand mother of both Archibald Smith and his wife Anne Magill Smith (they were cousins.)  So this is why Archibald Smith had called his plantation Appenzelle.   Below are photos of Appenzell (courtesy French General Consulate in Zurich) and two vintage postcards showing Appenzell costumes.

The Archibald Smith Plantation is a beautiful place but, it does not have the mountain vistas of Canton Appenzell.  I played with my photos and made the house in sepia color.

Then I used the "paint" option and made my photo of the house as a watercolor.  But in black and white, sepia, or in color, it is truly a lovely place to visit.  With the house museum, all the artifacts, buildings and structures we got a glimpse at the lives of the inhabitants of this "big house" in the antebellum Deep South.

A sale in historic Mimosa Hall

Toward the end of September I saw an estate sale advertised.  It was a 3-day sale in a historic house in Roswell, Georgia.  When I realized that it was to take place in Mimosa Hall, I decided to go, just to see the house at least.  I had seen it from the street, but could not distinguish much of the house.  So this sale was a good opportunity to get a close look at the house and see more.

Roswell is a town about 15 miles (24 km) from our home and has many historic houses.  I have already mentioned Bulloch Hall which we visited at a couple of Christmas times and during their quilt shows in the spring (here is a link, and here another link on the quilts.)  Below are some pictures I took of Bulloch Hall then.

The City of Roswell purchased 3 historic homes - which they call "A Southern Trilogy."  They are the homes of three of the families who founded this town.

In addition to Bulloch Hall, we visited the exterior of Barrington Hall a couple of times, and I'll have posts on those visits.  You can see my husband, below, sitting on Barrington Hall porch last January while I was taking some pictures of the garden.

Last Friday, October 17, 2014, we visited the third antebellum house, the Archibald Smith Plantation.  I'll also have a post on it soon.

A fourth house, Mimosa Hall, was also built in the mid-1800s, but is now in private hands.  It is very close to Bulloch Hall and the Saturday of the sale, September 20, 2014, I parked in the street, just a few yards from Mimosa Hall, right in front of the gate of Bulloch Hall.  It was a very sunny and warm day but I did not see any visitors on its grounds.  It was also the annual Arts Festival on the Square in Roswell.

Since going to this sale I have found out that Mimosa Hall was built between 1839 and 1840 for John Dunwody (1786-1858) (also spelled Dunwoody) a coastal planter who had moved to Roswell from Liberty County, near Savannah, Ga.  The house was built adjacent to Bulloch Hall because John Dunwoody's wife was the sister of Major James. S. Bulloch.  The house, built of wood, burned down the night of its housewarming.  Another house made of brick covered with stucco and scored to resemble stone, was built on the same site and called Phoenix Hall.  Below is the house in 1940 and John Dunwody (courtesy Georgia Archives.)

During the Civil War the house was a hospital. In 1869 the house was sold to General Andrew J. Hansell and was renamed Mimosa Hall (because of a large number of mimosa trees on the estate.)  He sold it 30 years later but in 1947 Granger Hansell re-purchased the house for the family (he was the great-grandson of Andrew Hansell.)  Granger's son, Edward and his wife Sylvia, lived in the house until their deaths.  Their daughter Sally now owns the house.  I understood that Sally Hansen is re-decorating the house and was selling the furnishing of her father, Edward, who passed away in 2012.  It was not easy walking on the driveway which is paved with large rocks - larger than regular cobblestones.  The garden looked very inviting with its enormous century-old trees.

Entering the house, the foyer reminded me of Bulloch Hall.  I later found out that the two houses are very much alike.  I was surprised also to see that so few people were at the sale - I guess it was because of the Arts festival.  Another large event was going on also in a nearby church.

The sale had started on Friday and by Saturday, the day I went there, many of the items had been sold, but there were still many more - furniture, china, paintings, dishes, silverware, books, etc.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I looked more at the rooms in the house rather than what was for sale.  I could not stop going to the books though and did purchase one.  It is called "Born in Paradise" by Armine von Tempski, a first 1940 edition (for $2.)  It is the true story of the young Armine on Haleakala Ranch in Hawaii - a 60,000 acres ranch.  It describes the way the island of Maui was in the early 1900s before the real estate boom and strip malls.  I think it will be a good book to read during the cold of winter.

Upstairs was a room filled with clothes and shoes.  I did not go in.  The other room had what was left of a doll house, toys, linens, more clothes and hats.  A lovely chandelier was hanging in the hall, but I don't think it was for sale.

Then I walked up to the attic.  Just as the attic in Bulloch Hall, it was rather large.  It was filled with a great variety of items, old, quaint, cute, shabby, broken and almost new.

Walking back downstairs I stopped on several steps to look at three lovely paintings.

The late Sylvia Hansell was an an accomplished artist.  Her paintings hang in some regional art galleries and in private collections.  In addition to the stairwell her paintings were being offered for sale throughout Mimosa Hall.

As I was ready to leave one of the sales associates announced that there was now a 25% discount on all items.  In addition to the book I had already selected there were two other objects I liked - a lamp in the attic, with a long and narrow unusual lampshade and one of Ms. Hansell's paintings.  I was told she painted it in the Mimosa Hall gardens.  The colors were soft and bright at the same time, in hues of lilac, purple and blue.  So I left with my three purchases.  I was also very pleased to have had the chance to visit this historic home.

UPDATE !
June 18, 2016 - I just found out that Mimosa Hall, the family home of the Hansell family for six generations, has been placed on the market.  It is listed at $3,850.000 with 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a double parlor, 6,308 interior square feet, 10 fireplaces, and heart-of-pine floors throughout.  A swimming pool, a barn and century old trees are included in the 9 acres of beautiful gardens.

When I read that 21 acres of adjoining woods are also for sale it scared me.  I just hope developers are not going to turn Mimosa Hall and Bulloch Hall into the center of new condominiums.  Selling lots around these historic homes to build gaudy, fake castles or ugly ego-busting McMansions would be a disaster for elegant Roswell (apart from the $ obtained ...) - let's hope not!

Yesterday, June 17, 2016, I published a post and at the end of it I and explained the differences between the commonly known mimosa tree in the Southern US states and the mimosa tree in the Provence area of France, with pictures.  Please click here to read it.