Scope and Content Note for Additions to the Collection
The Addition to the papers of Woodrow Wilson has been organized as Series 20 of the collection. Subseries are arranged according to the year each addition was processed. They contain correspondence, legal documents, speech notes, and printed matter that span the years 1881-1957, with the bulk concentrated in the period 1892-1921. None of the material in the Addition is microfilmed. An index to the general correspondence in the Addition follows the container list.
The 1978-1980 Addition is largely a file of correspondence between Edith Bolling Galt Wilson and Woodrow Wilson dated 1915-1923 that was formerly restricted. Although primarily love letters, political and international events are candidly discussed. Additional family and general correspondence is included in Edith Bolling Galt Wilson's file. The president's general correspondence is arranged chronologically.
Miscellaneous documents include material from Wilson's law practice, the settlement of his estate, a publication contract dated 1923, and speech notes dated 1915. In 1918, the Paris newspaper, La Vérité, sponsored a public subscription to thank Wilson for his role in establishing the League of Nations. La Vérité presented Wilson with a compilation entitled "Au President Wilson, Hommage de la Démocratie Française," that contains the names, professions, addresses, and signatures of many French citizens and is included among the miscellany.
The 1998 Addition contains two letters. An original letter dated 1918 from Wilson to Max Fructer concerns a complaint by Fructer's brother. A photostatic copy of a letter dated 1912 is from Wilson to Mrs. S. R. Moore, Wilson's childhood playmate from Virginia.
The 2015 Addition includes a fourteen-page unsigned carbon copy letter from Berlin dated 12 August 1914 describing war developments and giving details concerning mobilization in Germany. The letter may have been written by Ambassador James W. Gerard to either Wilson or to Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison. Another four-page carbon copy letter, likely written by Garrison in, May of 1915, also concerns the war in Europe and specifically suggests possible American responses to the sinking of the Lusitania. Other letters in the 2015 Addition are from Wilson to Garrison pertaining to the National Guard, to Justice Charles G. Garrison of New Jersey, and to Walter L. McCorkle regarding a fraternity invitation written while Wilson was serving as president of Princeton University. Also included are photocopies of Providence Journal newspaper clippings about Wilson's 1889 series of lectures given at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.