The History of the Wilson Foundation
Anne Jennings (nee Robertson) was born on February 15, 1878 in Boston.
She was educated at Vassar and was active in the women's suffrage
movement. She married Stephen Jennings, a wealthy financier, in 1902, and
moved to Washington, DC. There she became active in the pacifist movement
prior to World War One, and a close confidant of Edith Galt, later to
become the First Lady.
![[Picture of
President Woodrow Wilson]](../images/mush/wilson.jpg)
Jennings' relationship
with Wilson is a source of speculation. Many researchers believe that she
was intimately involved with him romantically, but none can deny that
President Wilson was an important figure in Jennings' life. She was a
staunch supporter of his Fourteen Points, and campaigned tirelessly for
American involvement in the League of Nations. This futile struggle ended
first with the Presidents' collapse from a stroke brought on by
overexertion, continued with the Democrats' resounding defeat at the polls
in the election of 1920, and finally subsided with Wilson's slow decline
and eventual death in 1924.
Mr. Jennings had died in the flu epidemic of 1919, and after Wilson's
death, Anne Jennings moved to New York City, becoming head of the National
League of Women Voters in that state, dedicated to educating the newly
enfranchised. However, she enlisted the aid of a lawyer, Mr. Frank
Pinkerton, in handling the affairs of her husband and suggested to him
that a foundation for the study of American history in President Wilson's
name would be something she would be interested in. The arrangements took
almost a year to complete, but the Foundation opened on schedule on
January 1, 1925.
Anne Jennings died,
much lamented, on March 17, 1939. This rather harsh photograph, date
unknown, is the only confirmed image of her.
![[Picture of the
Director]](../images/mush/hines.jpg)
Welcome to the Wilson Foundation for American History homepage on the
World Wide Web. At the Wilson Foundation, we do not often go in for fads,
but we have been persuaded by several scholars who often use our
facilities that putting information about the Foundation on this
"Internet" would be of use to them. I hope you find this Web site useful
to you in your researches.
![[Picture of the
Archives]](../images/mush/treas.jpg)
The Wilson Foundation Archives are located in New York City, at Broadway
and 118th Street, just west of Central Park. The Wilson Foundation
building was erected in 1915, and originally housed the Second Central
Bank of New York. It is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, and houses the Archives and the administrative offices of the
Foundation, though not the Board of Directors.
