The Woodrow Wilson House will open a new exhibition, 101 WONDERS OF WOODROW WILSON HOUSE: HIDDEN TREASURES FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL COLLECTION, on March 4, 2009. For 140 years the traditional Presidential Inauguration Day was held on March 4th, a date we remember at Wilson House as the day in 1921 upon which President Wilson and his wife Edith left the White House to move into their new home at 2340 S Street, NW. There they were greeted by a cheering throng!

Beginning with the second Inauguration of George Washington in 1793 and ending with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first Inauguration in 1933, and including two inaugurations for Woodrow Wilson, March 4th was looked upon with the same excitement and anticipation that January 20th holds for us today.

This major exhibition also serves as a fitting tribute upon the 90th anniversary of President and Mrs. Wilson’s historic trip to Europe in 1918-19 following the end of World War I. Wilson was the first president to travel to Europe while in office. While staying in Paris for the Peace Conference, the Wilsons visited the countries of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, where the President received a hero’s welcome.

During their lifetimes, President and Mrs. Wilson amassed an impressive collection of gifts, curios, and awards, many of which were presented by foreign dignitaries. Today, Woodrow Wilson House is home to many exquisite treasures, both large and small. These unique artifacts and gifts of state help new generations to celebrate and understand Wilson’s extraordinary legacy.

Taking the form of a cabinet of wonders – a wunderkammer of sorts – the exhibition will reveal the jewels in the crown of the museum’s permanent collection. Showcasing rarely seen artifacts, including ethnographic and ceremonial artifacts that would have been stored away by the Wilsons, being too unwieldy for the day-to-day household, this exhibition will display long hidden treasures including wedding gifts, important gifts of state, significant medals and awards, and other tokens reminiscent of Wilson’s life and times.

The centerpiece of the exhibition will be the remarkable hand-painted faience platter, measuring almost 4 feet long by 3 feet wide and weighing 32 pounds, presented to President Wilson in December 1918 upon his arrival in France. Other highlights include a facsimile of a stained glass medallion of the Grand Rose of the Cathedral of Rheims,lavish gifts of state from Abyssinia (Ethiopia), a beaded belt rumored to have been made by Pocahontas—an ancestor of Edith Bolling Wilson—, a set of hand-painted porcelain plates and hand-made lace from the King and Queen of Belgium, elaborate “freedom caskets” from the people of Britain, and two complete sets of Japanese samurai armor. In all, 101 unique objects have been chosen from the more than 8,000-piece historically significant collection at Woodrow Wilson House.

During Wilson’s term as president, presidential protocol dictated that all gifts would become the property of the president, except those expressly given to the nation. The “Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act” of 1966 established a value limit for personal gifts. Below a certain dollar amount (currently $200), they may be kept as personal property, with all others above that amount given by the White House to the National Archives for use at the president’s future library and museum. President Wilson’s papers and books were given to the Library of Congress, but his gifts reside at Woodrow Wilson House, the only presidential museum in Washington, DC.

101 WONDERS OF WOODROW WILSON HOUSE: HIDDEN TREASURES FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL COLLECTION will be on display from March 4th to January 17th, 2010.