When Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913, Washington, D.C. stood at a crossroads. The city was the symbolic heart of American democracy, yet its streets, workplaces, and institutions revealed a nation deeply divided by race, class, gender, and citizenship status. The promises of freedom and equality coexisted with the realities of segregation, disenfranchisement, and social exclusion.

This exhibition explores those contradictions through the lives of Washingtonians from many backgrounds—Asian, Black, German, Hispanic, Italian, Indigenous, Irish, Jewish, Middle Eastern, and Women—whose struggles and achievements shaped the civic and cultural life of the capital during Wilson’s lifetime and beyond. Their voices reveal both the resilience of communities seeking justice and the weight of policies that curtailed opportunity.

Wilson’s era was also a turning point for the world. When the United States entered World War I, the president championed self-determination abroad while overlooking pleas for equality at home. Across the globe, peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East looked to Washington as they pursued independence and recognition. This city thus became a stage for a larger question: what did democracy mean in an age of empire, migration, and global war?

Wilson’s Washington, America’s Struggle invites you to reflect on this moment of decision—when the United States, and the world, stood at a crossroads. The choices made then continue to shape the unfinished project of democracy today.

Admission 

$8 or free with any tour purchase