Message From Our Executive Director
The Wilsons moved into this house over 100 years ago, and the National Trust opened the house to the public as a historic house museum in 1963. For 60 years, our doors have been open – and we like to say not much has changed except the conversation.
I have been at the Wilson House Museum since 2019, and in this short time, we, the amazing team of staff, guides, Advisory Council members, volunteers, scholars, grantors, and donors, have accomplished more than I could have imagined. Today, we look at the museum from a historical perspective and strive for modern initiatives. I think the team and I have accomplished just that. We use this historic site to learn about our complicated history and challenge ourselves about who we are as citizens of the world.
In addition to the General guided house tour, we’ve launched multiple tours to give visitors a reason to come back to the museum. We’ve added a Highlights Tour, Architecture Tour, Presidential Porcelain: A History of Ceramics through the Wilsons’ Collection Tour, and this year, for Black History Month, Under One Roof: Upstairs/Downstairs – Living and Working at the Wilson House went live, and for Women’s History Month we launched Three Generations of Wilson Women.
In honor of International Women’s Day in March, we opened an exhibit Suffrage Outside, Inside: the 19th Amendment at 101!, a follow-on to our outdoor exhibit, Suffrage Outside, which we launched during the height of the pandemic. The new exhibit showcases items donated to the Wilson House by Doug Kelley of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This year, the exhibit takes residency inside our gallery with hundreds of one-of-a-kind material artifacts from over a hundred years ago, supporting the themes we explored in Suffrage Outside!
We started the Speaker Series, where notable historians, curators, and leaders explore varying aspects of the social movements of the early 20th Century and their relevance today. Talks address Women’s Suffrage, activism and protest, racial inequity, and the consequences and legacy of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. This program is part of the Wilson House’s new interpretation focused on African American history, women’s history, and Wilson’s international impact.
We launched five self-guided outdoor walking tours of Kalorama and Embassy Row. Each tour is a different path, each covering 18 – 20 historic houses, embassies, clubs, and statues along the route and throughout the Wilson House neighborhood, and each takes about an hour to walk.
The tours are:
As well as a Waddy Butler Wood Architecture and History Walking Tour, If These Walls Could Talk.
As all walking tours start and end at the Wilson House, we replanted the Victory Garden and the Rose Garden to enhance the entrance and attract visitors.
I have hosted a teacher-in-residence supported by the Marder-Vaughn Center for Historic Interpretation and Education and students from across the U.S. on the NEH, For the People, by the People grant.
We started the Wilson House Volunteer Scholars Program and have graduated over 50 scholars. We recently became accredited by the Presidential Volunteer Service Award organization and are proud to host the scholars’ work on our website under Scholars in Action. My most proud initiative is creating opportunities for the Girl Scouts to come and learn and explore with us.
We are accredited by the American Alliance Museum organization and a proud member of the Historic House and Museum Consortium of D.C. as well as the Sheridan-Kalorama Neighborhood Museum consortium. We are connected and committed to historical perspectives and modern initiatives.
I have great plans for exhibitions and ways we can engage our community, and I welcome your suggestions on how we can accomplish this together. My door is always open. Please stop by or reach out and let me know what you think about the museum and how we are doing. I welcome your suggestions as we move forward into the next 100 years of stewarding this remarkable site.
Elizabeth A. Karcher
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON HOUSE
EKarcher@WoodrowWilsonHouse.org
Main House 202.387.4062 D: 202.792.5808 M: 301.922.5627