The press and the presidency, circa 1914

Reporters didn’t always throw shoes at presidents. Sometimes they posed for pictures with them.
The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton has the visual proof – in the form of a signed 1914 photograph of President Wilson and members of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

The photo is signed by Wilson, a Staunton native, his press secretary, Joseph Tumulty, and 29 reporters in the picture.

The photo was donated to the Presidential Library by Robert E. Petersen of Fairfax, who acquired it when he was the director of the U.S. Senate Press Gallery. The photo had been passed down to members of the Correspondents’ Association dating back to the end of the Wilson administration.

“We very much appreciate Mr. Petersen and his wife Barbara for donating this fascinating piece of history to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum collection. We plan to feature the photograph in an upcoming new acquisition exhibit,” said Jarod Kearney, curator of collections at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.

– Story by Chris Graham