Formerly Ellen Axson of Georgia, the daughter of a clergyman, Mrs. Wilson had been reared in the cultural atmosphere of a Southern home, and educated according to the best traditions of the old South. She had studied art in New York during the period of her engagement to Woodrow Wilson. She continued her studies in spite of the demands of a growing family and a thoroughly domesticated husband. Following Governor Wilson’s election to the Presidency, she put a collection of her paintings on exhibition at the Arts & Crafts Guild in Philadelphia, the proceeds from whose sale were sent to the Martha Berry School of Georgia. Mrs. Wilson also made a gift to Goucher College of which one of her daughters was a graduate. After coming to the White House, she managed to devote some time to art work, fitting up a studio in the attic, where some of her best canvases were completed. When Mrs. Wilson first came to Washington, she became interested in the work of the Woman’s Department of the National Civic Federation, the District Branch of which, with Mrs. Archibald Hopkins in charge, was busily working to clean up the alleys and eliminate the slums. The pitiful condition of many of the old coloured people living in poverty and squalor had a peculiar appeal to her. The condition of the children tugged at her sympathies, too. She not only attended the meetings of the District Branch of the Federation, but made any number of personal tours of inspection through some of the worst of the city’s twenty-three miles of alleys and slums. One of Mrs. Wilson’s earliest expeditions was to Goat Alley, considered the worst of its kind in the city. She was accompanied by Mrs. E. P. Bicknell, chairman of the committee on housing of the National Civic Federation, Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, and two Secret Service men. She traversed the entire length of the alley on foot and was so impressed by the conditions she found there that she accepted the position of honorary chairman of the advisory board of the housing committee, in order to help actively with the clean-up work. Mrs. Wilson never indorsed any cause simply by letting her name be used; so, in the duties of honorary chairman, she worked as energetically as the rest of the members of the committee. This was only one of many, many trips she made through the dirty and dismal byways of the city.