On American Independence Day, I would like to share with you this 1921 Bride’s Cake, from the wedding of Jessie Wilson.
Jessie was the daughter of Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the USA; she later put a piece of her wedding cake in the cornerstone of the Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, now a US historical landmark.
A war-time President (WWI), Wilson is considered one of the great American Presidents, although his record is far from perfect – in his time, women received the vote, yet the government was strictly segregated and he dealt with anti-war protestors heavy-handily.
Unfortunately there is no photo of the big wedding cake reported (containing no favors) for his Woodrow’s 1911 wedding to Mrs. Galt; there are, however, vintage wedding dresses and Wilson family wedding announcements on view this spring at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. Woodrow’s wedding cake was baked by Marion Cole Fisher, a Democrat, married to an ardent Republican. A former ’student in the chemistry of food’, this article talks about her activism against the ‘great quantities of impure self-rising flour that had been dumped on the southern states’.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Among my American friends there seems to be a small sense of relief that a new Administration is running things, but still stress about the economy, the war, social issues…. well, it seemed pretty bad in Woodrow Wilson’s day too. Americans have historically always found a way to pull together and find positive solutions to difficult situations - I don’t doubt they will find a way out of the country’s current problems, and future generations, burdened by their own problems, will wonder what all the fuss was about…
Have a happy 4th of July, everybody!
(you can find the recipe for the 1921 Bride’s Cake is here)
Tags: bride's cake, jessie wilson, woodrow wilson
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