Exhibit celebrates Wilson’s birthday 150 years later

Published Sunday, June 4, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Woodrow Wilson tried to bring the United States into the League of Nations, but Congress voted him down. He also tried to block Prohibition and failed.

But while his administration suffered setbacks, he turned out to be one of the most prescient of presidents.

"I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it," he said in a 1919 speech.

Less than 20 years later, Adolf Hitler sent German armies into Poland and proved Wilson right.

The Woodrow Wilson House, the only presidential museum in Washington, is commemorating Wilson’s 150th birthday with an exhibit opening this weekend. The museum is in the home, a small but elegant house and garden, where Wilson spent his last few years.

The exhibit includes his shiny top hat, white kid gloves and pince-nez glasses. Also on display are one of his golf clubs, a tennis racket and passes to baseball games.

So is the Hammond typewriter on which he wrote his speeches.

The free exhibit at the Woodrow Wilson House will be open until Sept. 17.

It will move to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, Va., in time to celebrate his 150th birthday Dec. 28.