Signed Photograph of President Woodrow Wilson, His Staff, and Some of the Founding Members of the White House Correspondents’ Association, With an Original Copy of the Charter of the Organization

In 1913, President Wilson threatened to do away with presidential news conferences after complaining that “certain evening newspapers” quoted remarks he considered off the record. Six months later, in January 1914, there was another flap over coverage of a Wilson press conference, and also a concern that a congressional committee, rather than the newspapers, would decide to select which journalists could attend presidential press conferences. The regulars in the press corps responded by forming a group they called the White House Correspondents’ Association. The original mission was to keep Wilson from ending his press conferences and preclude any congressional interference with the press. In the 100 plus years since that founding in February of 1914, the group has expanded its mission to pushing for broader access to the White House and supporting vigorous reporting on the presidency.

Founders included David Lawrence of the Associated Press and John Nevin of UPI, but eleven men signed the original charter of the organization. That charter governed membership and eligibility, elections, and the privileges of the White House Press Room.

Edgar Allen Poe was a longtime Washington correspondent of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and past president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Gridiron Club. He joined the staff of the Times-Picayune in 1930, and became its Washington correspondent in 1948. In addition to regular daily coverage of the capital, he also wrote a column, “Washington Panorama.” As president of the White House Correspondents Association, he came into possession of a photograph of President Wilson with many of the organization’s members, signed by a portion of them. The photo descended in the Poe family until now, when we obtained it from a descendant.

This mounted sepia-toned 9½x6½ photograph shows President Woodrow Wilson and many of the founders of the White House Correspondents’ Association in an outdoor setting in 1913 in the lead up to the organization’s founding. In the center of the photograph, sitting on the arm of the bench, is President Wilson, who has signed below his image. Joseph Tumulty, Wilson’s private secretary and press secretary, T. W. Brahany, executive clerk at the White House, and Rudolph Forster, secretary to the President, have also signed. Association members signing included the AP’s David Lawrence, UPI’s John Nevin, Henry E. Eland of the Wall Street Journal, Edward B. Clark of the Chicago Evening Post, William E. Brigham of the Boston Globe, Mercer Vernon of the Seattle PostIntelligencer, S.M. Williams of The World, L. Ames Brown of the New York Sun and Nashville Tennessean, Gilson Gardner of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, John Palmer Gavit, author of “The Reporter’s Manual: A Handbook”, C.E. Stewart of the Birmingham Age Herald, George T. Odell of the Chicago Tribune, and a few others.

The presentation is framed with an original copy of the White House Correspondents’ Association charter.