Eleanor chose an ivory white satin fabric for the base of her wedding gown, which was custom-made by New York designer Charles Kurzman of Kurzman of Fifth Avenue. The dress featured a v-shaped neckline, long sleeves of tulle, a three and a half foot-long train, and was trimmed with rare old point lace sourced from a “world famous collection.”
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Wedding Portrait of Eleanor Wilson McAdoo
Date: Circa May 7, 1914
Creator: Harris & Ewing
Medium: Portrait photograph
The D.C.-based photography studio Harris & Ewing captured Eleanor’s official wedding portrait. She wore her tulle veil attached to a cap with orange blossoms and carried a bouquet of orange blossoms, white lilies of the valley, and white orchids.
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Wilson-McAdoo Wedding Spread, New York Times
Date: May 8, 1914
Medium: Newspaper
Eleanor and her new husband, Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo, were pictured in this New York Times spread the day after the wedding. The bride’s wedding look was chosen on a trip the couple took to the Kurzman’s showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York. Although illustrations of items in the trousseau were released for the wedding, the gown was kept a secret from the public until the wedding day.
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Sketches of Eleanor Wilson’s Bridal Looks, Charlotte Daily Observer
Date: May 10, 1914
Medium: Newspaper
Iconic New York Times fashion editor Harry-dele Hallmark, who wrote under the pseudonym Anne Rittenhouse, was the sole press member allowed to preview Eleanor’s final fitting in the White House. Rittenhouse and her team of artists made sketches of the looks, including the wedding gown in the lower right corner, her mother Ellen Wilson’s chiffon and lace dress in the top left, and the bridesmaids’ dresses of pink and blue tulle-covered crepe pictured in the center.
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Sketches of Eleanor Wilson’s Trousseau, Charlotte Daily Observer
Date: May 3, 1914
Medium: Newspaper
Anne Rittenhouse and her team sketched various gowns from Eleanor’s trousseau, all designed by Charles Kurzman. The dominant color of the trousseau was Eleanor’s favorite color, blue, with shades varying from ciel to dark marine to cadet. In Eleanor’s final fitting, she made suggestions about the dresses; Rittenhouse later reported that it was clear that Eleanor “had strong ideas about clothes and was anxious that her gowns should represent her individuality.”
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Flower Girls for the Wilson-McAdoo Wedding
Date: May 7, 1914
Creator: Harris & Ewing
Medium: Photograph
The Wilson-McAdoo flower girls that appear in this photograph were probably dressed in custom Kurzman dresses. Kurzman was said to have created the gowns for Eleanor’s trousseau as well as wedding looks for the whole family.
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About this Gallery
Eleanor Randolph Wilson, youngest daughter of President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson, married William Gibbs McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, on May 7, 1914.
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