PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON - PHOTOGRAPH MOUNT SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: WILSON GARDNER, GEORGE T. ODELL, MERCER VERNON, LEROY T. VERNON, EDWARD B. CLARK, L. AMES BOWEN, T. W. BRAHANY, J. P. ANNIS, JOHN P. FAVIT, JOSEPH P. TUMULTY, RUDOLPH FORSTER, JOHN E. NEVIN, C. E. STEWART, HENRY E. ELAND, S. M. WILLIAMS, WILLIAM E. BINGHAM, DAVID LAWRENCE - HFSID 3972

PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON and THE PRESS CORPS
This mounted sepia-toned 9½x6½ photograph shows President Woodrow Wilson and the White House Correspondents' Association in an outdoor setting. Twenty signatures total, including the President's
Photograph Mount signed: "Woodrow Wilson" as President and "J.P. Tumulty", "David Lawrence", "Wilson Gardner", "Edward B. Clark", "Leroy T. Vernon", "Mercer Vernon", "George T. Odell", "L. Ames Bowen", "Rudolph Forster", "John E. Nevin", "C.E. Stewart", "Henry E. Eland", "S.M. Williams", "William E. Bingham", "T.W. Brahany", "John P. Favit", "J.P. Annis" and one other. Sepia, 10½x9 overall, image 9½x6½ (two surfaces). President Wilson and the White House Correspondents' Association are pictured on the grounds of the White House. Joseph P. Tumulty was Wilson's Press Secretary. Embossed at lower right: "Harris & Ewing/Washington, D.C." The White House Correspondents' Association was founded in February, 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson announced that he would hold formal press conferences each week to provide "full and free discussion of all large questions of the moment". A group of 11 reporters created the association to ensure that none of them would be shut out of the press conferences. Although their fears proved groundless - 125 correspondents attended Wilson's first press conference in the Oval Office - the creation of the association marked the formal start of one of the highest profile jobs in American journalism: the White House correspondent. Today, more than 1,600 journalists hold credentials to cover the White House on a regular basis. Most probably, this is a photograph of the first gathering of the White House Correspondents' Association. Among those depicted are journalists, the President himself, and some of his staff. Photo has slightly silvered. Slightly surface creased, not evident head on, and slightly soiled. 2 signatures (not Wilson's) slightly stained. Several vertical and horizontal tears, varying from ¼- to ¾-inches, on mount in blank areas. All signatures legible.