Recording of the Month: The Star Spangled Banner

The label , featuring a photograph of Ms. Wilson

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The ad announcing the release

Archeophone's March to War continues with a specialty record released in May 1915. It is President Wilson's daughter, Margaret Wilson, singing "The Star Spangled Banner" in a promotion benefitting the Red Cross relief effort in Europe. The label pictured here is hard to decipher, but it reads:

The Panama Pacific International Exposition / Souvenir Record / Price $1.00
This Record of my voice if sold by the Columbia Graphophone Company shall yield to the American Red Cross the sum of 25 cents covering my entire royalty. (Signed) Margaret Woodrow Wilson

Wilson's signature is also etched into the wax. The record was placed in Columbia's regular popular series and remained in the catalogue for several years. Today, however, owing to its specialty status, it is an uncommon disc.

Margaret Woodrow Wilson (4/16/1886-2/12/1944) was President Wilson's first of three daughters by his first marriage. She was born in Georgia, attended Goucher College in Baltimore, and trained in voice and piano at the Peabody Institute of Music. The soprano debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Syracuse in 1915 and performed at camps and benefits for the Red Cross all during World War I. Wilson retired from singing in 1923 to work at an advertising agency. In later years, she turned to Indian mysticism. She died of uremia in a religious community in India at the age of 57.