A Woman Secretly Ran the United States Government for Eighteen Months and Almost Nobody Knows It

 On October 2, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him severely incapacitated.

He could not perform the duties of the presidency. He could barely function. For weeks he was hidden from virtually everyone outside his immediate household.

What happened next has no real precedent in American presidential history.

His wife Edith Wilson took over.

What Edith Wilson Did

Edith Wilson became the sole gatekeeper between the President and everyone else. Cabinet members who needed presidential decisions were required to submit written requests to her. She decided what reached her husband and what did not. She decided what was important enough to disturb him and what could wait or be handled without him.

She later said she was acting merely as a steward passing information back and forth. Historians have looked at the record and concluded that her role was considerably more active than that. She made decisions about what information the President received. She managed the communications that shaped his responses. She determined the agenda of the executive branch for the better part of a year and a half.

The 25th Amendment, which provides a clear process for transferring presidential power when a president becomes incapacitated, did not exist yet. It was not ratified until 1967. In 1919 there was no legal mechanism that anyone was willing to use to declare Wilson unable to serve and transfer power to the Vice President.

So the power stayed with Wilson officially while Edith managed it practically.

What the Cabinet and Congress Did Not Know

The extent of Wilson's incapacity was hidden from the cabinet, from Congress, and from the American public. Visitors who did manage to see the President were given carefully managed brief encounters. His deteriorated condition was concealed as much as possible.

Some cabinet members suspected the truth. Senator Albert Fall of New Mexico, who later became famous for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, visited Wilson in December 1919 and reported that Wilson seemed sharp. Wilson's daughter later admitted the visit had been meticulously staged to create that impression.

The nation was effectively without a functioning president for the last eighteen months of Wilson's term. An unelected woman with no official title or constitutional authority managed the most powerful executive office in the world.

Edith Wilson outlived her husband by 37 years. She died in 1961 and was largely credited in obituaries as a devoted wife. The scope of what she actually did during those eighteen months was not fully examined by historians for decades.

She was the closest thing to an unelected president the United States has ever had. And almost nobody knows her name.

Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.

Benjamin Franklin Was Writing Fake News at Age 16 and Everyone Thought It Was Real

 In 1722 readers of the New England Courant in Boston were captivated by a series of witty letters written by a widow named Mrs. Silence Dogood.

She wrote about politics, religion, education, and the absurdities of colonial society with a sharp and funny voice that kept readers coming back. She was charming. She seemed wise. She was completely fictional.

The letters were written by Benjamin Franklin. He was 16 years old.

How It Happened

Franklin was working as an apprentice at his brother James's printing shop, which published the New England Courant. He wanted to write for the paper. His brother refused. Benjamin was too young and James was not interested in giving his little brother a platform.

So Benjamin slid the letters under the print shop door at night pretending they came from someone else.

He created an entire character. Silence Dogood was a middle-aged widow with opinions about everything. She wrote about the hypocrisy of the wealthy. She criticized Harvard as a place that produced more pompous graduates than educated ones. She advocated for women's rights in terms that were progressive for the era.

Readers adored her. They wrote in asking to meet her or to court her. The newspaper's readership grew because of her letters.

When Franklin eventually revealed that he was the author his brother was furious. The deception had worked completely for months.

Why This Matters

The Silence Dogood letters are worth knowing about for several reasons.

They show something about Franklin that gets lost in the founding father mythology. He was not just a statesman and inventor. He was a writer who understood how to create a voice, build a persona, and shape public opinion. Those skills served him throughout his life in ways that went well beyond the letters of a fictional widow.

They also demonstrate something that has not changed in three hundred years. A compelling voice with something interesting to say will find an audience. Franklin did not need a famous name or an official platform. He created a character and let her speak. The readers responded to the quality of the ideas regardless of who was presenting them.

The oldest surviving example of American political commentary written by a founding father is a series of fake letters from a fictional middle-aged widow written by a 16 year old who was not allowed to publish under his own name.

History is full of surprises.

Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.

Radium Was Sold as a Health Product and It Killed the People Who Trusted It

 When Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898 the world was fascinated.

Here was a substance that glowed. That produced energy seemingly from nothing. That was unlike anything science had ever described before. The early 20th century did not yet understand the danger. What it understood was the wonder.

And where there is wonder, there are people ready to sell it.

What They Sold

Within years of radium's discovery consumer products containing radium were appearing on the market with claims that the element's energy could improve health, restore vitality, cure disease, and enhance beauty.

Radithor was a bottled water product containing dissolved radium that was marketed as a cure for impotence and general vitality. Wealthy consumers drank it regularly. One prominent socialite and athlete named Eben Byers consumed over 1,400 bottles before doctors noticed his jaw was literally falling off his skull. He died in 1932. A Wall Street Journal headline about his case read The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Fell Off.

Radium face cream was sold with promises that the radioactive glow would translate into a glowing complexion. Radium toothpaste was marketed because it made teeth glow in the dark which was presented as evidence of its cleansing power. Radium chocolate was sold in Germany. Radium suppositories existed.

These products were not fringe items sold by obvious charlatans. They were mainstream consumer goods sold in reputable stores and endorsed in respectable publications.

The Radium Girls

The most documented human cost of radium's early misuse falls on a group of young women who painted watch dials at the United States Radium Corporation in New Jersey starting in the 1910s.

The dial painters were instructed to point their paintbrushes with their lips to get a fine tip. They ingested radium every day at work. Supervisors assured them the substance was harmless. Some workers painted their fingernails and teeth with it as a joke because it glowed in the dark.

Years later their bones were disintegrating. Their jaws were developing necrosis. They were dying of cancers that contemporary medicine could barely explain.

The women fought back. Despite being sick and despite company lawyers working against them they pursued legal action. Their cases established that companies could be held liable for exposing workers to hazardous conditions and helped lay the groundwork for modern workplace safety law.

Their sacrifice is documented. Their names should be known. Grace Fryer. Edna Hussman. Katherine Schaub. Albina Larice. Quinta McDonald.

They are the reason American workers have some of the workplace protections they have today.

Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.