First Ladies Reign With Cattleya Orchids

New book tells how father-son orchid growers from Virginia revived the tradition of naming orchids for America’s first ladies.

President Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt attend the World Series in October 1915. (Credit: Bettman/Getty Images)

It was the recently widowed Edith Bolling Galt in 1915 during the golden era of corsages that may forever be credited for entwining America’s first ladies with cattleya orchids.

As the story goes, Galt, had a chance encounter with President Woodrow Wilson in the White House not long after his wife, First Lady Ellen Wilson, died from kidney disease. The president, smitten with Ms. Galt, sent her a fresh orchid every day. The two would be photographed later that year at the World Series where she wore a quadruple cattleya corsage pinned to her coat that cascaded from her shoulder to above her elbow. By Dec. 28, the two wed and Galt became the next first lady of the United States.  

The large corsages worn by women at the time were fashionable. In fact, it was Woodrow Wilson who remarked about the notable size of the corsage worn by his new wife.

“Usually the orchid wears …