Statue #28: Woodrow Wilson
Rapid City, South Dakota
College president turned U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) stands with a stern, unfriendly expression -- one hand on hip, the other resting on an ornate pedestal on which are draped his academic robes, apparently for good. Wilson was America's President during World War I, but sculptor James Michael Maher chose to ignore that in his Wilson statue, unless the scrap of paper under Wilson's hand represents his fatally flawed Treaty of Versailles.
Wilson had served as the president of Princeton University, was often ranked by historians as one of the better Presidents, but in 2020 his segregationist views were judged as outweighing any positive contributions, and several academic institutions renamed buildings to something-not-Wilson.
Amazing Arcana of the Presidents
For fun, Wilson loved to be chauffeured around Washington in his car for up to two hours every day, although he never learned to drive.
[Discover more fascinating details in the Roadside Presidents iPhone app!]
City of Presidents
Since 2000, Rapid City has commissioned and installed bronze statues of every former U.S. President on its downtown street corners. Visitors are encouraged to take a walking tour of the City of Presidents and inspect the nation's metallic Commanders in Chief. Paper guides are available year-round at the city's main Visitor Center at 512 Main St.