“Hidden in Plain Sight,” an article by Tom Johnson published in the Flow Blue International Collectors’ Club Journal, reveals the fascinating history of the Bolling family's “AMOY” Flow Blue China. Johnson brings a unique and personal perspective to the story—his maternal grandmother served as Edith Bolling Wilson’s nurse and companion from 1955 until Mrs. Wilson’s passing in 1961.
The article traces the origins of the china back to the post–Civil War hardships faced by the Bolling family. In an effort to support her household, Edith’s grandmother knitted socks to earn enough money to purchase the Flow Blue china for her family. Eventually, the cherished set was inherited by Edith and traveled with her from the Bolling Home in Wytheville, Virginia, to the Woodrow Wilson House Museum in Washington, D.C., where the complete collection is now preserved.
Today, select pieces of this historic china are on loan from the Woodrow Wilson House Museum and proudly exhibited at the Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Museum.