After her graduation in 1876, Ellen's drawing titled School Scene was submitted to the Paris International Exposition.

"[3] They were engaged 5 months later, but postponed the wedding while he did postgraduate work at Johns Hopkins University and she nursed her ailing father.

Ellen's father committed suicide while hospitalized for depression, after which she went North to study at the Art Students League of New York.

[citation needed] That same year, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania offered Dr. Wilson a teaching position at an annual salary of $1,500.

[citation needed] Together, the Wilsons had three daughters: Insisting that her children must not be born as Yankees, Ellen went to stay with relatives in Gainesville, Georgia for Margaret's birth in 1886 and Jessie's in 1887.

[citation needed] Wilson's career at Princeton University began in 1890, bringing Ellen new social responsibilities.

In their first year, she convinced her scrupulous husband that it would be perfectly proper to invite influential legislators to a private dinner.