Fifty-five years ago, on December 22, 1968, Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower married in a private ceremony officiated by the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City.
In her biography of her mother, Pat Nixon: The Untold Story, Julie Nixon Eisenhower gives this description of her wedding day: “December 22 was a completely joyous day. David and I, both twenty years old, were very much in love. The future seemed bright as my father and I drove the thirty-three blocks down Fifth Avenue from our apartment to the church. Large crowds in a holiday mood stood along the streets waving and calling greetings.”
In commemoration of the Eisenhowers’ 55th wedding anniversary, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is displaying Julie’s wedding gown, Mrs. Nixon’s mother-of-the-bride dress and the garter Julie wore as “something borrowed, something blue”—a gift from First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who wore it when she married President Dwight Eisenhower on July 1, 1916. Accompanying the bridal wear, is a personal letter from Richard Nixon to his daughter Julie, written one month before the wedding.
Julie Nixon first met David Eisenhower at the second Presidential inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower, David’s grandfather in 1957, but they did not meet again until they were college students at nearby schools in Massachusetts nine years later. After developing a close relationship, the couple announced their engagement to the Nixons in March 1967.
This is the first time Mrs. Nixon’s mother-of-the-bride gown has been on public display. The last time Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s wedding dress was displayed was 2017. Visitors can also view the engagement dress of Tricia Nixon Cox, who celebrated her fifty-second wedding anniversary with Edward Cox in June of this year.