Congress established the Center in 1968 as the official, national memorial to President Wilson. Unlike the physical monuments in the nations capital, it is a living memorial whose work and scholarship commemorates the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson. As both a distinguished scholar and national leader, President Wilson felt strongly that the scholar and the policymaker were engaged in a common enterprise. Today the Center takes seriously his views on the need to bridge the gap between the world of ideas and the world of policy, bringing them into creative contact, enriching the work of both, and enabling each to learn from the other.