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the First Lady of the United States

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1st Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

1st United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

1st Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

First Lady of the United States

New York City, New York, U.S.

Home of FDR National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York

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Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (; October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American politician, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, having held the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, and served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

Roosevelt was a member of the prominent American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt's. She had an unhappy childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenwood Academy in London and was deeply influenced by its feminist headmistress Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905. The Roosevelts' marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin's controlling mother, Sara, and after discovering an affair of her husband's with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Roosevelt resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with debilitating polio in 1921, which cost him the use of his legs, and Roosevelt began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place. Following Franklin's election as Governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin's public career in government, Roosevelt regularly made public appearances on his behalf, and as First Lady while her husband served as President, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role of that office during her own tenure and beyond, for future First Ladies.

Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady at the time for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention. On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband's policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees.

Following her husband's death, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the rest of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as "one of the most esteemed women in the world"; she was called "the object of almost universal respect" in her New York Times obituary. In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Personal life Early life

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born at 56 West 37th Street in Manhattan, New York City, to socialites Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860–1894) and Anna Rebecca Hall (1863–1892). From an early age, she preferred to be called by her middle name (Eleanor). Through her father, she was a niece of President Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. (1858–1919). Through her mother, she was a niece of tennis champions Valentine Gill "Vallie" Hall III (1867–1934) and Edward Ludlow Hall (1872–1932). Her mother nicknamed her "Granny" because she acted in such an serious manner as a child. Her mother was also somewhat ashamed of Eleanor's plainness.

Eleanor had two younger brothers: Elliott Jr. (1889–1893) and Gracie Hall Roosevelt, usually called Hall (1891–1941). She also had a half brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann (c. 1890–1941), through her father's affair with Katy Mann, a servant employed by the family. Roosevelt was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege, as her family was part of New York high society called the "swells".

Her mother died from diphtheria on December 7, 1892, and Elliott Jr. died of the same disease the following May. Her father, an alcoholic confined to a sanitarium, died on August 14, 1894 after jumping from a window during a fit of delirium tremens. He survived the fall but died from a seizure. Eleanor's childhood losses left her prone to depression throughout her life. Her brother Hall later suffered from alcoholism. Before her father died, he implored her to act as a mother towards Hall, and it was a request she made good upon for the rest of Hall's life. Eleanor doted on Hall, and when he enrolled at Groton School in 1907, she accompanied him as a chaperone. While he was attending Groton, she wrote him almost daily, but always felt a touch of guilt that Hall had not had a fuller childhood. She took pleasure in Hall's brilliant performance at school, and was proud of his many academic accomplishments, which included a master's degree in engineering from Harvard.

After the deaths of her parents, Eleanor was raised in the household of her maternal grandmother, Mary Livingston Ludlow (1843–1919) of the Livingston family in Tivoli, New York. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor and Franklin, Joseph P. Lash describes her in childhood as insecure and starved for affection, and she considered herself the "ugly duckling". However, Roosevelt wrote at 14 that one's prospects in life were not totally dependent on physical beauty: "no matter how plain a woman may be if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her."

Roosevelt was tutored privately and, at the age of 15, with the encouragement of her aunt Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt, the family sent her to Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school in Wimbledon, outside London, England, from 1899 to 1902. The headmistress, Marie Souvestre, was a noted feminist educator who sought to cultivate independent thinking in young women. Souvestre took a special interest in Roosevelt, who learned to speak French fluently and gained self-confidence. Roosevelt and Souvestre maintained a correspondence until March of 1905, when Souvestre died, and after this Eleanor placed Souvestre's portrait on her desk and brought her letters with her. Eleanor's first cousin Corinne Douglas Robinson, whose first term at Allenswood overlapped with Eleanor's last, said that when she arrived at the school, Eleanor was "'everything' at the school. She was beloved by everybody." Roosevelt wished to continue at Allenswood, but in 1902 was summoned home by her grandmother to make her social debut.

In 1902 – at age 17 – Roosevelt returned to the United States, ending her formal education, and was presented at a debutante ball at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel on December 14. She was later given her own "coming out party". Roosevelt was active with the New York Junior League shortly after its founding, teaching dancing and calisthenics in the East Side slums. The organization had been brought to Roosevelt's attention by her friend, organization founder Mary Harriman, and a male relative who criticized the group for "drawing young women into public activity".

Marriage and family life

In the summer of 1902, Eleanor encountered her father's fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), on a train to Tivoli, New York. The two began a secret correspondence and romance, and became engaged on November 22, 1903. Franklin's mother, Sara Ann Delano, opposed the union, and made him promise that the engagement would not be officially announced for a year. "I know what pain I must have caused you," Franklin wrote his mother of his decision. But, he added, "I know my own mind, and known it for a long time, and know that I could never think otherwise." Sara took her son on a Caribbean cruise in 1904, hoping that a separation would squelch the romance, but Franklin remained determined. The wedding date was set to accommodate President Theodore Roosevelt, who agreed to give the bride away.

Eleanor married Franklin on March 17, 1905 (St. Patrick's Day), in a wedding officiated by Endicott Peabody, the groom's headmaster at Groton School. The wedding date itself was selected with Theodore Roosevelt, the sitting president, in mind, since he was already scheduled to be in New York for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Theodore Roosevelt, who signed the marriage certificate as a witness, gave his niece Eleanor away since her father had died years before. He garnered almost all the attention from the press, and his attendance at the ceremony was front-page news, including in the New York Times. When asked for his thoughts on the Roosevelt-Roosevelt union, Theodore Roosevelt said, "It is a good thing to keep the name in the family." The couple spent a preliminary honeymoon of one week at Hyde Park, then set up housekeeping in an apartment in New York. That summer they went on their formal honeymoon, a three-month tour of Europe.

Returning to the U.S., the newlyweds settled in New York City, in a house provided by Franklin's mother, as well as at the family's estate overlooking the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York. From the beginning, Eleanor had a contentious relationship with her controlling mother-in-law. The townhouse Sara gave to Eleanor and Franklin was connected to her own by sliding doors, and Sara ran both households in the decade after the marriage. Early on, Eleanor had a breakdown in which she explained to Franklin that "I did not like to live in a house which was not in any way mine, one that I had done nothing about and which did not represent the way I wanted to live", but little changed. Sara also sought to control the raising of her grandchildren, and Eleanor reflected later that "Franklin's children were more my mother-in-law's children than they were mine". Eleanor's eldest son James remembered Sara telling her grandchildren, "Your mother only bore you, I am more your mother than your mother is."

Eleanor and Franklin had six children:

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (May 3, 1906 – December 1, 1975)

James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991)

Franklin Roosevelt (March 18, 1909 – November 1, 1909)

Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988)

John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (March 13, 1916 – April 27, 1981)

Despite becoming pregnant and giving birth six times, Eleanor disliked sex. She once told her daughter Anna that it was an "ordeal to be borne". She also considered herself ill-suited to motherhood, later writing, "It did not come naturally to me to understand little children or to enjoy them".

In September 1918, while unpacking a suitcase of Franklin's, Eleanor discovered a bundle of love letters to him from her social secretary, Lucy Mercer. He had been contemplating leaving Eleanor for Lucy. However, following pressure from Franklin's political advisor, Louis Howe, and from his mother Sara, who threatened to disinherit her son if he divorced, Franklin remained married to Eleanor. However, the union from that point on was more of a political partnership. Disillusioned, Eleanor again became active in public life, and focused increasingly on her social work rather than her role as a wife, as she had for the previous decade.

In August 1921, the family was vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, when Franklin was stricken with polio, which permanently paralyzed his legs. When the extent of his disability became clear, Eleanor fought a protracted battle with her mother-in-law over his future, persuading him to stay in politics despite Sara's urgings that he retire and become a country gentleman. This proved a turning point in Eleanor and Sara's long-running struggle, and as Eleanor's public role grew, she increasingly broke from Sara's control. Tensions between Sara and Eleanor over her new political friends rose to the point that the family constructed a cottage, Val-Kill, which Eleanor and her guests lived in when Franklin and the children were away from Hyde Park.

Other relationships

In the 1930s, Eleanor had a very close relationship with legendary pilot Amelia Earhart. One time, the two sneaked out from the White House and went to a party dressed up for the occasion. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not further pursue her plans to learn to fly. Franklin was not in favor of his wife becoming a pilot. However, the two friends communicated frequently throughout their lives.

Roosevelt also had a close relationship with Associated Press (AP) reporter Lorena Hickok, who covered her during the last months of the presidential campaign and "fell madly in love with her". During this period, Roosevelt wrote daily 10- to 15-page letters to "Hick", who was planning to write a biography of the First Lady. The letters included such endearments as, "I want to put my arms around you & kiss you at the corner of your mouth,"<ref name="Faber">Doris Faber, The Life of Lorena Hickok: E.R.'s Friend, New York: William Morrow, 1980, p. 111</ref> and, "I can't kiss you, so I kiss your 'picture' good night and good morning!" At Franklin's 1933 inauguration, Eleanor wore a sapphire ring Hickok had given her. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover despised Roosevelt's liberalism, her stance regarding civil rights, and her and her husband FDR's criticisms of Hoover's surveillance tactics, and so Hoover maintained a large file on Roosevelt, which the filmmakers of the biopic J. Edgar (2011) indicate included compromising evidence of this relationship, which Hoover intended to blackmail Roosevelt with. Compromised as a reporter, Hickok soon resigned her position with the AP to be closer to Eleanor, who secured her a job as an investigator for a New Deal program.

There is considerable debate about whether or not Roosevelt's relationship with Hickok was sexual. It was known in the White House press corps at the time that Lorena Hickok was a lesbian. Scholars, including Lillian Faderman and Hazel Rowley, have asserted that there was a physical component to the relationship, while Hickok biographer Doris Faber has argued that the insinuative phrases have misled historians. Doris Kearns Goodwin stated in her 1994 Pulitzer Prize–winning account of the Roosevelts that "whether Hick and Eleanor went beyond kisses and hugs" could not be determined with certainty. Roosevelt was close friends with several lesbian couples, such as Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, and Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, suggesting that she understood lesbianism; Marie Souvestre, Roosevelt's childhood teacher and a great influence on her later thinking, was also a lesbian. Faber published some of Roosevelt and Hickok's correspondence in 1980, but concluded that the lovestruck phrasing was simply an "unusually belated schoolgirl crush" and warned historians not to be misled. Researcher Leila J. Rupp criticized Faber's argument, calling her book "a case study in homophobia" and arguing that Faber unwittingly presented "page after page of evidence that delineates the growth and development of a love affair between the two women". In 1992, Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook argued that the relationship was in fact romantic, generating national attention.

A few months after FDR's first inauguration, Eleanor wrote to "Hick": "And so you think they gossip about us....I am always so much more optimistic than you are. I suppose because I care so little about what 'they' say."

In the same years, Washington gossip linked Eleanor romantically with New Deal administrator Harry Hopkins, with whom she worked closely. Roosevelt also had a close relationship with a New York State Police sergeant, Earl Miller, whom her husband had assigned as her bodyguard. Roosevelt was 44 years old when she met Miller, 32, in 1929. He became her friend as well as official escort, taught her different sports, such as diving and riding, and coached her in tennis. Biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook writes that Miller was Eleanor's "first romantic involvement" in her middle years. Hazel Rowley concludes, "There is no doubt that Eleanor was in love with Earl for a time ... But they are most unlikely to have had an 'affair'."

Eleanor's friendship with Miller happened at the same time as her husband's rumored relationship with his secretary, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. Smith writes, "remarkably, both ER and Franklin recognized, accepted, and encouraged the arrangement....Eleanor and Franklin were strong-willed people who cared greatly for each other's happiness but realized their own inability to provide for it." Eleanor and Miller's relationship is said to have continued until her death in 1962. They are thought to have corresponded daily, but all letters have been lost. According to rumor, the letters were anonymously purchased and destroyed, or locked away when she died.

Eleanor was longtime friends with Carrie Chapman Catt, and gave her the Chi Omega award at the White House in 1941.

In later years, Eleanor was said to have developed a romantic attachment to her physician, David Gurewitsch, though it was likely limited to a deep friendship.

Public life before the White House

In the 1920 presidential election, Franklin was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate with presidential candidate James M. Cox. Eleanor joined Franklin in touring the country, making her first campaign appearances. Cox and Roosevelt were defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding, who won with sixteen million votes to nine million.

Following the onset of Franklin's polio in 1921, Eleanor began serving as a stand-in for her incapacitated husband, making public appearances on his behalf, often carefully coached by Louis Howe. She also started working with the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), raising funds in support of the union's goals: a 48-hour work week, minimum wage, and the abolition of child labor. Throughout the 1920s, Eleanor became increasingly influential as a leader in the New York State Democratic Party while Franklin used her contacts among Democratic women to strengthen his standing with them, winning their committed support for the future. In 1924, she campaigned for Democrat Alfred E. Smith in his successful re-election bid as governor of New York State against the Republican nominee and her first cousin Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. By 1928, Eleanor was promoting Smith's candidacy for president and Franklin's nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for governor of New York, succeeding Smith. Although Smith lost the presidential race, Franklin won handily and the Roosevelts moved into the governor's mansion in Albany, New York. During Franklin's term as governor, Eleanor traveled widely in the state to make speeches and inspect state facilities on his behalf, reporting her findings to him at the end of each trip.

In 1927, she joined friends Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook in buying the Todhunter School for Girls, a finishing school which also offered college preparatory courses, in New York City. At the school, Roosevelt taught upper-level courses in American literature and history, emphasizing independent thought, current events, and social engagement. She continued to teach three days a week while FDR served as governor, but was forced to leave teaching after his election as president.

Also in 1927, she established Val-Kill Industries with Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman, and Caroline O'Day, three friends she met through her activities in the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Party. Val-Kill was located on the banks of a stream that flowed through the Roosevelt family estate in Hyde Park, New York. Roosevelt and her business partners financed the construction of a small factory to provide supplemental income for local farming families who would make furniture, pewter, and homespun cloth using traditional craft methods. Capitalizing on the popularity of the Colonial Revival, most Val-Kill products were modeled on eighteenth-century forms. Roosevelt promoted Val-Kill through interviews and public appearances. Val-Kill Industries never became the subsistence program that Roosevelt and her friends imagined, but it did pave the way for larger New Deal initiatives during Franklin's presidential administration. Nancy's failing health and pressures from the Great Depression compelled the women to dissolve the partnership in 1938, at which time Roosevelt converted the shop buildings into a cottage that eventually became her permanent residence after Franklin died in 1945. tto Berge acquired the contents of the factory and the use of the Val-Kill name to continue making colonial-style furniture until he retired in 1975. Today, the site of Val-Kill Industries is preserved by the National Park Service as Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site.

First Lady of the United States (1933–1945)

Upon FDR's inauguration on March 4, 1933, Eleanor became First Lady of the United States. Having known all of the twentieth century's previous First Ladies, she was seriously depressed at having to assume the role, which had traditionally been restricted to domesticity and hostessing. Her immediate predecessor, Lou Henry Hoover, had ended her feminist activism on becoming First Lady, stating her intention to be only a "backdrop for Bertie." Eleanor's distress at these precedents was severe enough that Hickok subtitled her biography of Roosevelt "Reluctant First Lady".

With support from Howe and Hickok, Roosevelt set out to redefine the position. In the process she became, according to her biographer Cook, "the most controversial First Lady in United States history". With her husband's strong support, despite criticism of them both, she continued with the active business and speaking agenda she had begun before becoming First Lady, in an era when few married women had careers. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences and in 1940 became the first to speak at a national party convention. She also wrote a daily (and widely syndicated) newspaper column, "My Day", another first for a presidential spouse. She was also the first First Lady to write a monthly magazine column and to host a weekly radio show.

In the first year of FDR's tenure, determined to match his presidential salary, Eleanor earned $75,000 from her lectures and writing, most of which she gave to charity. By 1941, she was receiving lecture fees of $1,000.

Roosevelt maintained a heavy travel schedule in her twelve years in the White House, frequently making personal appearances at labor meetings to assure Depression-era workers that the White House was mindful of their plight. In one famous cartoon of the time from The New Yorker magazine (June 3, 1933), satirizing a visit she had made to a mine, an astonished coal miner, peering down a dark tunnel, says to a co-worker, "For gosh sakes, here comes Mrs. Roosevelt!"

In early 1933, the "Bonus Army", a protest group of World War I veterans, marched on Washington for the second time in two years, calling for their veteran bonus certificates to be awarded early. The previous year, President Herbert Hoover had ordered them dispersed, and the US Army cavalry charged and bombarded the veterans with tear gas. This time, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the veterans at their muddy campsite, listening to their concerns and singing army songs with them. The meeting defused the tension between the veterans and the administration, and one of the marchers later commented, "Hoover sent the Army. Roosevelt sent his wife."

American Youth Congress and National Youth Administration

The American Youth Congress was formed in 1935 to advocate for youth rights in U.S. politics, and was responsible for introducing the American Youth Bill of Rights to the U.S. Congress. Roosevelt's relationship with the AYC eventually led to the formation of the National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency in the United States, founded in 1935, that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. The NYA was headed by Aubrey Willis Williams, a prominent liberal from Alabama who was close to Roosevelt. Speaking of the NYA in the 1930s, Roosevelt expressed her concern about ageism, stating that "I live in real terror when I think we may be losing this generation. We have got to bring these young people into the active life of the community and make them feel that they are necessary." In 1939 the Dies Committee subpoenaed leaders of the AYC, who, in addition to serving the AYC, also were members of the Young Communist League. Roosevelt was in attendance at the hearings and afterward invited the subpoenaed witnesses to board at the White House during their stay in Washington D.C. Joseph P. Lash was one of her boarders. On February 10, 1940, members of the AYC, as guests of Roosevelt in her capacity as First Lady, attended a picnic on the White House lawn where they were addressed by Franklin from the South Portico. The President admonished them to condemn not merely the Nazi regime but all dictatorships. The President was reportedly booed by the group. Afterwards, many of the same youth picketed the White House as representatives of the American Peace Mobilization. Among them was Joseph Cadden, one of Roosevelt's overnight boarders. Later in 1940, despite Roosevelt's publication of her reasons "Why I still believe in the Youth Congress," the American Youth Congress was disbanded. The NYA was shut down in 1943.

Arthurdale

Roosevelt's chief project during her husband's first two terms was the establishment of a planned community in Arthurdale, West Virginia. On August 18, 1933, at Hickok's urging, Roosevelt visited the families of homeless miners in Morgantown, West Virginia, who had been blacklisted following union activities. Deeply affected by the visit, Roosevelt proposed a resettlement community for the miners at Arthurdale, where they could make a living by subsistence farming, handicrafts, and a local manufacturing plant. She hoped the project could become a model for "a new kind of community" in the U.S., in which workers would be better cared for. Her husband enthusiastically supported the project.

After an initial, disastrous experiment with prefab houses, construction began again in 1934 to Roosevelt's specifications, this time with "every modern convenience", including indoor plumbing and central steam heat. Families occupied the first fifty homes in June, and agreed to repay the government in thirty years' time. Though Roosevelt had hoped for a racially mixed community, the miners insisted on limiting membership to white Christians. After losing a community vote, Roosevelt recommended the creation of other communities for the excluded black and Jewish miners. The experience motivated Roosevelt to become much more outspoken on the issue of racial discrimination.

Roosevelt remained a vigorous fundraiser for the community for several years, as well as spending most of her own income on the project. However, the project was criticized by both the political left and right. Conservatives condemned it as socialist and a "communist plot", while Democratic members of Congress opposed government competition with private enterprise. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes also opposed the project, citing its high per-family cost. Arthurdale continued to sink as a government spending priority for the federal government until 1941, when the U.S. sold off the last of its holdings in the community at a loss.

Later commentators generally described the Arthurdale experiment as a failure. Roosevelt herself was sharply discouraged by a 1940 visit in which she felt the town had become excessively dependent on outside assistance. However, the residents considered the town a "utopia" compared to their previous circumstances, and many were returned to economic self-sufficiency. Roosevelt personally considered the project a success, later speaking of the improvements she saw in people's lives there and stating, "I don't know whether you think that is worth half a million dollars. But I do."

Civil rights activism

Eleanor became an important connection for Franklin's administration to the African-American population during the segregation era. Despite the President's desire to placate Southern sentiment, Eleanor was vocal in her support of the African-American civil rights movement. After her experience with Arthurdale and her inspections of New Deal programs in Southern states, she concluded that New Deal programs were discriminating against African-Americans, who received a disproportionately small share of relief moneys. Eleanor became one of the only voices in the Roosevelt White House insisting that benefits be equally extended to Americans of all races.

Eleanor also broke with precedent by inviting hundreds of African-American guests to the White House. When the black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of Washington's Constitution Hall in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Eleanor resigned from the group in protest and helped arrange another concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Roosevelt later presented Anderson to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom after Anderson performed at a White House dinner. Roosevelt also arranged the appointment of African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, with whom she had struck up a friendship, as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. To avoid problems with the staff when Bethune would visit the White House, Eleanor would meet her at the gate, embrace her, and walk in with her arm-in-arm.

The significance of Eleanor Roosevelt is she helped reform social life. She was involved by being "the eyes and the ears" of the New Deal. She looked to the future and was committed to social reform. One of those programs helped working women receive better wages. The New Deal also placed women into less machine work and more white collar work. Women did not have to work in the factories making war supplies because men were coming home so they could take over the long days and nights women had been working to contribute to the war efforts. Roosevelt brought unprecedented activism and ability to the role of the 1st Lady.

In contrast to her usual support of African-American rights, the "sundown town" Eleanor, in West Virginia, was named for her and was established in 1934 when she and Franklin visited the county and developed it as a test site for families. As a "sundown town", like other Franklin Roosevelt towns around the nation (such as Greenbelt, Greenhills, Greendale, Hanford, or Norris), it was for whites only. It was established as a New Deal project.

Eleanor lobbied behind the scenes for the 1934 Costigan-Wagner Bill to make lynching a federal crime, including arranging a meeting between Franklin and NAACP president Walter Francis White. Fearing he would lose the votes of Southern congressional delegations for his legislative agenda, however, Franklin refused to publicly support the bill, which proved unable to pass the Senate. In 1942, Eleanor worked with activist Pauli Murray to persuade Franklin to appeal on behalf of sharecropper Odell Waller, convicted of killing a white farmer during a fight; though Franklin sent a letter to Virginia Governor Colgate Darden urging him to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, Waller was executed as scheduled.

Roosevelt's support of African-American rights made her an unpopular figure among whites in the South. Rumors spread of "Eleanor Clubs" formed by servants to oppose their employers and "Eleanor Tuesdays" on which African-American men would knock down white women on the street, though no evidence has ever been found of either practice. When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame. At the same time, she grew so popular among African-Americans, previously a reliable Republican voting bloc, that they became a consistent base of support for the Democratic Party.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt spoke out against anti-Japanese prejudice, warning against the "great hysteria against minority groups." She also privately opposed her husband's Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese-Americans in many areas of the U.S. into internment camps. She was widely criticized for her defense of Japanese-American citizens, including a call by the Los Angeles Times that she be "forced to retire from public life" over her stand on the issue.

Norvelt

On May 21, 1937, Roosevelt visited Westmoreland Homesteads to mark the arrival of the community’s final homesteader. Accompanying her on the trip was the wife of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the president's Secretary of the Treasury. "I am no believer in paternalism. I do not like charities," she had said earlier. But cooperative communities such as Westmoreland Homesteads, she went on, offered an alternative to "our rather settled ideas" that could "provide equality of opportunity for all and prevent the recurrence of a similar disaster [depression] in the future." Residents were so taken by her personal expression of interest in the program that they promptly agreed to rename the community in her honor. (The new town name, Norvelt, was a combination of the last syllables in her names: EleaNOR RooseVELT.) The Norvelt firefighter's hall is also named Roosevelt Hall in honor of her.

Use of media

As an unprecedentedly outspoken First Lady, Roosevelt made far more use of the media than her predecessors had, holding 348 press conferences over the span of her husband's 12-year presidency. Inspired by her relationship with Hickok, Roosevelt placed a ban on male reporters attending the press conferences, effectively forcing newspapers to keep female reporters on staff in order to cover them. She only relaxed the rule once, on her return from her 1943 Pacific trip. Because the Gridiron Club banned women from its annual Gridiron Dinner for journalists, Roosevelt hosted a competing event for female reporters at the White House, which she called "Gridiron Widows".She was interviewed by many newspapers; the New Orleans journalist Iris Kelso described Mrs. Roosevelt as her most interesting interviewee ever.

In February 1933, just before Franklin assumed the presidency, Eleanor published an editorial in the Women's Daily News conflicting so sharply with his intended public spending policies that he published a rejoinder in the following issue. On entering the White House, she signed a contract with the magazine Woman's Home Companion to provide a monthly column, in which she answered mail sent to her by readers; the feature was canceled in 1936 as another presidential election approached. She continued her articles in other venues, publishing more than sixty articles in national magazines during her tenure as First Lady. Eleanor also began a syndicated newspaper column, titled "My Day", which appeared six days a week from 1936 to her death in 1962. In the column, she wrote about her daily activities but also her humanitarian concerns. George T. Bye, Eleanor's literary agent, encouraged her to write the column.

Beasley has argued that Roosevelt's publications, which often dealt with women's issues and invited reader responses, represented a conscious attempt to use journalism "to overcome social isolation" for women by making "public communication a two-way channel".

World War II

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, marking the end of the relatively conflict-free "Phoney War" phase of World War II. As the U.S. began to move toward war footing, Roosevelt found herself again depressed, fearing that her role in fighting for domestic justice would become extraneous in a nation focused on foreign affairs. She briefly considered traveling to Europe to work with the Red Cross, but was dissuaded by presidential advisers who pointed out the consequences should the president's wife be captured as a prisoner of war. She soon found other wartime causes to work on, however, beginning with a popular movement to allow the immigration of European refugee children. She also lobbied her husband to allow greater immigration of groups persecuted by the Nazis, including Jews, but fears of fifth columnists caused Franklin to restrict immigration rather than expanding it. Eleanor successfully secured political refugee status for eighty-three Jewish refugees from the S.S. Quanza in August 1940, but was refused on many other occasions. Her son James later wrote that "her deepest regret at the end of her life" was that she had not forced Franklin to accept more refugees from Nazism during the war.

Eleanor was also active on the home front. Beginning in 1941, she co-chaired the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) with New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, working to give civilian volunteers expanded roles in war preparations. She soon found herself in a power struggle with LaGuardia, who preferred to focus on narrower aspects of defense, while she saw solutions to broader social problems as equally important to the war effort. Though LaGuardia resigned from the OCD in December 1941, Eleanor was forced to resign following anger in the House of Representatives over high salaries for several OCD appointments, including two of her close friends.

In October 1942, Roosevelt toured England, visiting with American troops and inspecting British forces. Her visits drew enormous crowds and received almost unanimously favorable press in both England and America. In August 1943, she visited American troops in the South Pacific on a morale-building tour, of which Admiral William Halsey, Jr. later said, "she alone accomplished more good than any other person, or any groups of civilians, who had passed through my area." For her part, Roosevelt was left shaken and deeply depressed by seeing the war's carnage. A number of Congressional Republicans criticized her for using scarce wartime resources for her trip, prompting Franklin to suggest that she take a break from traveling.

Roosevelt supported increased roles for women and African-Americans in the war effort, and began to advocate for factory jobs to be given to women a year before it became a widespread practice. In 1942, she urged women of all social backgrounds to learn trades, saying: "if I were of a debutante age I would go into a factory–any factory where I could learn a skill and be useful." Learning of the high rate of absenteeism among working mothers, she also campaigned for government-sponsored day care. She notably supported the Tuskegee Airmen in their successful effort to become the first black combat pilots, visiting the Tuskegee Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Alabama. She also flew with African-American chief civilian instructor C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson. Anderson, who had been flying since 1929, and was responsible for training thousands of rookie pilots, took her on a half-hour flight in a Piper J-3 Cub. After landing, she cheerfully announced, "Well, you can fly all right." The subsequent brouhaha over the First Lady's flight had such an impact it is often mistakenly cited as the start of the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee, even though the program was already five months old. Eleanor Roosevelt did use her position as a trustee of the Julius Rosenwald Fund to arrange a loan of $175,000 to help finance the building of Moton Field.

After the war, Eleanor was a strong proponent of the Morgenthau Plan to de-industrialize Germany in the postwar period. In 1946, she attended the National Conference on the German Problem in New York, which issued a statement that "any plans to resurrect the economic and political power of Germany" would be dangerous to international security.

Years after the White House

Franklin died on April 12, 1945 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Georgia. Eleanor later learned that FDR's mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, had been with him when he died, a discovery made more bitter by learning that her daughter Anna had also been aware of the ongoing friendship between the president and Rutherfurd. After the funeral, Eleanor packed and moved out of the White House, returning to Val-Kill. In instructions left for Eleanor in the event of his death, Franklin proposed turning over Hyde Park to the federal government as a museum, and she spent the following months cataloging the estate and arranging the transfer. After FDR's death, Eleanor moved into an apartment at 29 Washington Square West in Greenwich Village. In 1950, she rented suites at The Park Sheraton Hotel (202 West 56th Street). She lived here until 1953 when she moved to 211 East 62nd Street. When that lease expired in 1958, she returned to The Park Sheraton as she waited for the house she purchased with Edna and David Gurewitsch at 55 East 74th Street to be renovated. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum opened on April 12, 1946, setting a precedent for future presidential libraries.

United Nations

State of the Union (Four Freedoms) (January 6, 1941)

FDR's 1941 State of the Union (Four Freedoms speech) Edit 1.ogg

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941 State of the Union Address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02)

In December 1945, President Harry S. Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In April 1946, she became the first chairperson of the preliminary United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Eleanor remained chairperson when the Commission was established on a permanent basis in January 1947. She played an instrumental role, along with René Cassin, John Peters Humphrey and others, in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Eleanor spoke in favor of the Declaration, calling it "the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere" in a speech on the night of September 28, 1948. The Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The vote was unanimous, with eight abstentions: six Soviet Bloc countries as well as South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Roosevelt attributed the abstention of the Soviet bloc nations to Article 13, which provided the right of citizens to leave their countries.

Roosevelt also served as the first United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and stayed on at that position until 1953, even after stepping down as chair of the Commission in 1951. The UN posthumously awarded her one of its first Human Rights Prizes in 1968 in recognition of her work.

Postwar politics, activism, and honors

In the late 1940s, Democrats in New York and throughout the country courted Roosevelt for political office.

At first I was surprised that anyone should think that I would want to run for office, or that I was fitted to hold office. Then I realized that some people felt that I must have learned something from my husband in all the years that he was in public life! They also knew that I had stressed the fact that women should accept responsibility as citizens. I heard that I was being offered the nomination for governor or for the United States Senate in my own state, and even for Vice President. And some particularly humorous souls wrote in and suggested that I run as the first woman President of the United States! The simple truth is that I have had my fill of public life of the more or less stereotyped kind.

Catholics comprised a major element of the Democratic Party in New York City. Roosevelt supported reformers trying to overthrow the Irish machine Tammany Hall, and some Catholics called her anti-Catholic. In July 1949, Roosevelt had a bitter public disagreement with Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Archbishop of New York, over federal funding for parochial schools. Spellman said she was anti-Catholic, and supporters of both took sides in a battle that drew national attention and is "still remembered for its vehemence and hostility."

In 1949, she was made an honorary member of the historically black organization Alpha Kappa Alpha.

She was an early supporter of the Encampment for Citizenship, a non-profit organization that conducts residential summer programs with year-round follow-up for young people of widely diverse backgrounds and nations. She routinely hosted encampment workshops at her Hyde Park estate, and when the program was attacked as "socialistic" by McCarthyite forces in the early 1950s, she vigorously defended it.

In 1954, Tammany Hall boss Carmine DeSapio led the effort to defeat Eleanor's son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., in the election for New York Attorney General. Eleanor grew increasingly disgusted with DeSapio's political conduct through the rest of the 1950s. Eventually, she would join with her old friends Herbert Lehman and Thomas Finletter to form the New York Committee for Democratic Voters, a group dedicated to opposing DeSapio's reincarnated Tammany Hall. Their efforts were eventually successful, and DeSapio was forced to relinquish power in 1961.

When President Truman backed New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, a close associate of DeSapio, for the 1952 Democratic presidential nomination, Roosevelt was disappointed. She supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956, and urged his renomination in 1960. She resigned from her UN post in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower became President. Although Roosevelt had reservations about John F. Kennedy for his failure to condemn McCarthyism, she supported him for president against Richard Nixon. Kennedy later reappointed her to the United Nations, where she served again from 1961 to 1962, and to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps.

By the 1950s, Roosevelt's international role as spokesperson for women led her to stop publicly criticizing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), although she never supported it. In the early 1960s, she announced that, due to unionization, she believed the ERA was no longer a threat to women as it once may have been and told supporters that they could have the amendment if they wanted it. In 1961, President Kennedy's undersecretary of labor, Esther Peterson proposed a new Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Kennedy appointed Roosevelt to chair the commission, with Peterson as director. This was Roosevelt's last public position. She died just before the commission issued its report. It concluded that female equality was best achieved by recognition of gender differences and needs, and not by an Equal Rights Amendment.

Throughout the 1950s, Roosevelt embarked on countless national and international speaking engagements; continued to pen her newspaper column; and made appearances on television and radio broadcasts. She averaged one hundred fifty lectures a year throughout the fifties, many devoted to her activism on behalf of the United Nations. In 1961, all volumes of Roosevelt's autobiography, which she had begun writing in 1937, were compiled into The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (Harper & Brothers, ISBN 0-306-80476-X).

Roosevelt received thirty-five honorary degrees, thirteen of which were from universities outside the United States.

She was the most admired living woman, according to Gallup's most admired man and woman poll of Americans, in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961.

Death and posthumous tributes

In April 1960, Roosevelt was diagnosed with aplastic anemia soon after being struck by a car in New York City. In 1962, she was given steroids, which activated a dormant case of bone marrow tuberculosis, and she died of resulting cardiac failure at her Manhattan home at 55 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78. President John F. Kennedy ordered all United States flags lowered to half-staff throughout the world on November 8 in tribute to Roosevelt.

Among other prominent attendees, President Kennedy and former presidents Truman and Eisenhower honored Roosevelt at funeral services in Hyde Park on November 10, 1962, where she was interred next to her husband in the rose garden at "Springwood", the Roosevelt family home. At the services, Adlai Stevenson II said: "What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many?", adding, "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world."

After her death, her family deeded the family vacation home on Campobello Island to the governments of the U.S. and Canada, and in 1964 they created the Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

In 1972, the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute was founded; it merged with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Foundation in 1987 to become the Roosevelt Institute. The Roosevelt Institute is a a liberal American think tank. According to the organization, it exists "to carry forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by developing progressive ideas and bold leadership in the service of restoring America’s promise of opportunity for all." It is headquartered in New York, New York.

In 1976, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, a public magnet high school specializing in science, mathematics, technology, and engineering, was established at its current location in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was the first high school named for Eleanor Roosevelt, and is part of the Prince George's County Public Schools system.

In 1977, Eleanor's stone cottage at Val-Kill two miles east of Springwood and its surrounding property of 181 acres (0.73 km2), that had been her home after the death of her husband and the only residence she had ever personally owned, was formally designated by an act of Congress as the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, "to commemorate for the education, inspiration, and benefit of present and future generations the life and work of an outstanding woman in American history."

In 1986, the Roosevelt Study Center, a research institute, conference center, and library on twentieth-century American history located in the twelfth-century Abbey of Middelburg, the Netherlands, opened. It is named after Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, all of whose ancestors emigrated from Zeeland, the Netherlands, to the United States in the seventeenth century.

In 1988, Eleanor Roosevelt College, one of six undergraduate residential colleges at the University of California, San Diego, was founded. ERC emphasizes international understanding, including proficiency in a foreign language and a regional specialization.

In 1996, the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, in New York's Riverside Park, was dedicated. It is said to be the first monument to an American president's wife. The centerpiece is a statue sculpted by Penelope Jencks, and the surrounding granite pavement contains inscriptions designed by the architect Michael Middleton Dwyer, including summaries of her achievements, and a quote from her 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights.

In 1997, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated; it has a bronze statue of Eleanor Roosevelt standing before the United Nations emblem, which honors her dedication to the United Nations. It is the only presidential memorial to depict a First Lady.

In 1998, the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights was established by the then-President of the United States Bill Clinton, honoring outstanding American promoters of rights in the United States. The award was first awarded on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, honoring Eleanor Roosevelt's role as the "driving force" in the development of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The award was presented from 1998 to the end of the Clinton Administration in 2001. In 2010, then-Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton revived the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and presented the award on behalf of the then-President of the United States Barack Obama.

In 1999, the Gallup Organization published the poll Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, to determine which people around the world Americans most admired for what they did in the 20th century. Eleanor Roosevelt came in ninth.

In 2001, the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee (Eleanor's Legacy) was founded by Judith Hollensworth Hope, who was its president until April 2008. It inspires and supports pro-choice Democratic women to run for local and state offices in New York. The Legacy sponsors campaign training schools, links candidates with volunteers and experts, collaborates with like-minded organizations and provides campaign grants to endorsed candidates.

In 2002, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, a small public high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, was founded.

In 2005, Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale, California, opened.

Eleanor Roosevelt's 1948 speech "The Struggle for Human Rights" is listed as #55 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank), and her 1948 speech "On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" is #98 on that same list.

Eleanor Roosevelt is the name of one of the 12 sectors of Hato Rey in Puerto Rico.

See also

Eleanor Eleanor and Franklin Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years List of civil rights leaders

List of women's rights activists

Sunrise at Campobello Sunrise at Campobello (play) The Eleanor Roosevelt Story The RooseveltsReferences

Bibliography

Eleanor Roosevelt's Vision of Journalism: A Communications Medium for Women

Beasley, Maurine H., et al., eds. The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia (2001) online version

Beasley, Maurine H. Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady (University Press of Kansas; 2010) 304 pages; biography that emphasizes how she used the media to pursue her activism.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884–1933

Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933–1938 https://books.google.com/books/about/Eleanor_Roosevelt.html?id=ecrtAAAAMAAJ

John P. Humphrey and the Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Journal of the History of International Law

A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights https://books.google.com/books/about/A_World_Made_New.html?id=2-vaZkbca2sC

https://books.google.com/books?id=wQcMDdFC1QEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=doris+goodwin+eleanor&hl=en

Lachman, Seymour P. "The Cardinal, the Congressmen, and the First Lady". Journal of Church and State (Winter, 1965): 35–66.

Lash, Joseph. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: W.W. Norton (1971). ISBN 0-393-07459-5

Lash, Joseph. Eleanor: The Years Alone (1972) ISBN 0-393-07361-0

O'Farrell, Brigid. She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker (ILR Press/Cornell University Press; 2011) 304 pages ISBN 978-0-8014-6246-7

Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth Doubleday

Pfeffer, Paula F. "Eleanor Roosevelt and the National and World Women's Parties." Historian, Fall, 1996: 39–58.

Pottker, Jan. Sara and Eleanor: The Story of Sara Delano Roosevelt and Her Daughter-In-Law, Eleanor Roosevelt, St. Martin's Press, 416 pages, ISBN 0-312-30340-8

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage

Historiography

Provizer, Norman W. "Eleanor Roosevelt Biographies," in William D. Pederson, ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt (2011) pp 15–33 online

External links

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project (including over 8000 of her "My Day" newspaper columns, as well as other documents and audio clips)

First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rise of Social Reform in the 1930s

Text and Audio of Eleanor Roosevelt's Address to the United Nations General Assembly

American Experience: Eleanor web site for documentary program, including 28 My Day columns and excerpts from her FBI file

The Truman Library's collection of correspondence between Eleanor Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman.

This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt. (Her 1937 autobiography)

Eleanor Roosevelt The History channel. A&E Television Networks. History.com. Videos of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image''

FBI files on Elanor Roosevelt

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First Lady of the United States

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Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

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United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

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Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

Articles and topics related to Eleanor Roosevelt

Please email your comments & questions to

geovisual @ comcast.net . Thank you.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945]

& Anna Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

N.B.:

This is one of more than 60 web pages presenting -- in chronological order -- physical monuments & selected events related to

one or more famous peacemakers. For others in the series, see

names in red on

web page for Famous Peacemakers

. Click here

for monuments related to FDR's Four Freedoms.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[1882-1945] - also known by his initials FDR - "was the 32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) & a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis & world war. The

only American president elected to more than two terms

, he facilitated a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. With the bouncy popular song 'Happy Days Are Here Again' as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican

Herbert Hoover

[1874-1964] in November 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression. FDR's persistent optimism & activism contributed to a renewal of the national spirit, reflecting his victory over paralytic illness to become the

longest serving president in US history

. He worked closely with Winston Churchill & Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Germany & Japan in World War II, but died just as victory was in sight."

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

[1884-1962] "was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, & became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international author, speaker, politician & activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the

Equal Rights Amendment

(ERA) because she believed it would adversely affect women."

Right click image to enlarge.

E S TA T E January 30, 1882 - Birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[1882-1945], Springwood, Hyde Park, New York (USA). "The

only place in the USA where a President was born, maintained a lifelong connection & lies buried

." Maintained today exactly as it was when FDR's mother,

Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt

[1854-1941], died on September 7, 1941. Opened to the public on April 12, 1946 (first anniversary of FDR's death), when Eleanor Roosevelt said,

'Life here had always a healing quality for him... It is his life & his character & his personality which will live with us & which will endure & be imparted to those who come to see the surroundings in which he grew to maturity.'

" Next to the FDR Presidential Library & Museum since June 30, 1941.

Year?

- "Chinese Bell," in living room of "Springwood" (

Birthplace & Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt

), Hyde Park, New York (USA). About 3 feet/1 meter tall. EWL visited on April 19, 2017. National Park Service guide called this a "Chinese bell" & said the Roosevelt family rang it to call guests to dinner. He disputed that it looks more Japanese than Chinese. IMO, the bell is shaped like a typical Japanese bell, and it has many "knobs" which are common on Japanese bells but NOT on Chinese bells. I wonder when & how it was acquired by the Roosevelt family.

Click here

to compare "peace bells" from Japan, China & other countries. Note how similar bells were brought to the USA from Japan as trophies of WW-II. But FDR [1882-1945] was

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

1913-1920, and maybe this bell was given to him at that time. /// From a

visitor's blog

: "FUN ROOSEVELT FACTS: Among gifts in Springwood is

a bell from a Buddhist monastery

; FDR's mom

[Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, 1854-1941] used it respectfully and with the utmost dignity as a

dinner bell

. Since all dinners were formal, the first bell was a 30-minute warning; those who were not dressed in time had to eat dinner alone in their rooms, and then would be beaten thoroughly [sic] by the servants." /// From

"[Joseph] Stillwell & the American Experience in China, 1911-1945"

by Barbara W. Tuchman (2001): "At Hyde Park [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [1882-1945] was brought up among Chinese furnishings, among them a large blue & white porcelain garden pot in the library which according to family tradition had been used at Rose Hill ["the home the Delanos would occupy in Hong Kong"] for bathing the children. A bronze

Chinese bell used as a dinner gong

had been acquired by Roosevelt's grand- father from two coolies who were carrying it away from the

sack at Soochow in 1863. Roosevelts's stamp collection

was founded on Chinese & Hong Kong issues given to him by his mother when he was ten..." /// COMMENT BY EWL: Each of the three accounts given here appears to be a typical tour guide simplification further removed from the truth by anonymous & amateur scribes. More reliable is the Wikipedia account that Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, her mother Catherine & six brothers & sisters "lived in Hong Kong 1862-1865...where they joined

Warren Delano

who had resumed his business of trading in opium, then still legal." My hunch is that the bell's origin is poorly documented but that it has been in the home for so many decades that few if any visitors have questioned its source. Its Japanese origin is obvious to me but apparently has never been investigated by the National Park Service. /// Lower image shows the front of "Springwood,"

birthplace & lifelong home of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.

October 11, 1884 - Birth of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

[1884-1962], 56 West 37th Street, New York City, New York (USA). Born in her parents first house into a world of immense wealth & privilege, as her family is part of New York high society called the "swells." Her parents are Elliott Roosevelt & Anna Hall Roosevelt.

Two brothers, Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. [1889–93] & Hall Roosevelt [1891–1941] are born later. Her mother dies from diphtheria when Eleanor is eight, & her father, an alcoholic confined to a sanitarium, dies less than two years later.

E S TA T E Date?

- Wilderstein estate, Rhinebeck, New York (USA). Unintentional monument. "Called the 'stepchild' of the Hudson River Valley mansions in a 2007 article in the New York Times because it was the last to be transferred from the family that built it - the Suckley family, cousins to the venerable Livingstons who seem to be the foundation of all the great families of the Valley - to trusteeship. The fact that the Suckleys ran out of money about 80 years before this transfer occurred in 1991 created a considerable preservation challenge for the non-profit organization that runs the mansion today. When I first visited the house about a decade ago, it was a dreary dark brown, having received its last paint job in 1910 with very 'good paint' according to the recorded remembrances of its most famous, and last, resident,

Margaret (Daisy) Suckley

[1891-1991], some 70 years later. Miss Suckley was the very close friend, correspondent & confidant of her 6th cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lived right down the road in Hyde Park when he wasn’t in the White House. It was she who gave him the famous dog Fala, namesake of one of Wilderstein’s most popular annual fundraising events, the 'Fala Gala.' //

A lot of improvements have been made to the exterior of the house in the 20 years following Miss Suckley’s death, the most striking of which are shingle and siding repairs and the return of the original polychrome paint scheme. The mansion is an elaborate Queen Anne confection, complete with a five-story tower, and it demands bright, contrasting colors!

" Summer 2012

- Image from the upcoming film "Hyde Park on Hudson," starring Laura Linney as Daisy Suckley & Bill Murray (!!!!!) as FDR.

P A R K August 20, 1964 -

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

, Campobello Island, New Brunswick (Canada). "

From 1883

onward, the Roosevelt family made Campobello Island their summer home. Their son, Franklin D. Roosevelt, would spend his summers on Campobello from the age of one until, as an adult, he acquired a larger property - a 34-room 'cottage' - which he would use as a summer retreat until 1939. It was here that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., was born in August 1914." This is where FDR suddenly contracted polio in

August 1921

at age 39. Image shows the Roosevelt Cottage in what became the international park on August 20, 1964.

Entry #1264 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1889-1902

- Allenswood Academy, Wimbledon, near London (England). Eleanor Roosevelt attends for three years. The headmistress,

Marie Souvestre

[1830-1905], is a noted feminist educator who seeks to cultivate independent thinking in the young women in her charge. Eleanor learns to speak French fluently.

March 17, 1905

(St. Patrick's Day) - Wedding of Eleanor Roosevelt, age 20, & Franklin Roosevelt, age 23, 5th cousins once removed, at the adjoining townhouses of Mrs. Elizabeth Livingston Ludlow & her daughter Susan (Cousin Susie) Parish in New York City, New York (USA). President Theodore Roosevelt gives away the bride, & Rev. Dr. Endicott Peabody, the groom's headmaster at Groton School, performs the ceremony. The couple spends a preliminary honeymoon of one week at Hyde Park, then sets up housekeeping in an apartment in New York. That summer they take a formal three month honeymoon in Europe.

1908-1942 - Roosevelt House

, East 65th Street, New York City, New York (USA). "Brick-and-limestone townhouse. From 1908 until 1942, it was the New York City residence of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt, arguably the most influential couple to lead the nation. And from 1942 until 1992, it was Hunter College's interfaith center for students - the nation's first collegiate meeting place for students of different religions, ethnicities & interests."

1927

- Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill (ERVK),

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

, National Park Service (NPS), Val-Kill, New York (USA). "Eleanor Roosevelt established

Val-Kill Industries in 1927

with Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman & Caroline O'Day, three friends she met through her activities in the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Party. Val-Kill was located on the banks of a stream that flowed through the Roosevelt family estate in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor & her business partners financed the construction of a small factory to provide supplemental income for local farming families who would make furniture, pewter & homespun cloth using traditional craft methods.

Val-Kill Industries never became the subsistence program that Eleanor & her friends imagined, but it did pave the way for larger New Deal initiatives during FDR's presidential administration.

Nancy's failing health and pressures from the Great Depression compelled the women to dissolve the partnership

in 1938

, at which time Eleanor Roosevelt converted the shop buildings into a cottage that eventually became her permanent residence after FDR died

in 1945

." Became National Historic Site

in 1977 . Video | Website 1927

- Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). "FDR's

first time in Warm Springs was October 1924

. He went to a resort in the town whose attraction was a permanent 88-degree natural spring, but whose main house, the Meriwether Inn [upper image], was described as 'ramshackle' [& torn down in 1934]. Roosevelt bought the resort & the 1,700-acre (6.9 km2) farm surrounding it

in 1927

. It was around this time that Bullochville was renamed Warm Springs. Roosevelt traveled to the area frequently, including sixteen times while he was President, and he died in the district on April 12, 1945 at his

Little White House

[middle image], which he

had built in 1932

.

He founded the Institute after hearing about a boy who had regained the use of his legs, through a treatment known as hydrotherapy, which involves the use of water for soothing pains and treating diseases. The operations of the Institute were paid for by the Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later became the

March of Dimes . The

Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

(RWSIR) [lower image] currently treats about 5,000 patients every year. While the original historic pools are not generally open to the public, the institute opens the waters once a year to the public on Labor day weekend. They allow four groups of people in a day for a one and a half hour swim.

The main building of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute is Georgia Hall,

built in 1933

to replace the old Meriwether Inn, which was torn down as it was too dilapidated to successfully renovate to then-modern conditions. Roosevelt often hosted Thanksgiving dinners in its dining hall for those who were using the Springs. For much of its existence, the institute was the only such facility 'exclusively devoted, to polio patients."

1928-1932

- McCarthy Cottage, Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). Unintentional monument. "An early morning fire [on August 9, 2011] destroyed two historic cottages at the Georgia Department of Labor's

Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

(RWSIR). They are McCarthy Cottage and E. T. Curtis Cottage.

'As the first home President Franklin Roosevelt built in Warm Springs, the nation has experienced a great loss with the burning of the McCarthy Cottage,' stated Commissioner Butler. 'Because President Roosevelt resided there for four years, the McCarthy cottage was the cottage of most historical value.'

Built in 1927, McCarthy Cottage was President Roosevelt's Warm Springs home until 1932 when he moved into the Little White House. President Roosevelt first came to Warm Springs in 1924, seeking a solution for the paralysis of his legs caused by polio, which he contracted three years earlier.

Upon building and moving into the Little White House, Roosevelt leased the cottage to Leighton McCarthy, a well-to-do Canadian businessman whose son also had polio. McCarthy would go on to become Canadian Ambassador to the United States during World War II and his son's family would continue to reside there during treatment visits to Warm Springs until the 1970s'."

January 1, 1929

- Albany, New York (USA). FDR is inaugurated 44th governor of the State of New York.

March 4, 1933

- Washington, DC (USA). FDR is inaugurated 32nd president of the USA. Roosevelt names

Cordell Hull

[1871-1955] Secretary of State.

Date? - Secret train platform

, beneath Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, New York (USA). Unintentional monument. "Over the weekend we had a chance to visit the long-abandoned Waldorf-Astoria train platform, which allowed VIP's to enter the hotel in a more private manner - most famously it was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, possibly to hide the fact that he was in a wheelchair suffering from polio. The mysterious track, known as Track 61, still houses the train car & private elevator, which were both large enough for FDR's armor-plated Pierce Arrow car. Legend has it that the car would drive off the train, onto the platform and straight into the elevator, which would lead to the hotel's garage."

1933 - Arthurdale

, Preston County, West Virginia (USA). Eleanor Roosevelt's "pet project." "The

first of many New Deal planned communities

established under FDR's administration. It was intended to take impoverished laborers, farmers & coal miners & move them to a modern rural community that would allow them to become economically self-sufficient... The Arthurdale Historic District is a national historic district encompassing 147 contributing buildings, 1 contributing structures, and 1 contributing site. As a historic district, it is significant because, at the time of its listing, all 165 houses were extant, as well as the Inn, four of the six factories, the pottery, well house, cemeteries, most of the community center buildings & the original road system and parking lot. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989."

1934

- Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, Lower East Site, New York City, New York (USA).

Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt

[1854-1941] was the 2nd wife of

James Roosevelt, Sr.

[1828-1900], from 1880. FDR was her only child. "Commissioner Robert Moses' earliest projects illustrate the Parks Department's commitment to recreation. Sara D. Roosevelt Park was an early priority. He announced plans for the sprawling site in February 1934. Tenements cleared & streets closed originally for housing were utilized for playgrounds, a seven–block–long stretch from Canal to Houston streets in one of the densest part of the city." Why is there a maple leaf on the sign?

April 18, 1936

- Grave of Louis Howe, Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River, Massachusetts (USA).

Louis McHenry Howe

[1871-1935] was was an intimate friend & close political advisor to FDR. He, along with Eleanor Roosevelt &

Margurite (Missy) LeHand

[1898-1944], was one of the few close associates who supported FDR throughout the most difficult stages of his personal & political recuperation after being afflicted by paralytic illness.

May 29, 1937 - Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt)

, Monmouth County, New Jersey (USA). "Created during the Great Depression as part of FDR's

New Deal

. Home to a cooperative farming & garment manufacturing project under the discretion of the

Resettlement Administration

, but was conceived and largely planned out by Benjamin Brown & and Hyman Alef.

Albert Einstein gave the town his political & moral support. Artist

Ben Shahn

[1898-1968] lived in the town & in 1937-1938 painted a 12' x 45' fresco mural viewable in the current Roosevelt Public School... Name of the town was changed to Roosevelt as of November 9, 1945, based on the results of a referendum held 3 days earlier, in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died on April 12, 1945.

1938

- Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, Pine Mountain Scenic Highway, Georgia 190 at Georgia 354, near FDR State Park, King's Gap, Georgia (USA). FDR chose the route of the highway. It & the bridge were constructed between 1934 & 1938.

Date?

- Marker for "Longleaf Pine Planting," near Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA).

1939 - Top Cottage

, Hyde Park, New York (USA). Also known as Hill-Top Cottage. "Was a private retreat designed by & for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Built in 1938 to 1939, during Roosevelt's second term as President, it was designed to accommodate his need for wheelchair accessibility. It was one of the earliest such buildings in the country, the first significant building designed by a disabled person &

the only building designed by a sitting US President other than Thomas Jefferson.

Although it was meant as a retreat, FDR also received notable guests at the cottage, including Britain's King George VI & Queen Elizabeth. After half a century in private ownership, it was restored & given to the National Park Service, which today operates it as part of the nearby Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

January 6, 1941

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address in which he articulated his

"Four Freedoms."

Roosevelt said, "We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms:

Freedom of speech, freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

" June 30, 1941

- Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum, Hyde Park, New York (USA). Next to the Roosevelt home Springwood (qv). "The

first presidential library built in the USA

. Conceived & built under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1939 to 1940."

Video | Website September 7, 1941

- Death of FDR's mother, Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York (USA). Suddenly, 230 days after FDR's 3rd inauguration as president & two weeks before her 87th birthday. Funeral held at her home Springwood in Hyde Park (qv). Images show her grave in churchyard of St. James Episcopal Church, Hyde Park (1811).

Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt

[1854-1941] was the 2nd wife of

James Roosevelt, Sr.

[1828-1900], from 1880. FDR was her only child. Her memory is also commemorated with the Sara Delano Roosevelt Park in New York City's Lower East Side, which was dedicated during her lifetime, in 1934.

August 10-12, 1941

- Atlantic Charter Conference, Argentia Bay (Newfoundland). First meeting between FDR & PM Winston Churchill. Photo shows them on board the

HMS Prince of Wales

. The cruiser will be sunk by Japanese bombers off the east coast of Malaysia on December 10, 1941.

December 7, 1941 - Japanese Attack

, Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i (USA).

1943 - Four Freedoms Series

, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (USA). By

Norman Rockwell

[1894-1978]. "Published in The Saturday Evening Post over the course of four consecutive weeks alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day. Later, they were the highlight of a touring exhibition sponsored by the Saturday Evening Post & the US Department of the Treasury. The touring exhibition & accompanying sales drives raised over US$132 million in the sale of war bonds." Where are the original paintings today?

1943

- Four Freedoms Memorial, Madison, Florida (USA). "A striking sculpture of four angels, their wings unfurled in the wind.

Dedicated to Colin P. Kelly, a B-17 pilot whose plane was shot down just days after Pearl Harbor.

Represents President Franklin D. Roosevelt's

Four Freedoms

that he articulated in his 1941 State of the Union address. Roosevelt said, 'We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms:

Freedom of speech, freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.'

" April 12, 1945 - Death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945], "Little White House,"

Warm Springs, Georgia (USA). "On the morning of April 13, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin & loaded onto the presidential train [middle image]. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported back to Hyde Park by train, guarded by four servicemen, one each from the Army, Navy, Marines & Coast Guard. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on April 15 [right image]." /// Pullman Sleeping Car Glengyle built in 1918 which provided 1st Class accommodations for family & dignitaries on FDR's funeral train is in Museum of the American Railroad, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas.

January 10-February 14, 1946

-

Plaque for First Meeting of UN General Assembly

, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, London (England). Eleanor Roosevelt is a member of the US delegation. Text of plaque:

"To the glory of God and in prayer for peace on Earth this tablet commemorates the first meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, Jan.10-Feb.14 1946."

Named in "A Peace Trail Through London" by Valerie Flessati (1998).

September 15, 1946

- San Antonio, Texas (USA). Inscribed: "Erected by the Comite Mexicano de Accion Civica y Cultural, 1945-1946."

1946

- Bronze statue of Franklin D Roosevelt, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow (Scotland). "Sketch for the memorial in Grosvenor Square, London, by William Reid Dick."

1948

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Grosvenor Square, London (England). "The statue sits in a garden dedicated to FDR. This is in an area with an agglomeration of embassies, including the US Embassy which occupies the western side of the square. The flowers above were laid after the 9/11/2001attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City.

October 28, 1945 - May 14, 1994 - June 15, 2007

- Freedom Court,"

Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum

,

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

(Springwood Estate), Hyde Park, New York (USA). This is a complicated monument because it consists of three parts erected over a span of 62 years (not to mention the adjacent library & museum). "Freedom Court" includes (1) 1945 bust of FDR by

Walter Russell

[1871-1963], (2) 1994 "BreakFree" by artist

Edwina Sandys

(grand-daughter of Churchill) & (3) 2007 bust of Winston Churchill by

Oscar Nemon

[1906-1985]. /// Made from four segments of the

Berlin Wall

[1961-1989], "'BreakFree' shows the figures of a man & a woman emerging from symbolic, giant barbed wire, expressing Man's irresistible quest for freedom. Appropriately, this sculpture stands on a podium inscribed around the base with Roosevelt's

'Four Freedoms' :" Freedom of speech , Freedom of worship , Freedom from want & Freedom from fear .

/// Right image shows Sandys & Nemon's daughter Aurelia at 2007 dedication of the Churchill bust during a conference whose theme was "Roosevelt & Churchill: The Legacy of Two Statesmen." In foreground is the

1945 bust of FDR

by Walter Russell. (Sandys'

"Breakthrough"

[qv] was also made from the Berlin Wall & placed at Fulton, Missouri, in 1990.)

Visited by EWL on April 19, 2017.

FOUR_FREEDOMS BERLIN_WALL 1945 1994 2007 NY FDR US-UK

December 10, 1948 -

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(UDHR). "Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris (France). The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the World War-II & represents the

first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled

. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions & laws. The

International Bill of Human Rights

consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, & the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights & its two Optional Protocols. In 1966, the General Assembly adopted the two detailed Covenants, which complete the International Bill of Human Rights; and in 1976, after the Covenants had been ratified by a sufficient number of individual nations, the Bill took on the force of international law."

S CU L P T 1950

- Statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

Akershus Fortress

, near Radhusplassen, Oslo (Norway). Overlooks the harbor. Sculpted by Noreby Stinius Fuller. "FDR is a hero to many Norwesgians because he fought to liberate Norway from Nazi tyranny during World War II." /// "Following an invitation by President Roosevelt,

Crown Princess Märtha

[1901-1954] went to the USA on the USS American Legion, via the then Finnish port city of Petsamo. In the USA, she & her three children initially took up residence in the White House.

In August 1941, Crown Princess Märtha traveled with President Roosevelt aboard the presidential yacht, USS Potomac (AG-25), and sailed to Newfoundland & Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchill.

The friendship that The Crown Couple had cultivated with the Roosevelts was further developed during the war years. In 1942, the U.S. presented the Norwegian forces with the gift of a U-boat, which was received by Crown Princess Märtha, who in her reply gave a speech in support of the Norwegian liberation. Her impressive work to assist the American Red Cross and on behalf of Norwegian interests greatly impressed Roosevelt and influenced his 'Look to Norway' speech in 1942."

S CU L P T 2005 - Statue of Crown Princess Märtha

of Norway, Massachusetts Avenue at 34th Street, NW, Washington, DC (USA).

Created by Kirsten Kokkin. A gift of the Norwegian American Foundation to His Majesty King Harald V of Norway & the Norwegian Government in memory of the King’s mother and her outstanding contribution to the war effort of the Norwegians in exile during World War II.

S CU L P T January 2, 1958 -

Polio Wall of Fame,

Founder's Hall,

Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

, Warm Springs, Georgia (USA). Also called the "Polio Hall of Fame." Assembles busts of 14 men & one woman who were instrumental in polio research & treatment, plus Franklin Delano Roosevelt & his close aide Basil O'Connor. (The first four are from Germany, Sweden & Austria.) Designed by sculptor

Edmond Romulus Amateis

[1897-1981] who also sculpted the "Great Frieze of War & Peace" in Kansas City, Missouri (qv).

D AM July 17, 1958

- Peace Monument, Robert Moses-Robert H. Saunders Power House & Dam, St. Lawrence-Franklin Deleno Roosevelt Power Project, St. Lawrence River between Massena, New York (USA), & Cornwall, Ontario (Canada). The dam's 32 turbine-generators are divided equally by the international border, with the two sections operated independently by the New York Power Authorty (NYPA) & Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the monument on the international border inside the power house.

S H RI N E 1962 -

USS Arizona Memorial Musuem

, National Park Service (NPS), 1 Arizona Memorial Place, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii (USA). "The underwater USS Arizona serves as the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941."

One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008).

August 15, 1962 -

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge

, Lubec, Maine (USA), & Campobello Island, New Brunswick (Canada). Eleanor Roosevelt attended the dedication. /// In the foreground of the image are the Lubec breakwall, floating pier & boatramp, the waterfront business district, US Post Office & Customs (at right end of the bridge). Mostly visible on Campobello Island (at the far side of the bridge) are (from the left) a lobster pound, New Brunswick Tourism Information Centre & Canada Customs (white buildings at left end of bridge) & the Natural Area of

Roosevelt-Campobello International Park

, from Upper Duck Pond by the bridge to Liberty Point in the distant center.

Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, can be seen nine miles offshore in the hazy distance.

S T O N E 1985 - "SunSweep,"

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

, Weshpool, New Brunswick (Canada). In Canada but accesible only by road from the US. One of 3 stone monuments by sculptor

David Barr

spanning 2,778 miles of the international border between the US & Canada.

Entry #1265 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

November 7, 1962 - Death of Eleanor Roosevelt

[1884-1962], New York City, New York (USA). "Her funeral at Hyde Park was attended by President John F. Kennedy & former Presidents Truman & Eisenhower. At her memorial service, Adlai Stevenson asked, 'What other single human being has touched & transformed the existence of so many?' Stevenson also said that Roosevelt was someone 'who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness.' She was laid to rest next to Franklin at the family compound in Hyde Park, New York, on November 10, 1962."

1976

- Four Freedoms Monument, Sunset Park, Ohio River, Evansville, Indiana (USA). Next to "Japanese Pagoda" (qv). Designed by local engineer

Rupert Condict

. Has four columns from former E&TH Depot (right image) plus separate stones for each of the 50 states. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt [1882-1945] announced the Four Freedoms

on January 6, 1941

1995 - Rehabilitation Pools,

Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

(RWSIR), Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). "Refurbished by the State of Georgia in 1994-95 for the 50th anniversary of FDR's death."

1995 - "The Allies"

, Bond Street, London (England). Statues of Franklin Delano Roosevelt & Winston Churchill. Sculpted by Lawrence Holofcener. Commorates 50 years of peace in Europe. Omits Joseph Stalin.

One of 309 London monuments in

Kershman (2007) , page 258. 1995

- Bust of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Elberton, Georgia (USA). "Alongside the Elberton Civic Center & just a few feet away from a large Masonic plaque inset into its corner is a strange granite bust. Originally completed in 1941, the bust bore the semblance of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, years later in the dark of the night the good people of Elberton destroyed the statue. When it was restored in 1995, the figure looked nothing like FDR. Moreover, the new bust wears a tie embellished with peculiar symbols.

Could this figure be the mysterious Robert C. Christian, the man who designed & funded the sinister Georgia Guidestones monument only about 7.5 miles north of the statue & completed on March 22, 1980?"

October 5, 1996

- Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial, Riverside Park, Riverside Drive at 72nd Street, New York City, New York (USA). "A bronze statue of Roosevelt at the center of a circular plant bed is the memorial's principal feature. The surrounding granite pavement is inscribed with a summary of her achievements & a quote from her 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights." /// "Dedicated in the presence of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Penelope Jencks was the sculptor. A new landscape on the site of a former West Side Highway access ramp was designed by Bruce Kelly/David Varnell Landscape Architects. Funding for the $1.3 million project, which included a renovated entranceway, was provided by the City of New York, the State of New York & the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument Fund."

May 2, 1997 -

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Vast 7.5-acre memorial has four outdoor "rooms" (one for each of Roosevelt's four terms as president).

Click here

for all 21 FDR quotes.

May 2, 1997 -

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Here is the "war quote" in

room 3

(next to jumbled stones representing the destruction of war):

"I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war."

(From an address at Chautauqua, NY, August 14, 1936.)

Entry #1160 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

May 2, 1997 -

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Here is the "peace quote" in

room 4

(next to statue of Eleanor Roosevelt):

"The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation... It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world."

(From an address to Congress after his return from Yalta, March 1, 1945.)

Entry #1161 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

May 2, 1997

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms,"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). One of the 21 quotes carved into the granite walls of the memorial.

Entry #1160 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

M US E U M 1997 -

Cordell Hull Birthplace & Museum State Park

, 1300 Cordell Hull Memorial Drive, Byrdstown, Tennessee (USA). Preserves Hull's birthplace & various personal effects Hull donated to the citizens of Pickett County, including his 1945

Nobel Peace Prize . Cordell Hull [1871-1955] was

the longest serving Secretary of State

1933-1944. President Roosevelt called him

"The Father of the United Nations."

Click here

for monuments to all Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

November 9, 2000 -

National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II

, Washington, DC (USA). Pays homage to the thousands of Japanese men & women who were imprisioned 1942-1945 in ten American relocation camps:

Amache (Granada), Heart Mountain, Gila River, Jerome, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poslon, Rohwer, Topaz & Tule Lake. At the center of the memorial is a bronze sculpture by Nina A. Akamu of two cranes ensnared in barbed wire. Rising above the confines of the memorial wall, the crane is meant to symbolize "rising beyond limitations."

Click here

for "Japanese Americans Disunited: How a memorial to unify the Japanese American community became a symbol of disunity" by Francis Y. Sogi & Yeiichi (Kelly) Kuwayama.

2003

- Franklin Delano & Eleanor Roosevelt statue, Senator Robert S. Kerr Memorial Garden, outside the Henry A. Wallace Visitor & Education Center, Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York (USA). On the south lawn of their Hyde Park estate. Modeled on a photograph which can be seen in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. The sculpture was designed and cast by a team of ten people from StudioEIS at the Tallix foundry for the opening of the Wallace Center in 2003.

B O O K 2010 -

"Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage"

by Hazel Rowley

, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, pp. 345. "From FDR’s lifelong romance with

Lucy Mercer

[1891-1948] to Eleanor’s purported lesbianism—and many scandals in between—the American public has never tired of speculating about the ties that bound these two headstrong individuals. Some claim that Eleanor sacrificed her personal happiness to accommodate FDR’s needs; others claim that the marriage was nothing more than a gracious façade for political convenience. No one has told the full story until now."

C A R V I N G May 10, 2012

- Stone Carving of Rosa Parks,

Human Rights Porch

, Narthex, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC (USA). "The area includes likenesses of Oscar Romero, Eleanor Roosevelt & John T. Walker (first African American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington once arrested at a protest rally against apartheid at the South African Embassy)... The statue of

Rosa Parks

[1913-2005] was commissioned along with a carving of Mother Teresa that will be dedicated later this year." /// Right image shows statue of Eleanor Roosevelt which is about two feet (0.6 m) tall & above the archway leading to the west narthex.

October 17, 2012 - Four Freedoms Park

, Roosevelt Island, East River, New York City, New York (USA). "Plans were announced in 1973, but for decades a seemingly endless series of delays left its organizers doubtful of its completion. In fact, until recently, few New Yorkers had even heard of the proposed memorial or knew much about the long, complicated history of its intended site—a 2-mile-long, 800-foot-wide island in the East River... Hewing as closely as possible to the original design of Estonian-born architect

Louis Kahn

[1901-1974], the four-acre park includes a triangular-shaped lawn, flanked by more than 100 linden trees, that narrows as it approaches the island’s tip. The centerpiece of the memorial is a bronze bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt based on an earlier work by American sculptor

Jo Davidson

[1883-1952]. Just beyond the bust lies a space Kahn dubbed the 'Room,' designed to give visitors a place for quiet contemplation. Its 36-ton granite blocks are purposely set just an inch apart from each other, providing a unique perspective of Manhattan through narrow slits."

Fall 2012? - FDR Hope Memorial

, Southpoint Park, Roosevelt Island, East River, New York City, New York (USA). By sculptor Meredith Bergmann. "A memorial sculpture being erected for Franklin Delano Roosevelt on his namesake New York City island will depict the beloved president in his wheelchair. Will show the four-term president seated in a wheelchair while greeting a young girl wearing a leg brace.

"This will be great for the children. Now, they can say, 'Look what you can be,' " said Jim Bates, president of the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association.

The 5½-foot-tall bronze statue, which is scheduled to be unveiled in fall 2012, is being funded by private donations and the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

"

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