Mother’s Day The first presidential proclamation honoring Mother's Day was issued by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Each successive year, presidents followed Wilson's example and issued a Mother's Day proclamation. But in 1935, Franklin Roosevelt broke with tradition. He believed that Mother's Day was so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that an annual presidential proclamation was an unnecessary … Continue reading Found in the Archives
The RMS Titanic at 100 One hundred years ago, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic.Considered a marvel of sumptuous luxury and Progressive Era industrial engineering, the ship charged confidently through icy waters at high speeds, struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, then went down in under … Continue reading Found in the Archives
FDR's Last Official Act, April 12, 1945 Each year around the anniversary of FDR's death on April 12, 1945, we are often asked if we know the last official action taken by Roosevelt as president. Thanks to presidential secretary William D. Hassett, who often traveled with FDR and was in Warm Springs on that fateful … Continue reading Found in the Archives
On April 2, 2012, the National Archives publicly released over 3 million images containing 1940 census responses. The information had been closed for a mandated 72 years, but is now available for free and online at http://1940census.archives.gov. There were 132 million people living in the United States in 1940, Americans who had lived through the Great … Continue reading 1940 Census – The Roosevelts
1942 Wartime Party Game We came across this interesting little item in a recent donation by the family of Charles H. McCarthy, Sr., an original member of the so-called Cuff Links Gang who gathered every January 30th to celebrate FDR's birthday. It seems that at the 1942 birthday bash the guests played a party game … Continue reading Found in the Archives
"Following the Footsteps of His Illustrious Namesake" One of the great joys of being an archivist is helping a researcher fill a gap in their own personal history. We recently received a request from Frank Green seeking documentation about his father, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Green, who was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1933 and named … Continue reading Found in the Archives
2012: The Girl Scouts of America turns 100 March 12, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the first organized meeting of the Girl Scouts, hosted in Georgia by founder Juliette Gordon Low. Several years later, as First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt served as Honorary President of that organization throughout her tenure in the White House. In … Continue reading Found in the Archives
We thought this would be a great photo to share in celebration of International Women's Day: The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948 in the midst of an especially bitter phase of the Cold War. Many people contributed to this remarkable achievement, but most observers believe … Continue reading Found in the Archives
"To Capture a Great Dream Before it Dies" Historians often speculate what FDR would have done after the presidency had he lived. Would he write his memoirs? Would he run the United Nations? Recently, one of our archivists came across this exchange of letters between Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish and FDR that sheds some … Continue reading Found in the Archives
75th Anniversary of FDR's Second Inaugural and a New Inauguration Day January 20, 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address. It also marks the first time that a president was sworn in on January 20th, the date having been moved by the 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Previously, American … Continue reading Found in the Archives
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