By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library. As we celebrate Black History Month, it is a good time to explore one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s most outspoken campaigns, and one of her greatest disappointments. Throughout American history issues of race and civil rights have challenged our most precious core principal – that all people are created … Continue reading Eleanor Roosevelt’s Battle to End Lynching
By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library. The many faces that grace American currency are all men. Most of them are presidents who made great contributions to the history of the United States. But they represent only 50% of our population. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Jacob Lew, has started a public conversation about … Continue reading It’s Time to put Eleanor Roosevelt on the $10 bill
This Mother's Day we celebrate two of the mothers in FDR's life - Sara and Eleanor. Happy Mother's Day - To FDR? In 1940, FDR and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, celebrated Mother’s Day in an unconventional manner—she gave her son a gift! This role reversal was connected to the creation of the Roosevelt Library. … Continue reading Happy Mother’s Day
The ties between the Roosevelt and Kennedy families go back to World War I when Franklin D. Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In November 1917, Joseph P. Kennedy was the Assistant General Manager of the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts, when a labor strike threatened the company’s contribution to the Navy’s … Continue reading The Roosevelts and the Kennedys
Eleanor Roosevelt - "My Day" I went to the United Nations the other afternoon to be photographed with some of the children who are taking part in the Halloween Trick or Treat program for the benefit for UNICEF. UNICEF stands for the U.N. International Children's Fund. The "E" used to be for "emergency," but while … Continue reading Happy Halloween!
Eleanor Roosevelt and Gore Vidal The recent death of celebrated author Gore Vidal (1925-2012) led us to explore his relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. The following "My Day" column drafts and letters from Gore Vidal are found the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers here at the Roosevelt Library. From the beginning of Vidal's literary career, ER read and … 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
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
"This Is No Ordinary Time" Tensions ran high as Eleanor Roosevelt approached the podium to address the delegates of the 1940 Democratic National Convention. The prior evening's raucous proceedings, which led to FDR's nomination for an unprecedented third term candidacy, had been long and trying. Now FDR's subsequent insistence on Henry Wallace as Vice Presidential … Continue reading Found in the Archives
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