The lifelong home of America’s 32nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY, was purchased by Roosevelt’s father James Roosevelt I in 1867 and named “Springwood.” [Read more…] about Heritage Spotlight: Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Dutchess County
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Rosenberg: A Key Aide to FDR and Truman
This week on the Historians Podcast, author Christopher C. Gorham discusses his biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman aide Anna Rosenberg, The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WW II and Shape Modern America (Citadel Press, 2023).
Anna Rosenberg was dubbed by Life magazine as “far and away the most important woman in the American government.” From New York City, Rosenberg devised a plan that helped diversify the ranks of factory workers during the Second World War. She also served as deputy defense secretary during the Korean War. [Read more…] about Anna Rosenberg: A Key Aide to FDR and Truman
Val-Kill Industries & The American Arts and Crafts Movement
In 1926, Eleanor Roosevelt convened with three of her closest friends, Caroline O’Day, Marion Dickerman, and Nancy Cook, to discuss the probability of a bold new venture. The four women, all active in New York’s Democratic Party, agreed to open a workshop that specialized in the production of Colonial Revival furniture.
Their business would be conducted on the Roosevelts’ Val-Kill property in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY and appropriately named “Val-Kill Industries.” Two years prior, Franklin D. Roosevelt built a quaint Dutch Colonial cottage on the property for Eleanor, Marion, and Nancy. This came to be called the “Stone Cottage,” and a more industrial building was constructed for the workshop. [Read more…] about Val-Kill Industries & The American Arts and Crafts Movement
Heritage Spotlight: FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Dutchess County
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and is located near FDR’s home in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY.
The first presidential library — and the only one used by its namesake while in office — was planned and designed by Roosevelt in the Dutch Colonial style and houses his official papers, books, and other memorabilia, as well as the papers of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Heritage Spotlight: FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Dutchess County
Fala, A Presidential Dog
“Saturday was a sad day for all of us and I know that all of Fala’s friends will also be sad to know that he slept away, and the little dog’s story had come to an end.”
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote these words in her column “My Day” on April 8th, 1952. She was saddened by the loss of the famous Scottish Terrier that belonged to her late husband FDR. Both Fala and his grandson Tamas McFala, also a Scottish Terrier, were constant fixtures at Val-Kill in Hyde Park, the home of Eleanor Roosevelt after President Roosevelt died. [Read more…] about Fala, A Presidential Dog
Elliott Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill
“Last week I acquired from my husband’s estate about two-thirds of the land which he owned here in Hyde Park. My son Elliott and I have gone into partnership and we are going to farm the land on a commercial basis,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her “My Day” column on August 19, 1947.
This would be the beginning of a joint venture with her third child Elliott to turn a profit from the estate lands of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Elliott Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill
The Education of Eleanor Roosevelt
Born in Brest, the daughter of a novelist and educated in Paris, she was a lesbian, a feminist, and a formidable educationist. Today her presence may be largely forgotten, but she left a legacy on both sides of the Atlantic.
Marie Souvestre was born on April 28, 1830 in Brest, the daughter of a novelist. In 1846, her father Émile published the dystopian novel Le monde tel qu’il sera. Set in the year 3000, the story features remarkable predictions on the role of science in society, and contains reflections on future parenthood and education. He would certainly have inspired his daughter’s alternative ideas about learning in general, and the teaching of young women in particular. Having remained in the shadow of the mighty Jules Verne who stole the limelight, Émile Souvestre deserves renewed critical attention. [Read more…] about The Education of Eleanor Roosevelt
Knickerbocker Tours Offering Roosevelt-Deep Dive
A two-and-one-half day introduction to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, set for May 4-6, has been announced by Knickerbocker Tours.
The event will feature tours of the homes of FDR and ER (Springwood, Val-Kill, & Top Cottage), sessions with National Park Service staff describing their work in maintaining and curating these national treasures, informational sessions on the life stories of ER and FDR and the wider world into which they were born, and more. [Read more…] about Knickerbocker Tours Offering Roosevelt-Deep Dive
FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Series In Hyde Park
The National Park Service and the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association have announced a new lecture series focusing on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Human Rights, beginning on Thursday, January 25th.
The speaker series will include lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, and performances presented by historians, park rangers, activists, artists, and entrepreneurs.
All programs will be held at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor Center, 4079 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY. The list of scheduled programs includes:
[Read more…] about FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Series In Hyde Park
New Book On Elliott And Eleanor Roosevelt
A new book by Geraldine Hawkins, Elliott and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Story of a Father and His Daughter in the Gilded Age (Black Dome Press Corp. 2017) takes a look into the lives and relationship between Elliot and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Elliott Roosevelt was by all accounts as charming and charismatic as any member of that charming and charismatic family, including his godson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As an adolescent Elliott was the protector of his older brother, the then-sickly Theodore Roosevelt, and as a teenager and young man in his early twenties he roamed the American West when the west was still wild and went off on his own for an extended safari hunting big game in India. A strong social conscience instilled by his father stayed with him all his life, and he passed that compassion for the downtrodden on to his daughter, Eleanor Roosevelt. He was intelligent, handsome, wealthy, beloved by all, and he married one of the most beautiful women in New York society. Ten months later their first child, Eleanor, was born. It would seem that Elliott Roosevelt had the perfect life. [Read more…] about New Book On Elliott And Eleanor Roosevelt