Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt
1st Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
In office January 20, 1961 – November 7, 1962
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Esther Peterson
1st United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office 1947–1953
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Mary Pillsbury Lord
1st Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office 1946–1952
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Charles Malik
First Lady of the United States
In role March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Lou Henry Hoover
Succeeded by	Bess Truman
First Lady of New York
In role January 1, 1929 – December 31, 1932
Governor	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Catherine Dunn
Succeeded by	Edith Altschul
Personal details
Born	Anna Eleanor Roosevelt October 11, 1884 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	November 7, 1962 (aged 78) New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Home of FDR National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Franklin D. Roosevelt (1905–45)
Children	Anna James Franklin Elliott Franklin Delano Jr. John
Religion	Episcopalianism
Signature

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (/ˈɛlᵻnɔːr ˈroʊzəvɛlt/; October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American politician, diplomat, and activist.^[1] 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,^[1] and served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952.^[2][3] President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.^[4]

Roosevelt was a member of the prominent American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt's.^[3] 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.^[5] In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.^[6]

Personal life

Early life

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born at 56 West 37th Street in Manhattan, New York City,^[7][8] to socialites Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860–1894) and Anna Rebecca Hall (1863–1892).^[9] From an early age, she preferred to be called by her middle name (Eleanor). Through her father, she was a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt (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.^[10] Her mother was also somewhat ashamed of Eleanor's plainness.^[10]

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 (1891–1976), through her father's affair with Katy Mann, a servant employed by the family.^[11] Roosevelt was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege, as her family was part of New York high society called the "swells".^[12]

Her mother died from diphtheria on December 7, 1892, and Elliott Jr. died of the same disease the following May.^[13] 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.^[14] Eleanor's childhood losses left her prone to depression throughout her life.^[14] Her brother Hall later suffered from alcoholism.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[14] In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers (1971), Joseph P. Lash describes her in childhood as insecure and starved for affection, and she considered herself the "ugly duckling".^[12] 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."^[17]

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,^[18] 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.^[19] Roosevelt and Souvestre maintained a correspondence until March 1905, when Souvestre died, and after this Eleanor placed Souvestre's portrait on her desk and brought her letters with her.^[19] 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."^[20] Roosevelt wished to continue at Allenswood, but in 1902 was summoned home by her grandmother to make her social debut.^[19]

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".^[21] She said of her debut in a public discussion once (as later recounted in her New York Times obituary), "It was simply awful. It was a beautiful party, of course, but I was so unhappy, because a girl who comes out is so utterly miserable if she does not know all the young people. Of course I had been so long abroad that I had lost touch with all the girls I used to know in New York. I was miserable through all that."^[5]

Roosevelt was active with the New York Junior League shortly after its founding, teaching dancing and calisthenics in the East Side slums.^[21] 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".^[22]

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.^[23] The two began a secret correspondence and romance, and became engaged on November 22, 1903.^[24] 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."^[25] Sara took her son on a Caribbean cruise in 1904, hoping that a separation would squelch the romance, but Franklin remained determined.^[25] The wedding date was set to accommodate President Theodore Roosevelt, who agreed to give the bride away.^[26]

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.^[23][27] Eleanor's first cousin Corinne Douglas Robinson was a bridesmaid to Eleanor. 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.^[28]

Eleanor and Franklin with their two eldest children

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.^[29] 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".^[30] Eleanor's eldest son James remembered Sara telling her grandchildren, "Your mother only bore you, I am more your mother than your mother is."^[30]

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 with her husband. She once told her daughter Anna that it was an "ordeal to be borne".^[31] 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".^[30]

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.^[32] 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.^[33]

In August 1921, the family was vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, when Franklin was diagnosed with polio,^[34][35] 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.^[36][37] Tensions between Sara and Eleanor over her new political friends rose to the point that the family constructed a cottage at Val-Kill, which Eleanor and her guests lived in when Franklin and the children were away from Hyde Park.^[38][39] Eleanor herself named the place Val-Kill, loosely translated as waterfall-stream^[40] from the Dutch language common to the original European settlers of the area. Franklin encouraged Eleanor to develop this property as a place that she could develop some of her ideas for work with winter jobs for rural workers and women. Later, Joseph P. Lash noted that Franklin's attending physician, Dr. William Keen, had commended Eleanor's devotion to the stricken Franklin during the time of his travail with his paralytic illness. "You have been a rare wife and have borne your heavy burden most bravely," he said, proclaiming her "one of my heroines".^[41]

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.^[42] Theodore never forgave Eleanor. As well, her aunt Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt publicly broke with her after the ordeal. In a letter to her son, Bamie wrote of Eleanor:

"I just hate to see Eleanor let herself look as she does. Though never handsome, she always had to me a charming effect. Alas and alack, ever since politics have become her choicest interest, all her charm has disappeared!"

Eleanor dismissed Bamie's criticisms by referring to her as an "aged woman." Bamie and Eleanor eventually reconciled, and in an article in the Ladies Home Journal, "How to Take Criticism," Eleanor referred to her, saying, "I can honestly say that I hate no one, and perhaps the best advice I can give to anyone who suffers from criticism and yet must be in the public eye, would be contained in the words of my aunt, Mrs. William Sheffield Cowles. She was President Theodore Roosevelt's sister and the aunt to whom many of the young people in the family went for advice. I had asked her whether I should do something which at that time would have caused a great deal of criticism, and her answer was: 'Do not be bothered by what people say as long as you are sure that you are doing what seems right to you, but be sure that you face yourself honestly.'"^[43] Theodore's elder daughter Alice also broke with Eleanor over her campaign. Alice and Eleanor reconciled after Eleanor wrote Alice a comforting letter upon the death of Alice's daughter, Paulina Longworth.

Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves, née Dall, born in 1927, was named for Eleanor, who was her maternal grandmother, as well as for Seagraves' own mother, Anna Roosevelt Halsted. When her parents separated in 1933 (they divorced in 1934), she along with her mother and brother Curtis moved into the White House with her grandparents. They lived there for many years until Curtis' mother remarried. When his mother divorced again in 1949, Eleanor and Curtis' mother did not want Curtis to reassume the surname Dall, so Eleanor suggested he use his middle name as his last name, which he did.^[44] Each year, when Eleanor held a picnic at Val-Kill for delinquent boys, Seagraves assisted her with this. She was close to Eleanor throughout her life. Seagraves concentrated her career as an educator and librarian on keeping alive many of the causes Eleanor began and supported. She is one of the few living Roosevelt family members who witnessed events firsthand during the White House years. Seagraves also is one of the few surviving people who witnessed Eleanor's diplomacy.

Corinne Douglas Robinson frequently visited the White House when Franklin was President, though she was a Republican. She and Eleanor were close throughout their lives. However, her visits to Washington, D.C. caused family tensions, and when in D.C., she was often asked by both Eleanor and Alice (Alice was a leader in Washington society) to stay at her home. Her decision was usually made based on who had asked her first.

Eleanor's daughter Anna became estranged from Eleanor after taking over some of her social duties at the White House. The relationship was further strained because Eleanor desperately wanted to go with her husband to Yalta but he chose Anna. Yet after a few years, the two were able to reconcile and cooperate on numerous projects. Anna took care of her mother when she was terminally ill in 1962.

Eleanor's son Elliot authored numerous books, including a mystery series in which Eleanor was the detective. However, these murder mysteries were researched and written by William Harrington. They continued until Harrington's death in 2000, ten years after Elliott's death.^[45] With James Brough, Elliot also wrote a highly personal book about his parents called The Roosevelts of Hyde Park: An Untold Story, in which he revealed details about the sexual lives of his parents, including his father's relationships with mistress Lucy Mercer and secretary Marguerite ("Missy") LeHand^[46] as well as graphic details surrounding the illness that crippled his father. Published in 1973, the biography also contains valuable insights into FDR's run for vice-president, his rise to the governorship of New York, and his capture of the presidency in 1932, particularly with the help of Louis McHenry Howe. When brother Elliott published this book in 1973, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. led the family's denunciation of him; the book was fiercely repudiated by all Elliot's siblings. Another of the siblings, James, published My Parents, a Differing View (with Bill Libby, 1976), which was written in part as a response to Elliot's book. A sequel to An Untold Story with James Brough, published in 1975 and titled A Rendezvous With Destiny, carried the Roosevelt saga to the end of World War II. Mother R.: Eleanor Roosevelt's Untold Story, also with Brough, was published in 1977. Eleanor Roosevelt, with Love: A Centenary Remembrance, came out in 1984.

Other relationships

Roosevelt and Fala, the Roosevelts' dog, in 1951

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.^[47]

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".^[48] During this period, Roosevelt wrote daily 10- to 15-page letters to "Hick", who was planning to write a biography of the First Lady.^[49] The letters included such endearments as, "I want to put my arms around you & kiss you at the corner of your mouth,"^[50] and, "I can't kiss you, so I kiss your 'picture' good night and good morning!"^[51] At Franklin's 1933 inauguration, Eleanor wore a sapphire ring Hickok had given her.^[52] 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,^[53] 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.^[54]

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.^[55] Scholars, including Lillian Faderman^[52] and Hazel Rowley,^[56] 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.^[57] 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.^[56] Faber published some of Roosevelt and Hickok's correspondence in 1980, but concluded that the lovestruck phrasing was simply an "unusually belated schoolgirl crush"^[58] and warned historians not to be misled.^[57] 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".^[59] In 1992, Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook argued that the relationship was in fact romantic, generating national attention.^[58][60][61] A 2011 essay by Russell Baker reviewing two new Roosevelt biographies in the New York Times Review of Books (Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage, by Hazel Rowley, and Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady, by Maurine H. Beasley) stated, "That the Hickok relationship was indeed erotic now seems beyond dispute considering what is known about the letters they exchanged."^[51]

In the same years, Washington gossip linked Eleanor romantically with New Deal administrator Harry Hopkins, with whom she worked closely.^[62] Roosevelt also had a close relationship with a New York State Police sergeant, Earl Miller, whom her husband had assigned as her bodyguard.^[63] 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.^[64] 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'."^[65]

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."^[66] 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.^[67]

Eleanor was longtime friends with Carrie Chapman Catt, and gave her the Chi Omega award at the White House in 1941.^[68]

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.^[69][70]

Public life before the White House

Roosevelt in 1932

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.^[71] Cox and Roosevelt were defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding, who won with sixteen million votes to nine million.^[72]

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.^[73] 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.^[12] 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.^[73] 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.^[42] Franklin had spoken out on Theodore's "wretched record" as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the oil scandals, and in return, Theodore said of him, "He's a maverick! He does not wear the brand of our family," which infuriated Eleanor. She dogged Theodore on the New York State campaign trail in a car fitted with a papier-mâché bonnet shaped like a giant teapot that was made to emit simulated steam (to remind voters of Theodore's supposed, but later disproved, connections to the Teapot Dome Scandal), and countered his speeches with those of her own, calling him immature.^[74] She would later decry these methods, admitting that they were below her dignity but saying that they had been contrived by Democratic Party "dirty tricksters." Theodore was defeated by 105,000 votes, and he never forgave Eleanor. 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.^[75] 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.^[76]

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.^[77][78]

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. It 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 at Val-Kill, that eventually became her permanent residence after Franklin died in 1945. Otto 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. In 1977, Roosevelt's cottage at Val-Kill and its surrounding property of 181 acres (0.73 km2),^[79] 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."^[79]

First Lady of the United States (1933–1945)

Roosevelt making an appeal for the Red Cross, May 22, 1940

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.^[80] 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."^[81] Eleanor's distress at these precedents was severe enough that Hickok subtitled her biography of Roosevelt "Reluctant First Lady".^[82]

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".^[82] 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.^[83] She also wrote a daily (and widely syndicated) newspaper column, "My Day", another first for a presidential spouse.^[84][85] She was also the first First Lady to write a monthly magazine column and to host a weekly radio show.^[86]

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.^[87] By 1941, she was receiving lecture fees of $1,000.^[39]

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!"^[70][88]

Roosevelt (center), King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, October 23, 1942

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.^[89] This time, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the veterans at their muddy campsite, listening to their concerns and singing army songs with them.^[90] 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."^[91]

Also in 1933 after she became First Lady, a rose was discovered and named after Eleanor, with the name Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Rosa x hybrida “Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt”).^[92] It is a hybrid tea rose.^[92] However, though this is true, there is no evidence to support the story that Eleanor later quipped, "I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall".^[93]

In 1937 she began writing her autobiography, all volumes of which were compiled into The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1961 (Harper & Brothers, ISBN 0-306-80476-X).

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.^[94][95][96] The NYA was headed by Aubrey Willis Williams, a prominent liberal from Alabama who was close to Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. 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."^[97] 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.^[98] 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.^[99] The NYA was shut down in 1943.^[100]

Arthurdale

Roosevelt's chief project during her husband's first two terms was the establishment of a planned community in Arthurdale, West Virginia.^[101][102] 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.^[103] 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.^[102] 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.^[104] Her husband enthusiastically supported the project.^[102]

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.^[101][105] 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.^[106] The experience motivated Roosevelt to become much more outspoken on the issue of racial discrimination.^[107]

Roosevelt remained a vigorous fundraiser for the community for several years, as well as spending most of her own income on the project.^[108] 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.^[109] Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes also opposed the project, citing its high per-family cost.^[110] 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.^[111]

Later commentators generally described the Arthurdale experiment as a failure.^[112] Roosevelt herself was sharply discouraged by a 1940 visit in which she felt the town had become excessively dependent on outside assistance.^[113] However, the residents considered the town a "utopia" compared to their previous circumstances, and many were returned to economic self-sufficiency.^[111] 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."^[112]

Civil rights activism

Roosevelt flying with Tuskegee Airman Charles "Chief" Anderson in March 1941

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.^[114]

Eleanor also broke with precedent by inviting hundreds of African-American guests to the White House.^[115] 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.^[70] Roosevelt later presented Anderson to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom after Anderson performed at a White House dinner.^[116] 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.^[117][118] 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.^[119]

She was involved by being "the eyes and the ears"^[120] 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 First Lady.^[121]

Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Black Cabinet, 1943

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.^[122] It was established as a New Deal project.^[123]

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.^[124] 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.^[125] 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.^[126]

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.^[127] When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame.^[128] 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.^[129]

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."^[130] She also privately opposed her husband's Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese-Americans in many areas of the U.S. into internment camps.^[131] She was widely criticized for her defense of Japanese-American citizens, including in a call by the Los Angeles Times that she be "forced to retire from public life" over her stand on the issue.^[132]

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.^[133] "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.)^[134] The Norvelt firefighter's hall is also named Roosevelt Hall in honor of her.^[133]

Use of media

Eleanor Roosevelt, George T. Bye (her literary agent, upper right), Deems Taylor (upper left), Westbrook Pegler (lower left), Quaker Lake, Pawling, New York (home of Lowell Thomas), 1938

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.^[135] 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.^[136] 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".^[137] She was interviewed by many newspapers; the New Orleans journalist Iris Kelso described Mrs. Roosevelt as her most interesting interviewee ever.^[138]

Roosevelt with Shirley Temple in 1938

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.^[139] 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.^[140] She continued her articles in other venues, publishing more than sixty articles in national magazines during her tenure as First Lady.^[141] Eleanor also began a syndicated newspaper column, titled "My Day", which appeared six days a week from 1936 to her death in 1962.^[137] In the column, she wrote about her daily activities but also her humanitarian concerns.^[142] Hickok and George T. Bye, Eleanor's literary agent, encouraged her to write the column.^[143][144]

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".^[145]

World War II

Gen. Millard Harmon, Eleanor Roosevelt and Admiral Halsey in the South Pacific Theater, 1943^[146]

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.^[147] She soon found other wartime causes to work on, however, beginning with a popular movement to allow the immigration of European refugee children.^[148] 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.^[149] 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.^[150] 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.^[151]

Roosevelt visiting troops

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.^[152] 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.^[153] 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.^[154]

Also in 1941, the short film Women in Defense, written by Roosevelt, was released. It was produced by the Office of Emergency Management and briefly outlines the way in which women could help prepare the country for the possibility of war. There is also a segment on the types of costumes women would wear while engaged in war work. At the end of the film, the narrator explains women are vital to securing a healthy American home life and raising children "which has always been the first line of defense".

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.^[155] 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."^[156] For her part, Roosevelt was left shaken and deeply depressed by seeing the war's carnage.^[157] 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.^[158]

Eleanor Roosevelt entertains soldiers as she tells a story, September 1943

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.^[159][160] 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."^[161] Learning of the high rate of absenteeism among working mothers, she also campaigned for government-sponsored day care.^[162] 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.^[163] After landing, she cheerfully announced, "Well, you can fly all right."^[164] 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.^[164]

After the war, Eleanor was a strong proponent of the Morgenthau Plan to de-industrialize Germany in the postwar period.^[165] In 1947 she attended the National Conference on the German Problem in New York, which she had helped organize. It issued a statement that "any plans to resurrect the economic and political power of Germany" would be dangerous to international security.^[166]

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,^[167] a discovery made more bitter by learning that her daughter Anna had also been aware of the ongoing relationship between the President and Rutherfurd.^[168] It was Anna who told her that Franklin had been with Lucy when he died; in addition, she told her that Franklin had continued the relationship for decades, and people surrounding him had hidden it from Eleanor. After the funeral, Eleanor packed and moved out of the White House, returning to Val-Kill.^[169] 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.^[170] The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum opened on April 12, 1946, setting a precedent for future presidential libraries.^[171]

United Nations

Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.	State of the Union (Four Freedoms) (January 6, 1941) Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941 State of the Union Address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02)
Problems playing this file? See media help.

In December 1945, President Harry S. Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.^[2] In April 1946, she became the first chairperson of the preliminary United Nations Commission on Human Rights.^[172] Eleanor remained chairperson when the Commission was established on a permanent basis in January 1947.^[173] 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.^[174] 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.^[175]

Roosevelt also served as the first United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights^[176] and stayed on at that position until 1953, even after stepping down as chair of the Commission in 1951.^[177] The UN posthumously awarded her one of its first Human Rights Prizes in 1968 in recognition of her work.^[178]

Roosevelt speaking at the United Nations in July 1947.

Other postwar activities 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.^[179]

Roosevelt with Frank Sinatra in 1960

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.^[180][181] 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."^[182]

In 1949, she was made an honorary member of the historically black organization Alpha Kappa Alpha.^[183][184]

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.^[185]

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.^[186] She resigned from her UN post in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower became President. She addressed the Democratic National Convention in 1952 and 1956. Although she 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.^[136]

Roosevelt with President Ramon Magsaysay, the 7th President of the Philippines, and his wife at the Malacañan Palace in 1955.

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.^[187] 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.^[188]

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.^[189]

Roosevelt received the first annual Franklin Delano Roosevelt Brotherhood Award in 1946.^[5] Other notable awards she received during her life postwar included the Award of Merit of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs in 1948, the Four Freedoms Award in 1950, the Irving Geist Foundation Award in 1950, and the Prince Carl Medal (from Sweden) in 1950.^[5] 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.^[190]

Sunrise at Campobello

(l-r) Ralph Bellamy, Eleanor Roosevelt and Greer Garson at Hyde Park, NY, filming Sunrise at Campobello (1960)

In 1958 the play Sunrise at Campobello premiered, about Franklin Roosevelt's struggle with polio. Mary Fickett, who played Eleanor, was nominated for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Play. In 1960 a film adaptation of the play premiered, also called Sunrise at Campobello. It was produced with the cooperation of the Roosevelt family, and Eleanor herself was present on the set during location shooting at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York. Greer Garson, who played Eleanor, won the Golden Globe and National Board of Review Award for Best Actress. The film received four Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Garson), Art Direction, Sound and Costume Design.

Death and posthumous recognition

The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park in Manhattan

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,^[191] and she died of resulting cardiac failure at her Manhattan home at 55 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side^[192] on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78.^[191][193] Her daughter Anna took care of Roosevelt when she was terminally ill in 1962. President John F. Kennedy ordered all United States flags lowered to half-staff throughout the world on November 8 in tribute to Roosevelt.^[193]

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.^[194] 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."^[195]

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 2,800-acre (11 km²) Roosevelt Campobello International Park.^[196]

In 1965, The Eleanor Roosevelt Story was released; it was a 1965 American biographical documentary film directed by Richard Kaplan. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1965.^[197] The Academy Film Archive preserved it in 2006.^[198]

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 liberal American think tank.^[199] 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."^[200] It is headquartered in New York City.^[201]

In 1973, Eleanor was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.^[202]

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.

Also in 1976, the American television miniseries Eleanor and Franklin was released, starring Edward Herrmann as Franklin Roosevelt and Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt; it was broadcast on ABC on January 11 and 12, 1976. It was based on Joseph P. Lash's biography from 1971 with the same title (and longer additional sub-title) based on their correspondence and recently opened archives. The film won numerous awards, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Peabody Award. The director Daniel Petrie won a Primetime Emmy for Director of the Year – Special. In 1977 a sequel was released titled Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, with the same stars. It won 7 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Special of the Year. Daniel Petrie again won a Primetime Emmy for Director of the Year – Special for the second film. Both films were acclaimed and noted for historical accuracy.

Val-Kill Historic Site,
Hyde Park, New York

Also 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,^[79] 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."^[79] In 1998, Save America's Treasures (SAT) announced Val-Kill cottage as a new official project. SAT's involvement led to the Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt (HER) project, initially run by private volunteers and now a part of SAT. The HER project has since raised almost $1 million, which has gone toward restoration and development efforts at Val-Kill and the production of Eleanor Roosevelt: Close to Home, a documentary about Roosevelt at Val-Kill. Due in part to the success of these programs, Val-Kill was given a $75,000 grant and named one of 12 sites showcased in Restore America: A Salute to Preservation, a partnership between SAT, the National Trust and HGTV.^[40]

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 1989, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award was founded; it "honors an individual, project, organization, or institution for outstanding contributions to equality and education for women and girls."^[203]

In 1996, the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, in New York's Riverside Park, was dedicated, with then–First Lady Hillary Clinton as the keynote speaker. It is said to be the first monument to an American president's wife.^[204] The centerpiece is a statue of Eleanor 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.^[205]

Also in 1996, Washington Post writer Bob Woodward reported that Hillary Clinton had been having "imaginary discussions" with Eleanor Roosevelt from the start of Clinton's time as First Lady.^[206] Following the Democrats' loss of congressional control in the 1994 elections, Clinton had engaged the services of Human Potential Movement proponent Jean Houston. Houston encouraged Clinton to pursue the Roosevelt connection, and while no psychic techniques were used with Clinton, critics and comics immediately suggested that Clinton was holding séances with Roosevelt. The White House stated that this was merely a brainstorming exercise, and a private poll later indicated that most of the public believed these were indeed just imaginary conversations, with the remainder believing that communication with the dead was actually possible.^[207] In her 2003 autobiography Living History, Clinton titled an entire chapter "Conversations with Eleanor", and stated that holding "imaginary conversations [is] actually a useful mental exercise to help analyze problems, provided you choose the right person to visualize. Eleanor Roosevelt was ideal."^[208]

Also in 1996, the children's book Eleanor by Barbara Cooney, about Eleanor Roosevelt's childhood, was published.

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.^[209]

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 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.^[210]

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.^[211]

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.

Also in 2005, there was a four-part American television series called The Greatest American, hosted by Matt Lauer, which featured biographies and lists of influential persons in U.S. history, and culminated in a contest in which millions in the audience nominated and voted for the person they felt was the "greatest American". Eleanor Roosevelt came in nineteenth.

In 2014 The Roosevelts: An Intimate History was released; it was a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Ken Burns. In it Meryl Streep provided the voice of Eleanor Roosevelt. The series premiered to positive reviews and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator for Peter Coyote's narration of the first episode.^[212] In September 2014, The Roosevelts became the most streamed documentary on the PBS website to date.^[213] However, one critic of the series, Michelangelo Signorile, wrote in The Huffington Post that the production was entertaining but noticeably omitted any references to the Newport sex scandal and another scandal involving Sumner Welles. Signorile also criticized Burns' dismissal of a possible sexual relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok as "tabloid" material.^[214] Pulitzer Prize winning historian John Loughey was similarly dismayed that the Newport affair was not included in the series.^[215]

On April 20, 2016, United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew announced that Eleanor Roosevelt will appear with Marian Anderson and noted suffragettes on the redesigned US $5 bill scheduled to be unveiled in the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which granted women in America the right to vote.^[216]

See also

• List of civil rights leaders
• List of women's rights activists

References

1. Moore, Frazier (September 10, 2014). "PBS' 'The Roosevelts' portrays an epic threesome". Associated Press. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
2. Rowley 2010, p. 294.
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Bibliography

• Beasley, Maurine (1986). "Eleanor Roosevelt's Vision of Journalism: A Communications Medium for Women". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 16 (1): 66–75.
• 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.
• Cook, Blanche Wiesen (1992). Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884–1933.
• Cook, Blanche Wiesen (1999). Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933–1938. Viking. ISBN 0-670-80486-X. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
• de Kay, James Tertius (2012). Roosevelt's Navy. New York: Pegasus. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-60598-285-4.
• Glendon, M. A. (2000). "John P. Humphrey and the Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Journal of the History of International Law. 2: 250–260. doi:10.1163/15718050020956858.
• Glendon, Mary Ann (2001). A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Random House. ISBN 0-679-46310-0.
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1994). No Ordinary Time. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-80448-4.
• 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
• Peyser, Mark; Dwyer, Timothy (2015). Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-53602-8.
• 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
• Rowley, Hazel (2010). Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-15857-6.
• Smith, Jean Edward (2007). FDR. Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-7049-4.

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