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The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum is presently closed within the historic Union Station. We are preparing our move to Chicopee, Massachusetts, so please stay tuned for further announcements concerning the move and grand reopening of the FDR Center Museum as well as special programs and academic activities sponsored by the FDR Center Museum and Elms College. Below you will see photographs and a virtual tour of the way we were from 2004 to 2007 at Union Station. The best is yet to come as we relocate to the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. President Roosevelt visited Union Station and Worcester, Massachusetts on multiple occasions. Learn More about the many visits of President Roosevelt to Union Station. The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum and Special Collection are homes to a large, diverse, and historically significant collection of Roosevelt and New Deal materials. Let your New Deal adventure begin! Welcome to the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center and Museum. We now proudly present some images of the FDR American Heritage Center Museum gallery and exhibition within the historic Union Station of Worcester, Massachusetts as it was between our grand opening on July 24, 2004 and our closing on June 16, 2007. During this almost three year period thousands of visitors came to the FDR Center Museum to experience the era of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal. Once our move to Chicopee, Massachusetts is completed, our museum gallery space will be almost three times what we had in Worcester, affording a much greater ability to share our precious New Deal collection with you. So please stay tuned for announcements about our grand re-opening in the Pioneer Valley, and the establishment of the Roosevelt Public Policy Institute at Elms College in Chicopee. Below you will be able to get an overview of Union Station and the FDR American Heritage Center Museum, including a stunning lithograph of Union Station from the 1920s (third image down), photographs of the restored Great Hall of Union Station, as well as more detailed description of just a small number of the historic items that were on display in Worcester from July, 2004 to June, 2007 at the FDR American Heritage Center Museum. Enjoy!
Visit the Henry Hobson Richardson Room of the Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, the home of the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Special Collection. The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum also has items on loan to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The FDR American Heritage Center Museum and Special Collection showcase one of the finest primary source documentary and other artifact collection of materials related to FDR, ER, and the New Deal in the world. Further, the FDR American Heritage Center develops and promotes curricula to integrate into primary and secondary educational settings, so that the New Deal era will be taught more substantively and effectively to children and other students of all ages. The FDR American Heritage Center, therefore, not only functions as a major Museum consortium, but also as an educational outreach center devoted to teaching people about the legacy of FDR and the New Deal. Please join a dedicated group of individuals working hard to make the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, Inc. a reality. Please send us your tax-deductible DONATION! Making a contribution is easy, just go to Join Us and click on the Make a Donation button. We are at a critical juncture, and your help and support would be greatly appreciated today. You may also view and print our FDR Center Membership Application and assist us in fulfilling our mission by making a fully tax-deductible contribution to the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, Inc. Alternatively, you can send a check or money order to: The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, Inc. These three watercolors from the estate of Elizabeth Shoumatoff are the painter's equivalent of a writer's outline, a rough draft of a novel's opening paragraphs. Used to think out matters of color, composition, and depth, they allowed the artist to map her painting before putting her brush to the final canvas. These stunning images of FDR were created over the three days that Shoumatoff spent as FDR's guest in Warm Springs, Georgia in April, 1945, the last three days of President Roosevelt's life. Certainly she used them when making the two portraits of FDR she executed after 1945, one which she donated to the Little White House, and the other which she created at the request of Lyndon Johnson for the Executive Mansion in Washington in 1967. Each watercolor is archivally matted and framed in goldleaf, and each of the three watercolor proof studies of FDR is progressively more detailed, the third being a magnificent finished likeness to FDR in his last days, wearing his naval cape and grasping a scroll in his left hand. The first two watercolors framed measure 16 ˝ x 24," and the third measures 20 ˝ x 24 ˝." These historic watercolors not only give us glimpses into the artist's conception of the final work, but also give testimony to a remarkable friendship that sprang up quickly-yet deeply-between artist and subject. Shoumatoff was FDR's sort of woman: well-born, worldly, attractive, pleasant and good humored, but for Shoumatoff, a Republican, Roosevelt was hardly a knight in shining armor. Prior to 1943, she only knew the public actor, the bane of the business class, whom Shoumatoff had been painting for over twenty years since her arrival in America as a refugee from Bolshevik terror. Her family of émigrés had all made it big in America. Her husband-before he drowned in a swimming accident in the late 1920s-had become an executive in the Sikorsky aviation company while her brother, himself a painter and a lepidopterist, became curator of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. They blended easily into the social and political world of the conservative upper class, and it was while summering in the Catskills in the early 1920s, that Shoumatoff first rubbed elbows with America's leading capitalists, and began painting them and their families. She soon built herself quite a successful career painting the economic royalists – Fords, Fricks, Kodaks, Mellons, five whole generations of Firestones – and she no doubt heard many an anti-Roosevelt uttering out of the mouths of her subjects during sittings. She liked to keep her subjects animated, it kept their faces lively, and discussing that man in the White House was sure to bring color to corporate cheeks. So Madame Shoumatoff was taken aback one day in 1943 when her friend and client Lucy Mercer Rutherford said to her, "You should really paint the President. He has such a remarkable face. There is no painting of him that gives his true expression. I think you could do a wonderful portrait, and he would be such an interesting person to paint! Would you do a portrait of him if it was arranged?" Aside from worrying whether FDR would sit for a rock-ribbed Republican, Shoumatoff was uneasy about the rumors she had heard – that Lucy had been FDR's mistress many years before. Would an artist commissioned by the President's former love really be allowed to paint the chief magistrate? "You know him then?" was Shoumatoff's first, anxious response. "Oh, very well," Lucy replied. "Tell me," Shoumatoff said, "is he sincere?" Very much, Lucy assured her. Sensing that Lucy would smooth the way, Shoumatoff overcame her hesitancy – Presidential commissions didn't come along every day, after all – and she agreed. Lucy called the White House and made the arrangements. Roosevelt would sit for two days, in two weeks time. "There was no backing out," Shoumatoff recalled thinking. "I was trapped into something I had neither wished for nor planned." When she arrived at the White House two weeks later and "saw his smile and the familiar voice, I knew that Lucy must have spoken well of me…. He was very cheerful and perfectly unconcerned about the whole thing." Shoumatoff "perched rather uncomfortably" in a chair next to him and started to sketch. FDR began telling the story of an earlier sitting he gave to a Mexican artist, who posed him alongside a roaring fireplace – fireside chats was the theme – and "there I was," Roosevelt said, "sitting by a fireplace with two little cactus plants on the side for Mexican atmosphere, and the red glow of the fire reflecting on my face. All I could name it was Roosevelt in Hell!" That broke the ice. Shoumatoff then told her story of the devout painter who, after painting Pope Leo XIII, asked his subject to inscribe some appropriate scriptural phrase on the canvas. The pontiff, pausing for a moment at the likeness, chose, "It is I. Be not afraid." Shoumatoff hoped that would not be necessary in this case. They were soon fast friends, laughing and swapping stories-Shoumatoff's Russian background reminded FDR of the ingrate royalty he rescued from Europe, who then expected to live high on the hog, at government expense, in America. Had Shoumatoff ever heard the story of how Roosevelt once punched out a Prussian officer on a train to Berlin? He regaled her with the tale (Mother Roosevelt wanted the window open, Prussian wanted it closed, Franklin to the rescue). Shoumatoff – her political and personal anxieties long since fled – now felt free enough to joke about the President's clothes. Too bad his gray suit and blue tie were so dull. Dramatic clothing she wanted? The President knew just the thing and called for the famous Brooks Brothers navy cape, a perfect addition, but now the time for the sitting was up. They resumed the following day, Shoumatoff so at ease that she forgot her identification, and was surprised to be stopped at the White House gate (Tully vouched her). She and FDR smoked and chatted. Somehow religion came up – Shoumatoff was an exceedingly devout Orthodox Christian – and Roosevelt delightedly told the story of how he had mercilessly teased Maxim Litvinoff about his atheism. The folds and details in the cape were requiring a lot of attention, and she begged the President for a third day's sitting. He agreed to cut his next day's lunch hour in half and Shoumatoff realized a stand-in could model the cape just as well, so White House Communications Director, William D. Simmons was volunteered to sit, freeing Shoumatoff to devote the third day exclusively to Roosevelt's face. Overall, Shoumatoff was pleased with the finished work. It was small, 10 x 12," at Roosevelt's request, and she had chosen to avoid the familiar image of the jaunty smile, thinking "an expression of earnest seriousness…more desirable." But she later agreed with the judgment of Bill Hassett, and others, that the first portrait was "too pretty." It was also too static, and missed something of the force and dynamism of Roosevelt's character. The playfulness and liveliness of the sittings had not quite made it onto the canvas. Others thought it too small, and Roosevelt agreed to someday commission a second, larger portrait from Shoumatoff, for the White House or Hyde Park. The President invited Shoumatoff and her brother Andrey to lunch at Hyde Park in July, and it was now Andrey's turn to lose his political and personal misgivings in the face of Roosevelt's disarming charm. The two men discovered a common interest in the occult. Andrey was struck by the bust of Nicholas Roerich, a famous Russian spiritualist, which he saw perched on Roosevelt's shelf. Long after the visit, Roosevelt and Andrey would exchange letters about Russian iconography. In mid-March 1945, after making one of her discreet visits to the White House, Lucy Rutherford reported to Shoumatoff that "there was somebody who asked very much about you" during her trip. Shoumatoff wondered aloud about that second portrait, and Lucy said, somewhat ominously, "if this portrait is to be painted, it should not be postponed." Shoumatoff knew the President was in poor health, but she was still shocked when she saw him in Greenville, Georgia, just outside of Warm Springs, late on the afternoon of Monday, April 9, 1945. Shoumatoff herself was not in the best of conditions that day. She had had a long, difficult two-day drive down from New York in the company of her photographer, Nicholas Robbins, a fussy, eccentric man, but a reliable collaborator and fellow Russian émigré whom Shoumatoff had used often. "He was a character," Shoumatoff remembered, "and I always felt guilty for getting irritated with him and for making fun of him." They picked up Lucy at Aiken South Carolina, headed for Warm Springs, and promptly got lost. Roosevelt had planned to meet them at Macon at 4 o'clock, but they were hours late, Shoumatoff's nerves fraying by the second – she had given up smoking for Lent – chomping on candies and barely able to suppress her anger at Robbins's constant chatter and misguided directions. No one was there at Macon when they finally arrived so they kept on towards Warm Springs, turning a corner into Greenville, where they saw Roosevelt in his car, surrounded by a small crowd, sipping on a Coca-Cola bottle. Roosevelt's face lit up at the site of Lucy, but Shoumatoff's heart sank at the President's haggard appearance. "My first thought was: how could I make a portrait of such a sick man." Roosevelt's spirits were better than his appearance, and at dinner on the 9th he delighted the table with his Churchill imitation. When someone asked about Stalin he said "he was quite a jolly fellow. But I am convinced he poisoned his wife!" The sitting for the final portrait began on the morning of Tuesday, the 10th. Shoumatoff had no idea how she wanted to pose him, and when she went downstairs to see him at noon, her consternation was heightened by finding Roosevelt sitting with Tully and Lucy outside on the patio. "We thought this location might be better for your painting," Tully said. But Shoumatoff hated outdoor painting, the light was all wrong. Yet Roosevelt seemed so relaxed she didn't want to move him back indoors just for her sake, so she made a go of it, later reflecting that she might have made more progress – perhaps even completed the portrait – if she had not been thrown off stride by the outdoor sitting on the first day: "if it had not been for that moment of weakness," as she later put it. The portrait is indeed more finished than unfinished, and Wendell Parks of the FDR Library thinks the "relative completeness" of the work suggests that Shoumatoff worked on it in-between sittings on the 10th and the 11th. Roosevelt gave her a couple of hours each of those mornings, and the rest of the time she would have consulted the photos Robbins took for her on the morning of the 10th. She thought the first batch that Robbins shot came out "terrible" so she "begged" FDR to sit for another set of shots on the 11th. The pose and the arrangement in our watercolors matches those of the shots Robbins took on the 10th: FDR in his cape, holding a scroll symbolizing the UN Charter. This gives credence to the view that our watercolors may have been created on April 10th or April 11th, before Shoumatoff had to hand the second batch of photos Robbins shot, which had Roosevelt sitting in his study, without the cape or scroll, wearing his double-breasted gray suit. Those poignant last photos show the weak, slightly vacant expression on FDR's face. His poor health cast a pall over the entire week, and just as Roosevelt's ill-fated trip back from Yalta was filled with death and tragedy, so too did an air of dark foreboding hover behind the warmth and relaxation of those final days in Warm Springs. On the 11th, Shoumatoff learned that her brother Andrey had suffered a heart attack. Henry Morgenthau's wife and Anna Roosevelt's son were both gravely sick that trip as well, and one of Lucy's stepsons had been wounded in action and was recovering in an army hospital. When Shoumatoff awoke on the morning of the 12th, she turned, as was her custom, to a book of religious reflections. The "Daily Word" for April 12, 1945 counseled, "If circumstances look foreboding, if events seem to follow a course that could be disastrous to my best interests, I should have no fear." When she went downstairs Roosevelt was signing documents, with Bill Hassett hovering his shoulder. Papers already signed were spread across the floor for the ink to dry, "my laundry," Roosevelt called it. Shoumatoff offered to postpone that day's sitting. "Oh no," FDR replied, "I'll be through in a few moments and will be ready for you." She thought "he looked cheerful and full of pep," and later resented Hassett's claims that the artist fussed her subject too much that morning, tilting his head this way and that, raising the President's stress level. But Roosevelt was relaxed throughout. She "started, as usual, with the eyes." At times his gaze got distracted, even a little vacant, and Shoumatoff tried to rally his attention with a surefire gambit: stamps. Had he seen the new India issue? "In a little while the eyes were placed and a familiar expression began to show. But it was not quite the look I was accustomed to during the past few days. The President seemed so absorbed, with the papers or something else, that when he would look up at my request, his gaze had a faraway aspect and was completely solemn." He brightened momentarily when Lucy or Margaret Suckley would say something from their perch on the couch, off to the side. Someone brought in a glass of green medicine. What on earth was that for, Shoumatoff asked. "To increase appetite," was Roosevelt's laconic reply. When the butler brought in a bowl of oatmeal a few minutes later, however, he waved it away. "We have fifteen minutes more to work," Roosevelt told her as a steward prepared the table for luncheon. Then the President passed his hand over his forehead. Shoumatoff consistently held ever afterwards that he never said anything about a headache or pain, or anything at all for that matter, after the "we have fifteen minutes more" comment. His head simply slumped forward listlessly. "Lucy, Lucy," Shoumatoff cried out, "something has happened!" She knocked her easel and tools over in a panicky rush to alert the Secret Service agent nearby. All was bedlam in an instant. A group of men now carried Roosevelt to the bedroom. "I could not see exactly who was carrying him but I will never forget that silhouette on the background of the open door to the sunny porch." Lucy suddenly said to her, "We must pack and go. The family is arriving by plane and the rooms must be vacant. We must get to Aiken before dark." Shoumatoff, Lucy, Robbins (who had been in another room and did not know what had happened), and the Unfinished Portrait, were packed into a car and driving away in a matter of minutes. They had just been present at one of the momentous pivots in world history, one with which their names would be associated forever. Yet the instant they left the Little White House, things descended from grand tragedy to low comedy. Nonplussed at the crying women beside him in the car, Robbins kept asking what was the matter. Not wanting to reveal their secret they lied and said Lucy had heard bad news about her son in hospital. They drove on in grieving silence, stopping in a nearby town where the news of FDR's death had already spread. "Another tragedy!" Robbins exclaimed, shaking his head. Back on the road, they tuned in the car radio and heard the solemn tones of H. V. Kaltenborn report that "An architect was making sketches at the time of Roosevelt's death." An architect! "Here it comes," Shoumatoff thought to herself, shuddering. "My name will be flashed all over the world." Could they at least get my occupation right! They made it to Aiken by nightfall, and Shoumatoff called her daughter in New York to get the latest news. The reports now claimed the President died while having his portrait painted by a famous Russian artist, a Mr. Robbins! Telling Lucy the news, the two women dissolved their stress and grief in a long, nearly hysterical fit of laughter. Setting out for New York with the renowned Mr. Robbins the next day, Shoumatoff's trip kept getting weirder. They saw the slow moving Presidential train lumbering past at a southern crossroads, where a policeman approached them and briefly interrogated them. Learning the names of the passengers he said in awestruck tones, "Are you the Mr. Robbins, the artist?" Robbins bowed his head in silent assent and drove on. Back in New York at last, Robbins decided to stop and pick up his mail before bringing Shoumatoff out to her home on Long Island, but the press had yet to be disabused of Robbins's fame, and they were camped outside his apartment. When he tore away at high speed, the news hounds were fast on his heels. "As we zigged and zagged through Harlem," Shoumatoff remembered, "I did not know whether to cry or to laugh." They finally lost their pursuers on the Triborough Bridge, with Robbins's evasive maneuvers having sent Shoumatoff to the floor of the car in a heap. She decided to laugh. And "by this time I was laughing so that I could not stop." Within a few days the press finally got the story straight, and Shoumatoff held a brief press conference to satiate their curiosity, and to close off any further inquiries about that dreadful day. She never revealed Lucy Rutherford's presence of course-and credited Robbins for keeping the secret as well. In the early 1960s she went back to Warm Springs as just another tourist, donning sunglasses, and paying for her ticket like everyone else. There were few other visitors, and a guide began chatting with her. "Have you been here before?" he asked. "Yes," she replied, "on different occasions." She listened as the guard told the story of April 12, 1945, getting it pretty nearly right. He even knew the story of the portrait: the artist had refused to show it to anyone for some time, but the New York Daily News offered her $25,000 to run a photo of it, and she accepted. She donated the unfinished painting here, to the Little White House, where it sits on the same chair where Roosevelt posed. Madame Shoumatoff executed a second, completed version of the portrait, which she also donated to Warm Springs in 1960. "Of course, Mrs. Shoumatoff is a very old lady now," the guard concluded, "but I understand she still paints." "Good for her!" the visitor exclaimed. Also included are two of the original, full color prints reproduced from the original Unfinished Portrait, and copyrighted to Elizabeth Shoumatoff, 1945. One of these prints is truly exceptional, for in the right hand corner, above "Limited First Edition," Shoumatoff writes in her own hand: "Retouched/ E.S." Therefore, the artist herself took brush to this print and as such transformed it into yet another original Shoumatoff painting associated with FDR's last hours! Both limited edition prints are framed in gold leaf and measure 15 ˝ x 18 ˝." This rarest artistic set of mementos from the time of FDR's death on April 12, 1945, is a cornerstone of this FDR Collection. Thereafter is listed the payment rendered to the Native Americans, being 5 kettles; Rugs 4; another 8 shirts; Blankets 4; another 8 pairs of stockings; Duffels 4; Gunpowder 12 lbs; Lead 25 staves; Guns 4; Sewant [wampum] 300 guilders, black and white; Axes 12; Knives 20; Tobacco 2 rolls; Adzes 12; 1 barrel of cider; 1 half barrel of good beer; 2 hats; 1 anker of rum; 2 fine coats; 2 shirts, fine; and 2 pair of stocking [defect]. Stephanus van Cortlandt pens and ornately signs his endorsement in English, "One of the Justices of the Supreme Court of this Province, Meyndert Harmense and Helena Harmense, and being sworn upon the holy [Scriptures] said, that they were witnesses to the within deed, and saw the Indians therein named..." David Jamison also pens an endorsement recording the Deed. The document concludes with the statement, June 25, 1696, "Thus the rightful owners went with Jan Oostroom and Tijs Geraetse and conveyed the land and the Viskill, along with all the other waterways up to Meyndert Harmense's property; the land is called Aquasing..." Signed with the marks of Jan Oostroom; and Tijs Geraetsz. With final signatory, Meyndert Harmensz, who witnesses, "This was signed in the presence of the rightful owners and me." Docketed on verso in English, "The original agree[ment] or first Indian purch[ase] made by Ten Eyck 24[th June] 1696 in Dutch." Four partial fold separations with paper loss affecting only a few words; normal toning; occasional light foxing. Handsomely matted and framed beside printed engraving of an early Native American warrior and descriptive text that gives the viewer of this magnificent piece of history an overview of the deed and its Dutch colonial and Native American signatories, conveying the land that would become FDR's Springwood and the town of Hyde Park, New York, from Native American to Dutch colonial hands for the first time in history. Overall the presentation piece measures 40 ˝ x 26 3/4." The deed is accompanied by a complete translation; and map of Crown Patent Grants awarded in Colonial Dutchess County, 1685-1706 (Based on the map in McDermott, 1986: 2) referencing, among others, the Sanders & Harmense Patent. In the mid-eighteenth century, 1742, Jacobus Stoutenburgh, a wealthy area landowner, purchased much of the land described in this deed from the [Great] Nine Partners, and the area was known at that time by the family name. This tract, along with property north of Crum Elbow Creek eventually gave rise to Hyde Park, formally named in 1812, and established as a town in 1821. Early residents included the Stoutenburghs and Drs. John and Samuel Bard, physicians to President George Washington. Claes Martenszan van Rosenvelt, the original descendant of FDR who traveled to America from Holland (the Netherlands), arrived in New Amsterdam (Manhattan, now New York City) in 1649, only 47 years before the date of this deed transferring the Hyde Park and environs lands from the Native Americans to the Dutch colonial purchasers. In 1867, James and his first wife Rebecca Howland Roosevelt moved to Hyde Park, New York. Fifteen years later, after the death of his first wife and his remarriage to Sara Delano Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born at Springwood in Hyde Park. At one point, FDR served as town historian, editing and publishing two books of early local records. Springwood, the family homestead on the Hudson River, was a peaceful retreat for FDR throughout his life and Presidency. FDR donated his home and 33 acres of the land conveyed in this 1696 land deed to the American people in 1943, on the condition that his family be allowed to use it after his death. It was transferred to the Department of the Interior on November 21, 1945, after the family relinquished their lifetime rights. The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, which contains 290 acres, is administered by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. After moving to Hyde Park in 1867, FDR's father James Roosevelt bought the house at Springwood. It was a large farmhouse built around 1800, but James, and later Sara and FDR, transformed it into something grander. The previous owner had already built a three-story tower and a full-length covered porch. James added two rooms, enlarged the servants' wing, and built a large carriage house for his prized horses and carriages. Franklin also planted many varieties of trees on the grounds, eventually turning large sections of the estate into an experimental forestry station. Franklin had a lifelong interest in trees, beginning with specimen plantings he made with his father in the 1880s. After 1911, FDR began large scale plantings of his own, later entering into an agreement with the Forestry Department of Syracuse University to use the wood lots at Springwood as an experimental forestry station. Almost half a million trees were planted at Springwood between 1911-1945. FDR took pride in the fact that he could contribute timber to the war effort after 1941. President Roosevelt's interest in trees, and in conservation in general, played an important part in the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, still regarded as one of the most successful New Deal programs. The cluttered Living Room and Library reflects the eclectic decorating style of FDR and his mother Sara. A melange of family heirlooms, European and Oriental antiques and American department store furnishings created an impressive yet comfortable room. FDR spent countless hours at his corner desk working with his stamps, rigging a model ship or pursuing a newly acquired rare book. His collections were impressive: a personal library of 14,000 volumes; more than 2,000 naval paintings, prints and lithographs; more than 200 model ships; 1.2 million stamps; more than 300 mounted bird specimens and thousands of coins, banknotes, campaign buttons and medallions. Located just below Crum Elbow Creek, the FDR estate sits on the land originally conveyed by the Native Americans to the Dutch colonial settlers in this 1696 deed, which is now a national historical site. Provenance for this unique, rare, and historical deed is from the Frank T. Siebert Library of the North American Indian and American Frontier; Sotheby's, New York, Friday, May 21, 1999. The ghost Indian Totem signature on this 1696 deed was actually used as the inside cover artwork for Sotheby's two day auction. A one of a kind, fantastic, and historical item that conveyed the lands that would later become Hyde Park and Springwood from its Native American owners to the Dutch colonial settlers who populated this area of New York, land that would later be bought by the Roosevelt family, and the land in which FDR was born, and is buried along with his wife Eleanor Roosevelt at the national historical site at Hyde Park, New York.
FDR’s famous hat is accompanied by notarized provenance from Gary Entrup, State Highway Patrolman, and son of Lester and Marge Entrup, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Hyde Park, New York housekeepers, attesting to the hat’s authenticity and historic association. Mr. Entrup’s notarized signed statement, dated March 10, 1997 reads: “This is to certify that I, Gary Entrup, am the son of Mr. And Mrs. Lester Entrup who served as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s handymen, cooks, and housekeepers for approximately fifteen years at her residence Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, New York. I personally spent many hours at Val-Kill assisting my mother at parties, in painting, and in other household chores. My parents and I obviously knew Mrs. Roosevelt very well, and over the years my parents were given by Mrs. Roosevelt many of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal possessions. Upon the death of my parents, I inherited many of these items, including a straw-colored linen Panama hat with black band made by C. A. Arcentales, Ecuador, with his name “Franklin D. Roosevelt” embossed in gold letters on the interior sweat band. I was told by my mother that Mrs. Roosevelt had told her that this particular hat had been worn by Franklin Roosevelt at the Teheran Conference in 1943. It has been one of my favorite souvenirs of Mr. Roosevelt./ Gary Entrup/ March 10, 1997/ Kristen B. Hummel/ Notary Public/ My Commission Expires Dec. 31, 2001/ Notary Stamp.” A wonderful letter of provenance attesting to the authenticity of FDR’s hat worn at the historic Teheran Conference during World War II. Further, included are copies of two letters from John A. Roosevelt, the youngest child of FDR and ER, plus a copy of the first two pages of ER’s Probate Notice of her Last Will and Testament wherein Lester and Marge Entrup are included as beneficiaries, demonstrating the legitimacy of the Entrup’s intimate association with the Roosevelts. A wonderfully unique and historically important FDR relic with outstanding provenance. The historic and vastly significant international conference at Teheran, Iran, for which FDR wore this hat, took place between November 28 and December 1, 1943. The conference was the first full face to face meeting between the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, and the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The chief discussion centered on the “second front” in wartime Europe. Stalin agreed to an eastern offensive to coincide with the forthcoming invasions of German-occupied France. Though military questions were dominant, the Tehran Conference saw more discussion of political issues than had occurred in any previous meeting between Allied governmental heads. Not only did Stalin repeat his desire that the Soviet Union should retain the frontiers provided by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and by the Russo-Finnish Treaty of 1940, but he also stated that it would want in addition the Baltic coast of East Prussia. Though the settlement for Germany was discussed at length, all three Allied leaders appeared uncertain; their views were imprecise on the topic of a postwar international organization; and on the Polish question the Western Allies and the Soviet Union found themselves in sharp dissension, when Stalin expressed his continued distaste for the London Polish government. On Iran, which Allied forces were partly occupying, they were able to agree on a declaration (published on December 1, 1943) guaranteeing the postwar independence and territorial integrity of that state and promising postwar economic assistance. The actual declarations from the Teheran Conference read: “THE TEHERAN CONFERENCE/ (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union) Agreements on War and Peace. December 1, 1943)/ DECLARATION OF THE THREE POWERS/ We-The President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past, in this, the Capital of our Ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy./ We express our determination that our nations shall work together in war and in the peace that will follow./ As to war-our military staffs have joined in our round table discussions, and we have concerted our plans for the destruction of the German forces. We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of the operations to be undertaken from the east, west and south./ The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours./ And as to peace-we are sure that our concord will win an enduring Peace. We recognize fully the supreme responsibility resting upon us and all the United Nations to make a peace which will command the good will of the overwhelming mass of the peoples of the world and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations./ With our Diplomatic advisors we have surveyed the problems of the future. We shall seek the cooperation and active participation of all nations, large and small, whose peoples in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance. We will welcome them, as they may choose to come, into a world family of Democratic Nations./ No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German armies by land, their U Boats by sea, and their war plants from the air./ Our attack will be relentless and increasing./ Emerging from these cordial conferences we look with confidence to the day when all peoples of the world may live free lives, untouched by tyranny, and according to their varying desires and their own consciences./ We came here with hope and determination. We leave here, friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose./ DECLARATION OF THE THREE POWERS REGARDING IRAN/ The President of the United States, the Premier of the U.S.S.R., and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, having consulted with each other and with the Prime Minister of Iran, desire to declare the mutual agreement of their three Governments regarding their relations with Iran./ The Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom recognize the assistance which Iran has given in the prosecution of the war against the common enemy, particularly by facilitating the transportation of supplies from overseas to the Soviet Union./ The Three Governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they are agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be possible, having regard to the heavy demands made upon them by their world-wide military operations and to the world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civilian consumption./ With respect to the post-war period, the Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom are in accord with the Government of Iran that any economic problems confronting Iran at the close of hostilities should receive full consideration, along with those of other members of the United Nations, by conferences or international agencies held or created to deal with international economic matters./ The Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom are at one with the Government of Iran in their desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran. They count upon the participation of Iran, together with all other peace-loving nations, in the establishment of international peace, security and prosperity after the war, in accordance with the principles of the Atlantic Charter, to which all four Governments have subscribed./ WINSTON S. CHURCHILL/ J. STALIN/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.”Truly a one of a kind, historical, and fabulous item from FDR worn during this major conference, and featured in many photographs of the President during this critical period of World War II.
The Yalta conference in which FDR wore this special Tiffany & Company wristwatch was held February 4 to February 11, 1945. The major Allied leaders met at Yalta in the Crimea to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. It had already been decided that Germany would be divided into occupied zones administered by United States, British, French, and Soviet forces. The conferees accepted the principle that the Allies had no duty toward the Germans except to provide minimum subsistence, declared that the German military industry would be abolished or confiscated, and agreed that major war criminals would be tried before an international court, which subsequently presided at Nürnberg. The determination of reparations was assigned to a commission. How to deal with the defeated or liberated countries of eastern Europe was the main problem discussed at the conference. The agreements reached, which were accepted by Stalin, called for "interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population . . . and the earliest possible establishment through free elections of governments responsive to the will of the people." Britain and the United States supported a Polish government-in-exile in London, while the Soviets supported a communist-dominated Polish committee of national liberation in Lublin. Neither the Western Allies nor the Soviet Union would change its allegiance, so they could only agree that the Lublin committee would be broadened to include representatives of other Polish political groups, upon which the Allies would recognize it as a provisional government of national unity that would hold free elections to choose a successor government. Poland's future frontiers were also discussed but not decided. Regarding the Far East, a secret protocol stipulated that, in return for the Soviet Union's entering the war against Japan within "two or three months" after Germany's surrender, the U.S.S.R. would regain the territory lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and the status quo in pro-Soviet Outer Mongolia would be maintained. Stalin agreed to sign a pact of alliance and friendship with China. The United Nations organization charter had already been drafted, and the conferees worked out a compromise formula for voting in the Security Council. The Soviets withdrew their claim that all 16 Soviet republics should have membership in the General Assembly. After the agreements reached at Yalta were made public in 1946, they were harshly criticized in the United States. This was because, as events turned out, Stalin failed to keep his promise that free elections would be held in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Instead, communist governments were established in all those countries, noncommunist political parties were suppressed, and genuinely democratic elections were never held. At the time of the Yalta Conference, both Roosevelt and Churchill had trusted Stalin and believed that he would keep his word. Neither leader had suspected that Stalin intended that all the Popular Front governments in Europe would be taken over by communists. Roosevelt and Churchill were further inclined to assent to the Yalta agreements because they assumed, mistakenly as it turned out, that Soviet assistance would be sorely needed to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific and Manchuria. In any case, the Soviet Union was the military occupier of eastern Europe at the war's end, and so there was little the Western democracies could do to enforce the promises made by Stalin at Yalta. Truly a one of a kind, historical, and fabulous item from FDR worn during this last major conference, and featured in many photographs of the President during this critical period of World War II, a wristwatch FDR may have also been wearing when he died at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945. 
 “Rarely have I looked in the hands of a family where outstanding characteristics seem to have been handed down, literally, from father, mother to children.”FDR was aptly curious to have his hands read, but it was only after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt scheduled her own meeting with the noted palmist that the President, as well as his family and associates, jumped onto the “handwagon” as well. The date was February 26, 1937, when palmist Nellie Simmons Meier arrived at the White House for a private session with Eleanor. By the time Meier left the White House two and a half hours later, she had lent her services to ER, ER’s daughter-in-law Betsy Cushing Roosevelt, Franklin, Jr., and his fiancee and even one of the President’s personal secretaries. In addition, she had scheduled to return on March 1, 1937 to perform a reading of the hands of FDR and his political confidants. All told, Meier took hand stampings of twelve people in the White House, and it is those twenty four original handprints (right and left hands, signed) that constitute the fabulous handprint and palmistry reading collection of the First Family and their intimate associates as part of this FDR Collection. Each print appears on a separate piece of 6 3/4 x 7 ½” paper that is dated and signed by its respective subject. FDR and ER have bestowed their exemplars with beautiful bold pencil signatures that grade “10” in strength. Accompanying the readings of the President and the First Lady are Meier’s analyses. The 13-page interpretation of FDR’s hands contains the following summary by Mrs. Meier: “Rarely have I looked at hands in which the markings showed such a wide range of ideas, such great vitality and such ease of accomplishment along so many avenues of physical and mental activity. His palm has a resilience that shows his versatility and ability to conform to the requirements of circumstances, environment and people.”The 11-page interpretation of ER’s hands focuses on her civic duty, limitless altruism and appreciation of the arts. Additional autographed palm prints (without readings) include: John A. Roosevelt (son), FDR, Jr., (son), a copy of the prints of James Roosevelt (son), Betsy Cushing Roosevelt (daughter-in-law), Ethel P. DuPont (daughter-in-law), Melvina Thompson Scheider (Eleanor’s personal secretary), John Nance Garner (Vice President in FDR’s first two terms), Marietta Rheiner Garner (wife of Vice President John Nance Garner), Alben Barkley (United States Senate Democratic leader from Kentucky and Vice President in Harry S. Truman’s Administration), Harold L. Ickes (Secretary of the Interior), Paul V. McNutt (Indiana Governor and Philippines High Commissioner), Frederick VanNuys (Indiana Senator), and Robert M. LaFollette, Jr. (Wisconsin Senator). There are also several original newspaper clippings concerning these noted personalities, obviously saved by Mrs. Meier to accompany the handprints of these famous men and woman. Also accompanying these one of a kind handprints are five typewritten letters, three of which are on official White House stationery, which pertain to the use of Meier’s readings in her future publications. Four are signed by ER and one is signed by FDR’s secretary Stephen T. Early. The first letter, dated August 17, 1937 on Val-Kill Cottages, Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York stationery pertains to the delivery of the readings by Mrs. Meier. The second letter, dated August 24, 1937 on White House Washington stationery signals ER’s approval of the palmistry readings, and ER writes: “I am returning the carbon copy that you sent me and I see nothing in it that needs to be changed. However, Mrs. Scheider thinks that from the way you have written your sentence it might be supposed that I did not actually write all the things which I dictated to her, and perhaps you could explain that every word is dictated and does come out of my head even though I did not actually write it.”The third letter, dated September 8, 1937 on Val-Kill Cottages, Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York stationery indicates ER’s interest in FDR’s character sketch, and ER writes: “I shall be interested to get the President’s sketch.” The fourth letter, dated October 7, 1937 on White House Washington stationery, from Hyde Park, New York, has most interesting content. ER writes: “The President’s secretaries are very much disturbed because they do not think it would be advisable while the President is still in the White House, for your material to appear either in your book or in the file of the Library of Congress./ I have told them that the President’s understanding with you was, as I remember it, that nothing would appear until after he had left the White House and not until after he had edited and approved what you were writing./ There is nothing in your analysis which I find objectionable of course, but I can see that it might cause a great deal of comment if it were to appear while my husband is still in the White House.”Stephen T. Early’s follow-up letter to Mrs. Meier, dated October 11, 1937 on White House Washington stationery, reaffirms ER’s earlier letter. Mr. Early writes to Mrs. Meier: “I find that you are under a misunderstanding of the President’s position with reference to the use of the character sketch based upon a study of his hands. Your courtesy in submitting your manuscript is greatly appreciated but I must advise you that the President did not previously and is unable now to give permission to publish this material in any form./ The President’s position all along has been that no part of the material referring to him could be released in any form while he is in public life nor after his relinquishment of his public duties, except through specific permission to be granted if and when circumstances in his judgment warrant. And of course this prohibition also applies to the deposit of any of the material in question with the Library of Congress./ I am sure upon reflection you will understand why it was necessary for the President to impose the strict conditions which I have outlined above and which conform to the general policy from which there has been no deviation since he assumed office.”Included in this collection are also Mrs. Meier’s copies of the letters she sent back to the White House from “Tuckaway,” her Indianapolis, Indiana home. In response to ER’s letter of October 7, 1937, Mrs. Meier responds: “I can see no reason for the President’s secretaries being disturbed since my letter to the President enclosing the carbon copy left the matter entirely in his hands, I much regret any worry it may have caused either you or the President. Most assuredly I will give nothing out for publication until after I have received the approval of President Roosevelt, not even to the Congressional Library....Please assure the President’s secretaries that I will give nothing to the public until he has edited and approved what I have written and given his consent to use it.”To Stephen T. Early’s letter of October 11, 1937, Mrs. Meier responds: “I fully realize President Roosevelt’s point of view, occupying as he does the highest position in our great country, and I also appreciate the widespread feeling about this topic among those who lack either the intelligence or the tolerance necessary to make an investigation. I shall, therefore, wait until after President Roosevelt’s voluntary retirement from public office and, after that, his personal authorization to use these impressions and character analysis.”Therefore, a most intriguing aspect of the correspondences is that in Mr. Early’s letter and one of ER’s letters to Mrs. Meier, they clearly indicate that the President’s handprints and character sketch should not be released to the public during FDR’s tenure in office, and only under consent from Franklin D. Roosevelt after leaving office. 
 Here is how FDR's "Chief of Staff" Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy describes this important and "Special Mission" in his book I was There on pages 195-196: "Roosevelt was in high spirits. He was looking forward to his first meeting with Premier Stalin. The President would use a plane when necessary, but a sea voyage was his favorite way of traveling. He had his mess in the captain's cabin where his personal staff – Harry Hopkins, Rear Admiral Wilson Brown, Dr. Ross McIntire, Major General E. M. ‘Pa' Watson, and I – had our meals with him. We usually had an apéritif before dinner and frequently saw a moving picture in the President's quarters immediately afterward. After dinner with Roosevelt, the entire Presidential party boarded a four-engine transport plane and left at 10:30 p.m. for Cairo. Sleeping in the chair of a transport plane was not restful, which is a polite understatement, and I was more than pleased when we landed at 9:30 a.m., Cairo time, November 22, on a British airfield about fifteen miles from the city. We had flown over a portion of the Sahara Desert, which gave one a picture of utter desolation, and then, a couple of hundred miles down the Nile Valley, where the land was green with fertility and humming with industry. My first view of the Pyramids from an altitude of 8,000 feet was disappointing, due to the reduction of their size by distance. When we reached Cairo we found that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Mme. Chiang were already there and that the Prime Minister and his staff had been in Cairo for two days. We had no doubt that Churchill had used the two extra days to good advantage. The President and a few others of us were quartered at a villa belonging to United States Minister Kirk. We were looking forward to a busy and probably controversial conference. The Prime Minister, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten Hopkins, and I dined with the President the first night at Cairo. The Combined Chiefs came in after the meal and we got down to business quickly. Mountbatten outlined his plans and his needs for the Burma campaign which had been assigned to him at the Quebec Conference held in August, 1943. He made an excellent presentation of his problem, which I believed would be solved by his energy and aggressive spirit." [emphasis added, as the dollar bill was signed by FDR and his special party en route to Cairo on November 22, 1943]. President Roosevelt's official "Log of the President's Trip to Africa and the Middle East/ November-December, 1943" states on pages 20-21: "10:40 p.m.: The President's plane departed El Aouina airport (Tunis) for Cairo. Passengers in the President's plane were: The President, Mr. Hopkins, Admiral Leahy, Admiral Brown, Admiral McIntire, General Watson, Lieut-Comdr. Fox, Secret Service Agents Reilly, Spaman and Fredericks and Steward Prettyman. This plane had two sleeping berths, so the President and Mr. Hopkins turned in soon after their departure from Tunis./ Except for Admiral Leahy, the Joint Chiefs of Staff party had proceeded on to Cairo earlier in the day. Lieutenant Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., U.S.N.R., left his father at the El Aouina airport, to proceed and rejoin his ship at Gibraltar. The MAYRANT had been damaged by enemy bombers at Palermo and. was due to leave Gibraltar soon for a U.S. Navy yard for repairs./ Monday, November 22nd. Enroute Tunis to Cairo, and at Cairo./ 9:35 a.m.: The President's plane landed at Cairo West airport (a Royal Air Force field). This was some two and one-half hours after plane number two of our party had arrived from Tunis, and the late arrival caused some concern at the field as to the President's safety. Two different groups of fighter-planes had been at appointed rendezvous at the scheduled times but each failed to make contact and eventually had to return to their base for refueling. The President's plane, it developed, had detoured southward as far as latitude 28 -00'-00" north and had then turned northward and followed the course of the River Nile up to Cairo. This route took them over the Sphinx and the Pyramids./ The air distance from Tunis to Cairo, over the route flown by the President's plane, was 1851 miles./ The President was met at Cairo West airport by Major General Ralph Royce, U.S.A., Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East, and his Chief of Staff, Brigadier General G. X. Cheaves, U.S.A./ The Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek and their party had arrived in Cairo from Chungking the evening before our arrival (on November 21st.). Prime Minister Churchill and his party also arrived in Cairo on November 21st." FDR and Churchill met initially in Cairo, Egypt, then continued on to Teheran for the Big Three conference with Premier Josef Stalin of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As Fleet Admiral Leahy describes first hand above, FDR and his Presidential party reached Cairo early in the morning of November 22, 1943. It was during this important travel in the air that the one dollar silver certificate or "short snorter" was passed around the transport plane on the long flight and signed by the President and his party, consisting of his most trusted aides and advisors. Also present for the Cairo meetings were Generals George C. Marshall, Joseph Stilwell, Claire Chennault, Albert Wedermeyer and Lord Louis Mountbatten (Supreme Allied Commander, SEAC). With little ado, the Combined Chiefs of Staff got down to business on the afternoon of November 22, 1943. The opening days of SEXTANT – the American-British-Chinese phase – saw the Anglo-American staffs in daily session from November 22 to November 26, 1943. The British and Americans clashed over Churchill's continued pleas to attack Southern Europe instead of France, while the British tried to derail what they saw as the American obsession with aiding Chiang in China. On November 27, 1943 FDR and his party continued on to Teheran for the President's critical first meeting with Joseph Stalin, where the Allies cemented their plans for Operation Overlord. The historic and vastly significant international conference at Teheran, Iran, took place between November 28 and December 1, 1943. The conference was the first full face to face meeting between the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, and the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The chief discussion centered on the "second front" in wartime Europe. Stalin agreed to an eastern offensive to coincide with the forthcoming invasions of German-occupied France. Though military questions were dominant, the Tehran Conference saw more discussion of political issues than had occurred in any previous meeting between Allied governmental heads. Not only did Stalin repeat his desire that the Soviet Union should retain the frontiers provided by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and by the Russo-Finnish Treaty of 1940, but he also stated that it would want in addition the Baltic coast of East Prussia. Though the settlement for Germany was discussed at length, all three Allied leaders appeared uncertain; their views were imprecise on the topic of a postwar international organization; and on the Polish question the Western Allies and the Soviet Union found themselves in sharp dissension, when Stalin expressed his continued distaste for the London Polish government. On Iran, which Allied forces were partly occupying, they were able to agree on a declaration (published on December 1, 1943) guaranteeing the postwar independence and territorial integrity of that state and promising postwar economic assistance. The actual declarations from the Teheran Conference read: "THE TEHERAN CONFERENCE/ (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union) Agreements on War and Peace. December 1, 1943)/ DECLARATION OF THE THREE POWERS/ We-The President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past, in this, the Capital of our Ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy./ We express our determination that our nations shall work together in war and in the peace that will follow./ As to war-our military staffs have joined in our round table discussions, and we have concerted our plans for the destruction of the German forces. We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of the operations to be undertaken from the east, west and south./ The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours./ And as to peace-we are sure that our concord will win an enduring Peace. We recognize fully the supreme responsibility resting upon us and all the United Nations to make a peace which will command the good will of the overwhelming mass of the peoples of the world and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations./ With our Diplomatic advisors we have surveyed the problems of the future. We shall seek the cooperation and active participation of all nations, large and small, whose peoples in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance. We will welcome them, as they may choose to come, into a world family of Democratic Nations./ No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German armies by land, their U Boats by sea, and their war plants from the air./ Our attack will be relentless and increasing./ Emerging from these cordial conferences we look with confidence to the day when all peoples of the world may live free lives, untouched by tyranny, and according to their varying desires and their own consciences./ We came here with hope and determination. We leave here, friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose./ DECLARATION OF THE THREE POWERS REGARDING IRAN/ The President of the United States, the Premier of the U.S.S.R., and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, having consulted with each other and with the Prime Minister of Iran, desire to declare the mutual agreement of their three Governments regarding their relations with Iran./ The Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom recognize the assistance which Iran has given in the prosecution of the war against the common enemy, particularly by facilitating the transportation of supplies from overseas to the Soviet Union./ The Three Governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they are agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be possible, having regard to the heavy demands made upon them by their world-wide military operations and to the world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civilian consumption./ With respect to the post-war period, the Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom are in accord with the Government of Iran that any economic problems confronting Iran at the close of hostilities should receive full consideration, along with those of other members of the United Nations, by conferences or international agencies held or created to deal with international economic matters./ The Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom are at one with the Government of Iran in their desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran. They count upon the participation of Iran, together with all other peace-loving nations, in the establishment of international peace, security and prosperity after the war, in accordance with the principles of the Atlantic Charter, to which all four Governments have subscribed./ WINSTON S. CHURCHILL/ J. STALIN/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT." Truly a one of a kind, historical, and fabulous item from FDR during his flight between Tunis, Tunisia and Cairo, Egypt, to stage preparatory meetings for the first Big Three meeting of World War II that followed in Teheran, Iran. Zangara, an unemployed brick-layer who became an American citizen on September 11, 1929, found it very difficult to find work during the Great Depression, and developed a strong hatred of President Herbert Hoover, whom he blamed for his problems. When FDR defeated Hoover for the Presidency in 1932, Zangara turned his anger towards the new President-Elect. On February 13, 1933, Zangara read that FDR was to visit Bayfront Park on February 15, 1933. Zangara bought a .32 caliber pistol and joined the crowd. FDR had been enjoying a vacation aboard Vincent Astor's yacht Nourmahal, arriving at Miami. FDR had earlier joked that “I have told the newspaper boys that if anyone attempts to interview me or take a photograph of me during the next 10 days he will be court-martialed and shot at sunrise.” As FDR and his party, which included Chicago Mayor Anton Joseph Cermak (1875-1933), appeared before the crowd, the President-Elect gave a short speech from inside the car. Well wishers crowded around the car to see FDR. At this time Zangara was trying to work his way to the front of the crowd so he could shoot. Because he was so short, only 5 feet tall, it was very hard for him to see his target. He climbed on top of an old unstable wooden chair and started to fire. A woman in front of him, Mrs. Lillian Cross, a spectator standing next to Zangara, deflected Zangara’s aim by grabbing his arm as he fired his last four shots. “I saw he was trying to kill the President so I caught him by the arm and twisted it up,” Mrs. Cross later told the media. Zangara managed to fire five bullets and hit five people, as a nearby photographer joked: “Just like Chicago, eh Mayor?” Mayor Anton J. Cermak had been hit in the abdominal area. The bullets also hit four bystanders, including a mother of five children. On March 6, 1933, barely two days after FDR was inaugurated the Thirty Second President of the United States, Mayor Cermak succumbed to his wound. After he was shot, the Mayor fell out of FDR’s car and called out: “The President, get him away!” But FDR proved to be courageous and cool-headed under very difficult circumstances (behavior he would exhibit upon numerous occasions as President fighting the Great Depression and World War II), for when he saw that Mayor Cermak had been hit, he ordered his car to stop and had the Mayor placed back in the car with him. FDR cradled Cermak in his arms all the way to the hospital, and before he died Cermak is reported to have said to the President-Elect, “I am glad it was me instead of you.”
In 1936 FDR was renominated by the Democrats without opposition. The Republicans, strongly opposing the New Deal and "big government" nominated Alfred M. Landon, Governor of Kansas. Eighty percent of the newspapers endorsed the Republican party, which was also supported by conservative Democrats including Alfred E. Smith. Big business accused FDR of destroying the nation's individualism and threatening its freedom, but FDR put together a coalition of intellectuals, blue-collar workers, southern farmers, and urban minority voters, including a huge number of blacks who shifted to the Democratic party. The end result: FDR won in another landslide, and Landon won only the states of Maine and Vermont. "As Maine goes, so goes the nation" was a hoary axiom of American political culture from 1888 to 1936, when FDR's Presidential victory against Republican Alf Landon prompted Democratic National Committee Chairman James A. Farley to quip, "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont." Alfred Mossman Landon (1887-1987), Governor of Kansas and Republican Presidential nominee, known as Alf, was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, the son of John M. Landon, an oil and natural gas executive, and Anne Mossman. Landon received a law degree from the University of Kansas in 1908. In 1915 he married Margaret Fleming, who died in 1918. They had a daughter. Landon married Theo Cobb in 1930, and they had a son and a daughter, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, who was elected to the United States Senate from Kansas in 1978. Although Landon was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1908, he did not practice law. He worked instead in banking until 1911, when he became an independent petroleum producer. He served briefly as a first lieutenant in the army in 1918. After 1936 he began developing business interests in addition to oil production, becoming a prominent radio station owner-executive by the 1960s. A shrewd businessman, Landon prospered in his various enterprises, although he never became wealthy. This was largely because of his abiding concern with politics, which had been fostered by his politically active father. Father and son worked in support of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 presidential candidacy. In 1914 Alfred Landon was the Progressive party chairman in Montgomery County, but he returned to the Republican party, with most other Progressives, in 1916. In 1922 Landon served as secretary to Governor Henry J. Allen and in 1924 was an important leader in the independent gubernatorial campaign of William Allen White against the Ku Klux Klan. Landon was the organizer of the successful campaign in 1928 to nominate and elect Clyde M. Reed governor; he himself was chosen chairman of the Republican state committee. In 1930 conservative Republicans denied Reed renomination and ousted Landon from the state chairmanship. Landon bounced back in 1931, leading a well-publicized movement by independent Kansas oil producers against monopoly and for conservation in their depression-stricken industry. Dealing with Democrats and Republicans in Kansas and elsewhere, he demonstrated that he could work effectively with a broad range of people. Landon was nominated for governor in 1932 as a moderate who could unite the factionalized Republican party, reduce taxes and expenditures, and yet maintain essential state services. He ran for election against the odds, for the Democrats controlled the governorship and seemed destined to sweep the nation at the polls in November. As Landon remarked, though, "There are lots worse things than taking a licking, and one of them is to run away from a fight because it is hard." He ran an energetic campaign against the respected Democratic governor, Harry Woodring, and a colorful independent, Dr. John R. Brinkley, who had gained notoriety for his goat-gland transplantations to restore male virility. Landon won election with a scant plurality, with 34.8 percent of the votes, apparently having convinced people that Brinkley was the "great promiser" and Woodring the "greatest little claimer Kansas has had in a long time." In 1933, like other American officials, Governor Landon was beset by the challenges of the Great Depression. A champion of governmental economy and efficiency, he declared that one "cannot get something for nothing." Landon advocated action that resulted in further regulation of banks, insurance firms, trucking companies, and utilities; more effective conservation of natural resources; protection of farmers from foreclosures; reform of state and local finances; and reorganization of the state government. All of these measures were accomplished on the basis of a balanced state budget. Moreover, Kansas, under his leadership, obtained proportionately more federal funds than most Plains states to deal with the hardships of both depression and drought, which severely struck the area during his governorship. This reflected Landon's ability often to work successfully with the administration of Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt. This cooperation was particularly true in the fields of agriculture, conservation, and unemployment relief. Relying on his own expertise, Landon worked closely with Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to develop programs to cope with distress in the oil industry. Landon won reelection in 1934, the only Republican governor who did so that year. In 1935 and 1936 Republican interest in him as a Presidential candidate grew steadily. This was not surprising, for after the widespread Democratic victories in the 1932 and 1934 elections there were relatively few Republican state and federal officeholders. Landon alone of these officials had an outstanding record, had no connection with the widely discredited presidency of Herbert Hoover, and occupied the middle ground between Republican insurgents and conservatives. Other Republicans, such as Senators William E. Borah of Idaho, Lester J. Dickinson of Iowa, and Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan and Chicago publisher Frank Knox, sought their party's presidential nomination. Landon was able, however, to win the nomination in June 1936 by remaining moderate on the issues and effectively employing his campaign resources. The convention delegates chose Colonel Knox as his running mate. Landon led a divided as well as a depleted party into the 1936 Presidential election campaign. Some Republicans, ferociously attacking the New Deal, assumed positions to his right; others endorsed Roosevelt; and still others remained inactive. Former Democratic presidential nominees John W. Davis (1873-1955) and Alfred E. Smith, among other members of their party, endorsed Landon, although they brought few voters with them. The Kansan ran a vigorous, well-financed, and far-flung campaign. He had considerable success in reorganizing his party and reshaping it along more realistic lines. His chief objective was to champion moderation on the issues, in contrast with what he thought was Roosevelt's immoderation against business and in developing the power of the federal government. Landon advocated resource conservation and the preservation of the family farm. Moreover, he promised to be fair to the needy and to organized labor. He proposed subsistence pensions for the elderly, fair and effective regulation of big business, assistance to tenant farmers, and strict adherence to the Constitution. He forthrightly denounced racial prejudice and religious bigotry. On matters of peace and world trade, the Republican nominee vowed to seek international cooperation. He would also recruit the best people, regardless of party, to staff the government. Landon emphasized the need for efficient administration, a balanced budget, and measures to encourage business expansion in order to bring economic recovery and provide jobs for unemployed Americans. This was, he said, the way to counter the record of Roosevelt's New Deal: "Twenty-five billion dollars spent. Thirteen billion dollars added to the public debt. Eleven million unemployed left." Contrary to the favorable public opinion polls of the Literary Digest (an original copy of which is also part of this FDR Collection), Landon had little chance of winning the Presidency from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was approaching the peak of his popularity. The Kansas governor had neither name recognition, organization, patronage, record, nor speaking ability to match the president. Landon was at his best on issues of minor interest to the electorate at that time, such as opposition to loyalty oaths and prejudice and promotion of international cooperation, and on a popular concern like conservation, on which Roosevelt was equally strong. For the most part Landon's campaign was gallant and kept the Republican party a viable, if diminished, opposition. Roosevelt won reelection in a landslide, polling 27,752,869 votes to Landon's 16,674,665 and 523 electoral votes to 8. The Republicans emerged from the election with only 89 seats in the House of Representatives and 16 in the Senate. The 1936 campaign was heated and often nasty, but neither the Governor nor the President indulged in vituperation against each other, as this Landon concession telegram to FDR proves. Indeed, after the election, whenever Landon visited Washington, FDR invited him to the White House, where they got along cordially. Although urged to do so, Landon did not run again for public office or accept the Republican National Committee chairmanship. He was a vigorous titular head of his party until 1940 and was given much credit for its resurgence in the elections of 1938. Landon was instrumental in the defeat of anti-Semite Gerald Winrod for Kansas's Republican senatorial nomination in 1938. That year he was also the only nationally prominent major party politician to defend the right of Socialist leader Norman Thomas to speak publicly after he had been prevented from doing so in Jersey City. Moreover, the Kansan spoke out against the Nazi persecution of Jews and later served on the board of directors and the executive committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Landon was a trenchant critic of FDR's policies, although he supported the President on protesting the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay by Japan in 1937 as well as on the Ludlow war referendum resolution in 1938 and often on defense measures. Indeed, in 1938 Roosevelt named him vice chairman of the United States delegation to the Inter-American Conference in Lima, Peru. In 1940 the President apparently considered appointing Landon Secretary of War, but the Kansan stated publicly that he would not accept the job unless FDR refused to stand for nomination to a third presidential term. By 1941 the two men divided increasingly on foreign policy. The Kansan was not opposed to giving money and goods to Great Britain in its war with Germany and Italy, but he believed that Roosevelt was trying to maneuver the United States into the war, which he opposed and feared would convert the nation into a garrison state. Landon remained a significant opposition spokesman during World War II as an apostle of responsible two-party politics. Landon's influence declined after the war. He continued to speak out, however, frequently taking independent positions. Among other things, Landon supported President Harry S. Truman often on foreign policy, helped to force the resignation of Republican National Committee chairman C. Wesley Roberts in 1953, occasionally criticized Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-1957) and other extreme anti-Communists, opposed right-to-work legislation, favored international control of nuclear weapons, and, beginning in 1953, far in advance of any other prominent Republican or Democrat, advocated American diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China. In 1962 he was a leading supporter of President John F. Kennedy's trade expansion legislation. Landon also crusaded regularly over the years against high taxes, inflation, and excessive government regulation. By the end of the 1950s he was widely recognized as an elder statesman. Advancing age slowed Landon's political activities by the late 1960s, but until 1987 he often granted interviews and issued press statements on the issues facing America. He died in Topeka, Kansas one month after festivities marking his one-hundredth birthday, which included a visit from President Ronald Reagan. To the end Landon remained a remarkably independent political figure, noted for his integrity and sense of responsibility. This telegram from Landon to FDR is a true piece of American history in which FDR's Republican challenger concedes defeat in a gracious and professional manner which typified Alfred M. Landon's character, from an election that represented a high-tide of Liberal idealism in FDR's reelection. A one of a kind item.
Nicholas Roerich, a Russian born artist, poet, writer and distinguished member of the Theosophical Society, led an expedition across the Gobi Desert to the Atlai mountain range from 1923 to 1928, a journey which covered 15,500 miles across 35 of the world's highest mountain passes. Roerich was a man of unimpeachable credentials: a famous collaborator in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, a colleague of the impresario Diaghilev and a highly talented and respected member of the League of Nations. Roerich was an esoteric Russian painter, and went to Central Asia to become a lama. His earliest paintings, filled with Himalayan light, are in the astonishing Oriental Museum, also known as the Museum of East and West, in the Russian capital of Moscow, and others at Roerich societies like the ones in New York City in the United States and St. Petersburg in Russia. Roerich was credited with introducing the West to Agharthi and Shambhala. Nicholas Roerich was also influential in FDR's administration, and was the pivotal force behind placing the Great Seal of the United States on the dollar bill. The Roerich Peace Pact, which obligated nations to respect museums, cathedrals, universities and libraries as they did hospitals, was established in 1935 and became part of the United Nations organizational charter. This hand written note from FDR to his Secretary of State gives perhaps the first indication of FDR's active support of the Peace Pact, and his strategy to adopt its principles via hemispheric coordination and cooperation in the Americas, also consistent with FDR and Hull's "good neighbor" foreign policy in the hemisphere. Indeed, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Agard Wallace did sign the Peace Pact representing the United States of America on April 15, 1935, so FDR's initiative was ultimately successful. The Preamble to the Peace Pact reads: "The High Contracting Parties, animated by the purpose of giving conventional form to the postulates of the Resolution approved on December 16, 1933, by all the States represented at the Seventh International Conference of American States, held at Montevideo, which recommended to ‘the Governments of America which have not yet done so that they sign the 'Roerich Pact' initiated by the Roerich Museum in the United States, and which has as its object, the universal adoption of a flag, already designed and generally known, in order thereby to preserve in any time of danger all nationally and privately owned immovable monuments which form the cultural treasure of peoples,' have resolved to conclude a treaty with that end in view, and to the effect that the treasures of culture be respected and protected in time of war and in peace, have agreed upon the following articles."Although undated, this hand written letter from FDR to Cordell Hull was most probably written in 1933 or 1934. The Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace movement grew rapidly during the early nineteen thirties, with centers in a number of countries. There were three international conferences, in Bruges, Belgium, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Washington, D.C. The Pact itself declared the necessity for protection of the cultural product and activity of the world, both during war and peace, and prescribed the method by which all sites of cultural value would be declared neutral and protected, just as the Red Cross does with hospitals. Indeed, the Roerich Pact was often called The Red Cross of Culture. The Roerich Pact was first agreed to by twenty one nations of the Americas and signed as a treaty in the White House, in the presence of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on April 15, 1935, by all the members of the Pan-American Union. It was later signed by other countries also. FDR's long serving Secretary of State, Cordell Hull (1871-1955) was a political leader as well as statesman, born in Overton County, Tennessee. A Tennessee legislator and judge, Democratic National Committee chairman, United States Representative (1907-1931) and Senator (1931-1933), he became the longest serving Secretary of State ever under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1944). A strong advocate of free trade and of the "Good Neighbor" policy with South America during the 1930s, he early advocated strong support for the Allies, attended most of the great wartime conferences, and promoted international cooperation and the United Nations, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945. FDR also asks his Secretary of State to coordinate the adoption of the Roerich Peace Pact with his Secretary of Agriculture, later Secretary of Commerce and FDR's Vice President in his third term, Henry Agard Wallace (1888-1965), was born in Adair County, Iowa. With his father, Wallace developed the first successful hybrid seed corn (maize). Appointed Secretary of Agriculture in 1933 by FDR, he carried out policies mandated by the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933 (AAA), a cornerstone of agricultural policy in the early New Deal. In 1940 he was nominated for Vice President after FDR made it clear that he wanted Wallace. An active Vice President, he advocated cooperation with the Soviet Union and economic assistance to underdeveloped countries. He was dropped from the ticket in 1944 but still campaigned for Roosevelt. He was named Secretary of Commerce in 1945, but was later relieved by President Harry S. Truman for his outspokenness regarding American relations with the Soviet Union. In 1948 he ran unsuccessfully for President as the Progressive Party candidate. In 1952 he published Why I Was Wrong, which explained his new distrust of the Soviet Union. A lifelong fascination with mysticism and the occult appears to have made Wallace an easy mark for charlatans, among them a faux-Indian medicine man and opera composer named Charles Roos, who was given to addressing Wallace as "Poo-Yaw" and "Chief Cornplanter." Wallace considered Roos a soul mate. In the 1930s the two men purchased a tract of land together near Taylor Falls, Minnesota intended for spiritual retreats where they could, in Wallace's words, "find the religious key note of the new age." More politically damaging was his friendship and correspondence with none other than Nicholas Roerich, whose Peace Pact is the topic of FDR's letter. Wallace eventually gave Roerich a Department of Agriculture expense account and sent him on a $75,000 expedition to Central Asia in search of drought resistant grasses. This relationship between Wallace and Roerich, would negatively influence the former's run for the Presidency in 1948. This letter, written entirely in FDR's own hand, referencing a very significant and historical peace pact and cultural achievement of FDR's Presidency, to his Secretary of State, referencing his Secretary of Agriculture and his strategy of including the Americas for adoption of the Pact, is a one of a kind, very special, and absolutely fantastic item.
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