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Museum founder lays out objectives

Monday, June 18, 2007

By HOLLY ANGELO

hangelo@repub.com

WORCESTER - Joseph J. Plaud was a seventh-grader back in 1977 when he = purchased his first piece of Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorabilia.

It was a signed press photo featuring Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin = D.=20 Roosevelt Jr. that he found at Boston's famed Brattle Book Shop.

Fast-forward 30 years and Plaud has amassed a collection of over = 10,000=20 items, from the bedsheet upon which F.D.R. was lying when he died on = April 12,=20 1945 in Warm Springs, Ga., to New Deal documents he signed in his = efforts as=20 president to lift the country out of the Great Depression. Hats, pens, = letters,=20 dolls, portraits, photos, cigarette holders, historic documents, stamps, = glasses, hats, canes, Works Progress Administration (WPA) paintings and=20 documents - it's all there, and it's coming to Chicopee.

=20

"The goal is to display as much as possible," Plaud said last week on = a tour=20 of the museum of Roosevelt memorabilia he founded here. "It's a large = collection=20 that's growing larger. I'm always collecting new items."

Plaud is the founder and president of the Franklin D. Roosevelt = American=20 Heritage Center Museum that is set to close its doors tomorrow inside = the=20 beautifully-renovated Union Station here. The museum has been evicted to = make=20 room for another tenant. That's where Chicopee and its vacant former = Market=20 Square library comes in.

The plan is to move the museum to the old library building next to = Chicopee=20 City Hall in time to mark the 75th anniversary of the inauguration of = F.D.R. and=20 the New Deal on March 4, 2008.

The move will mean Plaud will be able to show many more items than = the 800 to=20 1,000 now on display. He will more than double the museum's square = footage from=20 about 3,500 to 8,000.

"This is very big," said Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, who=20 spearheaded the effort to bring the museum to his city.

To illustrate just how major this development could be for Chicopee, = on=20 Thursday the mayor brought a busload of about three dozen city = officials, school=20 and community leaders, and residents to see the museum for themselves. = When they=20 arrived, the group was greeted by Plaud, who was wearing one of his = signature=20 bow ties and a smile.

Stopping at one of several glass-encased exhibits, Plaud pointed out = a=20 hand-written letter from F.D.R. to a former Harvard classmate in March = 1911, in=20 which he detailed his struggle as a freshman New York state senator = against=20 Tammany Hall.

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