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Ship Models Restored News and Notes from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum FDR Braces to Warm Springs foef{wpvt Winter 2009 With Support from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Banners Along the Hudson S 100 Days Exhibit - In the News Roosevelt Library Displays FDR’s Naval Collection in New York City Exhibition Educational Partnerships Treasures of a President: FDR and the Sea South Street Seaport Museum Open through December 31, 2009 FROM THE Franklin Roosevelt’s love of sailing and his irrepressible passion for collecting are DIRECTOR celebrated in Treasures of a President: FDR and the Sea, an exhibition now on view at The Roosevelt Collections: the South Street Seaport Museum in New Visible Storage at the Library York City. Treasures of a President presents over 75 objects from the FDR Presidential Franklin Roosevelt was a great collector. Library and Museum. From an early age he collected stamps, ship models, and rare books. By the time A prodigious collector from a young age, he was President he had amassed one of the Roosevelt’s was one of the nation’s great nation’s ﬁ nest collections of naval art and maritime and naval collections of the 20th impressive collections of Hudson valley century. It included naval prints, drawings, art and historical prints. During the New letters, memorabilia, and more than 200 Deal he gathered hundreds of examples of fully rigged ship models. In Treasures of art and crafts work produced by the W.P.A. a President a selection of those that were and other agencies. part of Roosevelt’s own 1941 installation at the Library and Museum are on display for the ﬁ rst time in New York City. While president, Roosevelt displayed a number of them—including a model of the USS © Josh Sailor Photography 2009 Constitution that he personally re-rigged— A highlight of the Treasures of a President exhibition is a gallery of nearly 30 ship models resembling in the White House. the “Naval Room” of the Roosevelt Library—one of the original galleries when it opened its doors in 1941. Today the FDR Presidential Library has over 400 ship models from FDR’s personal collection.

Roosevelt loved the sea and was an during his extended period of rehabilitation accomplished sailor throughout his life. His from polio in the 1920s. In his collecting maternal ancestors—the Delanos—were FDR especially prized items that reﬂ ected the ship owners and merchants who made a glory of the American Navy and represented fortune in the 19th century China Trade. turning points in American history. FDR Presidential Library Untitled (View of the Hudson River Highlands). During Woodrow Wilson’s presidency Artist unknown, watercolor, c. 1850. FDR served as assistant secretary of the A number of the objects in the exhibition navy, and during his own, founded the U.S. are personal, including a childhood drawing He placed all of his collections, along with Merchant Marine and oversaw the largest of a sailboat and the ship’s log from his archival materials documenting a lifetime expansion of the U.S. Navy in its history. mother’s 1862 clipper ship journey to in public service, in a new facility he built © Josh Sailor Photography 2009 China with her family when she was seven on the grounds of his estate. The Roosevelt Roosevelt’s naval and maritime collecting An opening reception for the exhibition was held on years old. As governor of New York and as October 22, 2008. (From left) Fredrica Goodman, Presidential Library and Museum—the was most intense during 1913-20 when he Marian Breeze, Amb. William J. vanden Heuvel, president, FDR received many gifts from nation’s ﬁ rst—opened as World War II was assistant secretary of the navy and then Cynthia Koch, and Erin Orborn. people who knew of his interests in the sea. raged in Europe. Dedicated in June 1941, Among them was a handcrafted ship model in the shadow of Nazi book burnings and made by an inmate at Sing Sing, which the the destruction of so-called “degenerate” prisoner named, hopefully, Pardon Me. art, the Library in its archive and museum There is no record this gift accomplished its collections promised freedom of thought intended purpose. and expression to future generations.

South Street Seaport Museum preserves and interprets the history of New York City as a world port, a place where goods, labor and cultures are exchanged through work, commerce, and the interaction of diverse communities. It houses exhibition galleries, a working 19th century print shop, an archaeology center, a maritime library, a craft center, a marine life conservation lab, and the largest privately owned ﬂ eet of historic ships in the country. The Museum is located on the site of the original port of New York City in lower Manhattan.

Treasures of a President is open though © Josh Sailor Photography 2009 A centerpiece of the exhibition is a large model of the USS Constitution, the early American Navy’s most December 31, 2009. For more information famous ship. Known as “Old Ironsides,” the Constitution saw action in the Barbary Wars and other conﬂ icts. visit www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org. FDR Presidential Library Walnut folding tuck-away table. Val-Kill Industries, c. 1930. Joint Exhibit with New-York Historical Society in New York City The FDR Library’s special exhibition, A New President Takes Command is contemporary issues with the beneﬁ t After FDR’s death Mrs. Roosevelt took “Action and Action Now”: FDR’s what the Historical Society calls a “focus of the lessons learned in the 1930s. great pride in adding to the museum First Hundred Days is the basis for exhibit.” It is a small and quickly assembled That is exactly why FDR founded his collections and never failed to bring her A New President Takes Command, a display designed to remind visitors of the presidential library,” said Cynthia Koch, guests to view its exhibits. collaborative exhibition between the remarkable parallels between the nation’s FDR Library Director. Library and the New-York Historical challenges as FDR assumed the presidency The products of Mrs. Roosevelt’s craftwork Society in New York City. in 1933 and those facing President Barack The exhibition displays rarely seen studio for unemployed youth, Val-Kill Obama today. “We are delighted to be able documents, photographs, artifacts, and Industries, eventually made their way into The exhibit opened in December and to work with the New-York Historical newsreels drawn from the archives of the the Roosevelt Library, as did remarkable will run through May 3, 2009 at the Society using the Roosevelt presidential Roosevelt Library and Museum. Visit New-York Historical Society. archive to help Americans today understand www.nyhistory.org for more info. (continued on page 2) Reviving the Library’s Naval Room - FDR’s Ship Models Restored (continued from page 1) The Library has begun a multi-year evoke the original Naval Exhibition the public has rarely been able to view examples of folk art and treasures preservation project aimed at restoring Room, which showcased Roosevelt’s more than a few of FDR’s treasured from around the world that came to the President Roosevelt’s enormous collect- ship model and naval print and painting ship models. Roosevelts as gifts. Descended from old ion of ship models. The collection collections when the Library opened in families, the Roosevelts’ collections also includes over 200 large models, June 1941. The ship model preservation project contain noteworthy early American silver, encompassing elaborate fully-rigged began in 2008 and will ultimately jewelry, and antique furniture. sailing ships and modern steam powered prepare the entire collection for vessels. Roosevelt purchased some of permanent display in the new visible these models. Others were gifts from storage facility. A major portion of the friends, admirers, and foreign leaders. preservation work undertaken during the past year was done in conjunction The collection also features more than with an exhibition of FDR’s naval and 200 smaller replicas ranging from die- maritime collections that the Library cut models of U.S. Navy ships used to jointly planned and mounted with the train sailors in ship recognition during South Street Seaport Museum in New World War II to simple vessels made by York City, Treasures of a President: hand by Roosevelt and his friends. FDR and the Sea (see story on page 1).

The ship model preservation project Twenty-seven models from the Library’s has been undertaken as part of the collection are included in the exhibit and preparations for the Library’s new were conserved by the Seaport Museum’s Visible Storage facility for its Museum conservator at no cost to the Roosevelt

FDR Presidential Library collection. This new facility is a major Library. Many of these were among the Saucer, Haviland Porcelain, France, 1938. component in the upcoming Library models that FDR originally displayed in Part of a fi ve-piece set of luncheon place settings renovation project. It will offer future FDR Presidential Library his Naval Room. Another group of eight used at Hyde Park and the White House. visitors the opportunity to enter Museum Historic photo of the Naval Room at the ship models from FDR’s collection FDR Library as it looked in 1941. As changes were made to the museum collection rooms and view thousands of underwent conservation during 2008 beginning in the 1950s, ever so slowly the rarely seen items. FDR took a personal interest in the Naval at the American Marine Model Gallery art and artifacts that were so important to Room, helping to choose and arrange in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Work on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were put A highlight of the new facility will be the models on display. It remained a those models was funded with special behind closed doors. a room devoted entirely to the display popular display until it was dismantled preservation money provided by the of FDR’s ship models. This display will during the late 1970s. Since that time, National Archives. In due course the Roosevelt collections became largely unknown to the public. Set of FDR’s Leg Braces to Warm Springs, GA RECENT BOOKS BASED Less than 10 percent of the Roosevelt In August the FDR Presidential Library center. Roosevelt’s modest private ON RESEARCH AT THE Library collection has ever been exhibited. and the National Archives approved the residence, which he visited often during ROOSEVELT LIBRARY Today less than 3 percent is on view. de-accession of a signifi cant artifact in his presidency, became known as the the Museum collection—a set of FDR’s Little White House. He died there on Traitor to His Class: But that is about to change. steel leg braces. April 12, 1945. The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of The Roosevelt Library will soon begin a The braces were presented to Roosevelt’s Little White House Historic Site Franklin Delano Roosevelt multi-year renovation project that includes Little White House Historic Site in Warm Manager Kim Cushman expressed her (Doubleday, 2008) a rare and wonderful opportunity— Springs, Georgia, where they had been agency’s gratitude for the FDR Library’s by H. W. Brands installation of a “visible storage” facility on long-term loan since 1950. They gift, noting that the braces occupy an that allows visitors to walk through are one of six sets of FDR’s braces that important place in the historic site’s Nothing to Fear: museum storage areas and view up close were given to the FDR Library by the Museum, which attracts nearly 100,000 FDR’s Inner Circle and the thousands of items that have rarely, or Roosevelt Estate after the President’s visitors a year. Hundred Days that Created never, been on display. death. This set was made for Roosevelt at Modern America Warm Springs in 1940. Since 1948 FDR’s Little White House (The Penguin Press, 2009) at Warm Springs has been open to the by Adam Cohen The history of FDR’s special association public under the management of the with Warm Springs is well known. He Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites The Wit and Wisdom of FDR fi rst visited there in 1924, hoping to fi nd Division of the Georgia Department of (Harper, 2008) a cure for the infantile paralysis (polio) Natural Resources. The National Park by James C. Humes that struck him in 1921. Impressed Service has declared the house a national with the area’s buoyant spring waters, landmark. For more information about Fighting For Hope: he eventually purchased property and the museum and special events at the African American Troops of the founded the Georgia Warm Springs Little White House Historic Site visit 93rd Infantry Division In Foundation to operate a polio treatment www.fdr-littlewhitehouse.org. World War II and Postwar America (Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2008) by Robert F. Jefferson © Josh Sailor Photography 2009 Paintings and prints from FDR’s naval history Quadricentennial Banner Exhibition Opens collection can be seen in the Treasures of a President President Roosevelt’s Hudson River The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum. Valley art collection takes center stage The Decline of Presidential in a new traveling banner exhibition Rhetoric from George Washington For a sampling of some of the remarkable created to celebrate the 400th anniver- to George W. Bush items in FDR’s naval history collection, sary of Henry Hudson’s entry into the (Oxford University Press, 2008) don’t miss our joint exhibit with the South Hudson River Valley in 2009. Working by Elvin T. Lim Street Seaport Museum, Treasures of a in partnership with the Home of FDR President: FDR and the Sea. A few of National Historic Site, FDR Presidential Sumner Welles, Postwar Planning, the millions of documents in our archive Library staff. selected 33 images from and the Quest for a are also on view in New York City at the more than 350 in the President’s New World Order, 1937-1943 the New-York Historical Society in our collection of prints, drawings, and (Columbia U. Press, 2008) collaborative exhibit on FDR’s First paintings (now in the Library) that by Christopher D. O’Sullivan Hundred Days. depict the landscape and rich history of the Hudson River valley. Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up Because government funds cannot be used in the Shadow of my Grandparents, for the installation of special casework and The exhibition, titled Banners Along Franklin and Eleanor lighting necessary to make the Roosevelt the Hudson: FDR’s Hudson River (Public Affairs, 2008) collections accessible to the public, we Valley Collection, consists of a series of by Curtis Roosevelt will be looking to private donors to assist giant freestanding banners that display with this important project. If you would reproductions of artwork depicting FDR’s World: like to help, please contact me at (845) Hudson River locations ranging from FDR Presidential Library War, Peace and Legacies 486-7747 or [email protected] and Battery Park to Glens Falls. The prints Banners Along the Hudson debuted (Macmillan, 2008) I will be happy to tell you more about this date to the 18th and 19th centuries, in January at the Henry A. Wallace David B. Woolner, ed. exciting project. while some of the paintings are by two Visitor and Education Center in Hyde Warren F. Kimball, ed. of FDR’s favorite contemporary artists Park and the Federal Hall National David Reynolds ed. Cynthia M. Koch Olin Dows and Mitchell Jamieson. Historic Site in New York City. It will February 2009 Works Progress Administration artist then travel to a series of sites along the FDR v. the Constitution Charles E. Pont and Public Works Hudson River in 2009. For a listing of (Walker & Co., 2009) Administration artist James Scott are all Quadricentennial events in the area by Burt Solomon also shown. visit www.dutchess400.com. In the Media: Action and Action Now: FDR’s First 100 Days Exhibit UPCOMING EVENTS “Since Mr. Obama’s election, references “. . . Parts of the exhibit are full of images Ongoing through to Roosevelt have become even more of the Depression, often heartbreaking. Thursday, December 31 plentiful. . . . And he has made clear And yet, there is also hope, and that lends Museum Exhibition: (conceptually echoing Roosevelt) that his vigor to the exhibit.” “Action, and Action Now” attention to the welfare of the citizenry would be inseparable from his attention Review by Chris Farlekas FDR’s First 100 Days to the health of the economy. Times Herald-Record FDR Presidential Library February 1, 2009 William J. vanden Heuvel Gallery So it is fortunate that the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and “The exhibit creatively and elegantly Museum here, commemorating the 75th presents to students, teachers, and gen- Friday, March 13 anniversary of the start of the New Deal, eral audiences the outline of FDR’s initial Saturday, March 14 mounted an exhibition, “Action and days in offi ce, contextualizing his vigorous U. N. Association Film Festival: Action Now: FDR’s First 100 Days,” FDR Presidential Library legislative agenda within the social, Reproductions of letters to FDR fi ll the walls of Eleanor Roosevelt and the referring to the brief period that Roosevelt cultural, and economic environment of 60th Anniversary of the Universal a gallery in the Action, and Action Now exhibit. the early years of the Great Depression. treated as a self-imposed challenge to Declaration of Human Rights begin having an effect. During that time “Thousands of letters of support were sent . . . The extensive use of metaphorical he oversaw the passage of 15 major to the president after this fi rst fi reside chat. design helps transform what might Wallace Center pieces of legislation that transformed the One letter said that until that night, the have been a fl at, policy-focused exhibit Call (845) 486-1978 for Agenda president of the United States ‘was merely into a dynamic, compelling physical and country’s view of itself and redefi ned the a legend, but you are real.’ And there are character of American government.” pictures showing thousands of people lining multimedia experience.” up outside banks to return their money.” Saturday, March 28 Review by Edward Rothstein Review by Gerald Zahavi Great Estates Symposium: New York Times Excerpt from review by Margot Adler, Journal of American History All Things Considered (NPR), January 19, 2009. 400 Years: Life on the Hudson December 19, 2008 Volume 95, No. 3, pp. 783–85 Wallace Center 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Gillibrand Nomination Andy Rich Tapped to Lead Roosevelt Institute Friday, May 22 Overshadows Local On January 1, 2009, Andrew Rich USO Show “Green Jobs” Summit became President and CEO of the Wallace Center Roosevelt Institute upon the retirement 7:00 p.m. of Christopher Breiseth. Rich served as associate professor of political science at City College of New York (CCNY) Saturday, May 23 Sunday, May 24 and the CUNY Graduate Center. He Bivouac - Living History was also assistant director of the Colin FDR Library Lawn Powell Center for Policy Studies at 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CCNY.

The author of Think Tanks, Public Saturday, June 20 Policy, and the Politics of Expertise, Roosevelt Reading Festival

National Park Service, W. D. Urbin Rich has also written about telecom- Wallace Center On January 26, 2009 a conference on “green” munications, health care, tax policy, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. economic development held at the Wallace Center and the cross-national aspects of policy drew media attention from the tri-state area just research production and dissemination. three days after the selection of Rep. Kirsten EMAIL BULLETIN SIGN-UP Gillibrand to ﬁ ll Hillary Clinton’s seat as U.S. He received his Ph.D. in political Visit www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu and Senator from New York. Gillibrand, Governor science from Yale University. David Paterson, Rep. John Hall and Rep. Maurice Roosevelt Institute click the JOIN EMAIL LIST button Hinchey held a press conference during the event.

New Catalogue Roosevelt Library’s Educational Collaborations and Partnerships Grow Last year a record 18,300 students came The Roosevelt Library and Pare Lorentz Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, Cathy Highlights Curriculum to the Wallace Visitor and Education Film Center’s “Test of our Progress” Collins; and retired teacher and Youth Based Programs Center at the FDR Presidential Library diversity workshop series offered its Leadership Coach Gwendolyn Higgins. and Museum to participate in one of the fi rst workshop, “Racism in America: Future seminars will be developed using The FDR Presidential Library and many document-based programs provided Tuskegee, Today and Tomorrow” in the other fi lms from the holdings of the the National Park Service produced by the Library’s education department, fall of 2008 with high school students Library’s Pare Lorentz Center. a new joint programming catalogue followed by tours of the Library and from the Newburgh Free Academy. titled, “Let’s Team Up for the Sake Home of FDR. This represents a full 25 Using the Pare Lorentz Film Center The Library’s education department of America’s Future.” percent increase over the 2007 attendance production, Red-Tailed Angels: The partnered with the “Big Read” projects of nearly 15,000, which was itself a Story of the Tuskegee Airmen as a basis of the Dutchess and Orange county record-breaking number. library systems, providing historical context and background for The Great How do we account for this outstanding Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath, the growth? The strength of partnerships and two books selected for community book collaborations, through which word of the discussions. In October the Library hosted Roosevelt Library education programs a DebateWatch program for the fi nal is spread far and wide. In exchange, presidential debate. The event drew more we at the Library learn and grow from than fi fty participants who engaged in a our new contacts with individuals and lively post-debate discussion moderated organizations drawn from our local, by Dr. Nancy Kassop, head of the regional and national community. political science department at the State University of New York at New Paltz. We are grateful to the Roosevelt Institute Later in the month the Library hosted and the National Endowment for the a National Issues Forum for students Humanities for our most far-reaching on the energy crisis in cooperation with collaboration. Last summer, for the Hofstra University and sponsored by the second year, one hundred teachers from Kettering Foundation. Two additional across the country—and from Algeria, Forums were held to promote civic China and Fiji—took part in FDR and discussion for public audiences. All three

the World Crisis, 1933-1945: Roosevelt FDR Presidential Library National Issues Forums were part of a and Hyde Park, two week-long teacher The FDR Presidential Library partnered with nation-wide series of public discussions institutes held at the Wallace Center, the Roosevelt Institute and the National funded by the Kettering Foundation and Endowment for the Humanities to offer week- funded by the National Endowment for long teacher institutes on the Roosevelt era. held at Presidential Libraries the Humanities through a grant secured by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt for discussion, the seminar involved a Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were Institute. The seminar was presented by day-long workshop at the FDR Library, intimately involved in the communities The catalogue highlights the wide the Library and the Franklin and Eleanor followed by a series of classroom in which they lived, always contributing array of curriculum-based programs Roosevelt Institute, in collaboration activities. Inner-city school districts as civic leaders on the local level, and educational materials available with Marist College and the National Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties even as they worked on national and to teachers and their students from Park Service. These teachers visited the are encouraged to enroll with costs international problems. It is natural for both the FDR Library and the various Roosevelt-related historic sites, assumed by a grant from the New York the Library’s education department to National Park Service in Hyde Park. attended lectures by noted academic Community Trust, which funds the Pare continue their tradition of partnership and To receive a copy, call the education historians and political scientists, and Lorentz Center. Each session was led by collaboration. The sharing of ideas opens department at (845) 486-7761 or worked with the Library’s education a team of three educators: the Library’s avenues of communication and forges email [email protected]. specialist to develop document-based Education Specialist, Jeffrey Urbin; the relationships that unite communities in lessons for use back in their classrooms. former Executive Director of the Eleanor ways that beneﬁ t everyone. NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEWBURGH, NY 12550 PERMIT NO. 8604 foef{wpvtNews and Notes from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum S With Support from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute 4079 Albany Post Road Hyde Park, NY 12538 Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Cynthia M. Koch Director Phone: (800) 337-8474 Fax: (845) 486-1147 Email: [email protected] Web Site: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Andrew Rich President & CEO David Woolner Executive Director Phone: (845) 486-1150 Fax: (845) 486-1151 Web Site: www.feri.org

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