IN THIS ISSUE 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.