An artist’s rendering of the Visible Storage Galleries.
2
THE VISIBLE
STORAGE GALLERIES
B
oth Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt believed the arts to be a vital part of life—of
everybody’s lives. They supported the work of artists and craftspeople. They sponsored
public art in schools, post offices, libraries and museums. And they took personal
pleasure in collecting art and crafts from around the world.
T
he Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, which FDR
built as the nation’s first presidential library, houses not just
the vast archival collections of the Roosevelt era—from
the beginning it was also conceived as a museum. After FDR’s
death, Mrs. Roosevelt took great pride in adding to the museum
collections and never failed to bring her guests to view its exhibits.
For the Roosevelts, with their dedication to democratic ideals,
the arts—like archives—were not to be locked away, reserved only
for the use of the privileged few.
Franklin Roosevelt put it this way when he dedicated the
National Gallery of Art, one of his proudest accomplishments, on
March 17, 1941:
FDR speaking at the opening of the Roosevelt Library, June 30, 1941.
“
There was a time when the people of this country would
not have thought that the inheritance of art belonged to them . . .
A few generations ago, the people of this country were often taught . . . that art was
something foreign to America and to themselves—something imported from another
continent, something from an age which was not theirs—something they had no part in,
save to go to see it in some guarded room on holidays or Sundays. . .
”
3
THE VISIBLE STORAGE GALLERIES
Beyond their sponsorship of art, President and Mrs. Roosevelt
were collectors. From an early age Franklin Roosevelt collected
stamps, ship models, and rare books. By the time he was
President he had amassed one of the nation’s finest collections
of naval art and impressive collections of Hudson valley art and
historical prints. During the New Deal he collected hundreds
of examples of art produced by the W.P.A. and other agencies.
The products of Mrs. Roosevelt’s Val-Kill Industries eventually
made their way into the collections of the Roosevelt Library, as
did remarkable examples of folk art and fine art from around the
world that came to them as gifts. Descended from old families,
both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s collections contain
noteworthy American silver, jewelry, and antique furniture.
It is well-known, certainly, that the federal government during
the Roosevelt Administration saw the largest expansion of public
support for the arts in our nation’s history. FDR was proud of this
democratization of the arts, stating:
“
the people of this country know now, whatever
they were taught or thought they knew before, that
art is not something just to be owned but something
to be made: that it is the act of making and not the
act of owning that is art.
”
New Deal artist Alden
Krider created this
1936 oil painting to
promote the WPA’s
National Youth
Administration.
Through the W.P.A., the Public Arts Section of the Treasury
Department, the National Youth Administration and other less
well known initiatives, the New Deal supported the production
of hundreds of thousands of works of art. And while Mrs.
Roosevelt is remembered as a social reformer, relatively few
people understand how she used the arts to turn her advocacy
into action. With three friends she created Val-Kill Industries,
an arts and crafts movement studio for the production of fine
furniture, pewter ware, textiles, and other decorative objects with
the purpose of providing a métier—and an awakened creative
spirit—to impoverished rural youth.
4
Maple tavern table
manufactured at
Eleanor Roosevelt’s
Val-Kill Furniture
factory, ca. 1930s.
Background
behind closed doors. New exhibits were installed to inform new
generations of the historical legacy of these great Americans and
the collections of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt became largely
unknown to the public. Less than 10 percent of the Roosevelt
Library collection has ever been exhibited. Today less than 3
percent is on view.
At present the Library is in the beginning stages of a $35 million
federally funded renovation. This will be the first major renovation
of the building’s infrastructure, mechanical, and security systems
since it opened. Most important, it will vastly improve the Library’s
ability to preserve for future generations the Roosevelts’ archival
and art collections and make them available to the public. All
renovations will be done within the existing envelope of the
Library building. The original historic building—both inside and
out—will be carefully preserved.
In addition to the federal funding, the Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt Institute has raised $5.5 million in private funds to
design and install new permanent exhibits on the life and times
of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The new exhibits will be
installed in 12,000 square feet of renovated state-of-the-art
gallery space. They will tell the remarkable story of Franklin
Roosevelt’s early life and his battle against polio, his rise to the
presidency, and the world-changing events of the New Deal and
Second World War. Eleanor Roosevelt’s role as his full political
partner and her work with the United Nations, civil rights, and
social causes after FDR’s death will be fully integrated into the
narrative.
As the first, the Roosevelt Library is the smallest of our nation’s
presidential libraries. Yet, it must present to the public the dramatic
history the Great Depression and World War II, led by our nation’s
only four-term president. The Library’s limited museum space
leaves little room to display the art collections of the Roosevelts,
especially since the historical exhibits must employ the latest in
space-consuming audio-visual and computer technology.
The Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is the first of our
nation’s thirteen presidential libraries and is part of the National
Archives and Records Administration. It opened to the public in
1941 as World War II raged in Europe.FDR declared in dedicating
the Library that:
“
a nation must believe in three things.
It must believe in the past.
It must believe in the future.
It must, above all, believe in the capacity of
its people so to learn from the past that they can
gain in judgment for the creation of the future.
”
Currier and Ives, The
Great Fight Between
the Merrimac &
Monitor, March 9th,
1862, lithograph, 1862.
For Roosevelt, speaking in the shadow of the Nazis’ book burnings
and destruction of so-called “degenerate” art, the Library in its
archive and museum collections, promised the power of selfdetermination to future generations.
The exhibits in that early museum were not about the public life
and work of the Roosevelts, but rather showcased the collections
that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt treasured for the possibilities
of national and regional awareness that they offered: ship models,
naval and maritime art, Hudson
Valley and new Deal art, and folk
and fine art given to the Roosevelts
by ordinary people, as well as state
gifts from nations new and old
in Asia, Africa, South America,
Europe and the Middle East.
As changes were made to the
museum beginning in the 1950s,
ever so slowly the collections that
were so important to Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt were put
5
THE PROPOSAL
Floorplan for the
Visible Storage
Galleries.
Normally these new collection storage areas would be fitted out
by the National Archives as closed storerooms with state-of-the-art
environmental and security controls—but no access for
public viewing.
The Roosevelt Library proposes instead to develop these spaces
as “open” or visible storerooms, designed to make the collections
available for public viewing while still safeguarding their long-term
preservation and security. We are calling these open store rooms,
Visible Storage Galleries.
The National Archives has agreed to our proposal, provided that
we raise from private sources the funds necessary to install fire-rated
glass walls, specialized shelving and casework, low-level lighting, and
other special fixtures necessary to place the objects on public view in
a safe and visually compelling manner.
One of the premier spaces in the Visible Storage Galleries will
recreate (in twenty-first century terms) the President’s original “Naval
Room,” which was a favorite among the original exhibitions. In other
areas, custom display systems will provide secure visitor access
to thousands of objects, including the President’s Hudson Valley
art collection; Roosevelt family paintings and portraits; furniture
(including a collection of Val-Kill Industries pieces); President and
Mrs. Roosevelt’s jewelry and other personal effects (including handcrafted equipment he used to aid his disability); WPA and other New
Deal art; political memorabilia, head of state and other gifts; family
silver, china, and items collected by both Roosevelts on their world
wide travels.
Touch-screen video interactives located at selected locations
throughout the Visible Storage Galleries will provide electronic
access to the entire collection, including thousands of works of art on
paper, clothing, and other fragile objects that for conservation reasons
cannot be put on permanent display.
The total cost to design, re-house, display, and conserve the collections
in the Roosevelt Treasure Vaults is $3.5 million, including $1 million to
provide a fund for museum collections acquisition and conservation.
The collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library and Museum bear eloquent and beautiful testimony
to the forgotten aesthetic sensibilities of Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt and their determination that art belonged in the lives
of everyone. The only way to provide public access to these
extraordinary collections is to open the storeroom spaces in the
lower level.
In the course of the government-funded renovation of the
Roosevelt Presidential Library, 4,000 square feet of space
will be made available for new museum collection storage by
relocating much of the Library’s mechanical equipment to the
basement of the new Henry A. Wallace Center. These new
mechanical rooms and the conduits necessary to operate the
equipment are all in place.
6
the NAVAL ROOM
T
he Naval Room was the centerpiece of Franklin
Roosevelt’s Library when its doors opened in 1941. It
showcased selections from President Roosevelt’s rich
collection of ship models and his world-famous collection of naval
and maritime art.
FDR took a personal interest in this exhibit, helping to select
and arrange the models and artwork on display. The Naval Room
remained a popular attraction at the Roosevelt Museum until
it was dismantled during the 1970s. Since that time, the public
has rarely been able to view more than a few of FDR’s treasured
models, naval prints and paintings. In the new Visible Storage
Galleries at the Roosevelt Museum, these collections will once
again be accessible to the public. They will appear alongside
smaller displays of naval relics, scrimshaw and other nautical
treasures collected by FDR.
German light cruiser (a gift from General George S. Patton) to
two small birch bark canoe models created by Edwin Tappan
Adney (1868-1950), an authority on Native American canoes
whose models are highly prized. Several small sailboats made by
FDR himself for his children round out the collection.
Ship Model Collection
There are over four hundred models in the President’s collection.
Roosevelt purchased some of these, including elaborate fullyrigged model sailing ships from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Others were gifts from friends and admirers. During
his presidency, many of FDR’s ship models graced the living
quarters of the White House. Among his favorites was a large
model of the USS Constitution that occupied a prominent place in
his White House Study. Roosevelt had personally re-rigged the
ship during his years as Governor of New York. He added it
to the Museum collection shortly before his death.
FDR’s collection consists largely of wood sailing vessels,
but it includes models made of steel, silver, lead, glass,
celluloid and even animal bone. It ranges from an
eleven-foot-long metal model of a World War I
Clockwise from above: New Bedford whaling
brig; Gloucester fishing schooner; World War II
troop transport ship.
7
THE NAVAL ROOM
Naval PRINTS & DRAWINGS
P
resident Roosevelt had a passionate
love of the sea and the United States
Navy. During his lifetime, he amassed
a world-class collection of naval and maritime
prints, paintings, drawings, rare books, and
ship models. He began his naval and maritime
collections as a boy and continued adding to
them until his death. They are a unique and
important part of the Museum’s holdings.
The largest and most important of these
collections is his collection of twelve hundred
prints relating to the history of the United
States Navy, especially the American sailing
navy from 1775 through the Civil War.
Termed the finest such collection in private
hands by the great historian Samuel Eliot
Morrison, the collection ranges from items of great rarity and
artistic merit to illustrations cut from eighteenth and nineteenth
century publications. President John F. Kennedy so admired he
collection he arranged for a special exhibition at the National
Archives in Washington, D.C. in 1962, which subsequently toured
the country under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.
Roosevelt had a special interest in prominent naval figures
like John Paul Jones and Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the Battle
of Lake Erie, and depictions of epic battles in American naval
history. Naval prints and drawings covered the walls of his Hyde
Park and New York City homes and the private quarters in the
White House. He transferred a large portion of the collection to
the FDR Library in 1941 and bequeathed the remainder to the
Library at his death.
Clockwise from left: P.S. Duval and E.J.
Pinkerton, The U.S. Frigate Philadelphia
on the Rocks off Tripoli, lithograph,
1840; A. Park, Paul Jones the Pirate,
engraving, n.d.; John Fairburn, A View
of the American Frigate Constellation
Capturing the. . . L’Insurgente Feby 9th
1799, engraving, 1800.
8
FDr’s ford
1936 Ford Phaeton
O
ne of the largest and most important items in the
Museum collection is President Roosevelt’s 1936 Ford
Phaeton automobile. Specially modified so that it could
be driven using manual controls, this car gave the President the
freedom to drive despite his disability. There is even a metal box
just below the steering wheel that dispenses lighted cigarettes.
The President enjoyed driving his automobile during his
frequent visits to Hyde Park. He used it to inspect his tree
plantations, go on picnics, and drive over favorite country roads.
He famously careened up to Top Cottage in this car with the
frightened King and Queen of England aboard. After his death,
Eleanor Roosevelt used the
car until late 1946, when she
presented it to the Museum.
In the Visible Storage
Galleries, for the first time,
the Ford will be exhibited in a
manner that gives full justice
to this remarkable vehicle that
FDR loved. When he was
behind the wheel of his Ford, he
had, however briefly, complete
freedom of movement.
FDR’s 1936 Ford Phaeton
convertible sedan with its custom
hand controls.
9
ROOSEVELT FAMILY COLLECTIONS
FDR’s childhood hobbyhorse.
T
he Museum’s most prized possessions are the many
personal items that have a direct connection to the lives
of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. These encompass
everything from childhood toys and drawings to clothing and
family heirlooms. Descended from old families, the
Roosevelts also passed on collections containing
noteworthy silver, jewelry, and furniture, which
includes many pieces used by the President and
First Lady, along with furniture inherited from
Roosevelt and Delano ancestors.
The collections boast over six hundred
items used by Franklin Roosevelt. These include
clothing, jewelry, and accessories, his suits, his famous naval
cloak, the jeweled ushers’ stickpin from Tiffany’s he designed
for his 1905 wedding. The Library also has FDR’s silver martini
shaker and a favorite set of monogrammed poker chips. There
are also seven pairs of his leg braces, a set of crutches, and other
devices (including pincers for picking up out-of-reach papers) for
overcoming his disability.
The nearly eight hundred objects used by Eleanor Roosevelt
range from knitting needles to a 1679 silver monteith bowl by
Boston silversmith John Coney passed down from her Livingston
ancestors. There are thirty-two pieces of jewelry that include a
group of carved coral brooches and a set of tiger-claw jewelry
inherited from her mother. Other highlights are Mrs. Roosevelt’s
5.2-carat diamond engagement ring, a 44-diamond family
heirloom necklace given to her by a cousin to mark FDR’s first
inauguration, and a sentimental favorite given to the Library by
a granddaughter—a gold locket that bears the marks of Franklin
and Eleanor’s children’s teeth.
Above: Ship’s wheel clock presented to FDR by Secretary
of the Interior Harold Ickes as a Christmas gift in 1942.
Right: Otto Schmidt, Eleanor
Roosevelt, oil on board, 1933. Elliott
Roosevelt commissioned this portrait
as a birthday gift for his father.
Below: The President kept this
leather deskpiece with photographs
of his four sons on his Oval Office
desk throughout World War II. All
four Roosevelt sons served overseas
in the military during the war.
10
VAL -KILL INDUSTRIES
O
ne of the FDR Museum’s unique holdings is a large
collection of items produced by Val-Kill Industries.
Created in 1926 by Eleanor Roosevelt and her friends
Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman, and Caroline O’Day, Val-Kill
Industries constructed finely crafted furniture based on early
American designs. The friends’ venture
had a reform component. Saddened
by the exodus of rural New Yorkers to
large cities in search of jobs, they decided to
create a business that would train rural youth
for off-season employment within their own
communities. They believed that if these farm
workers learned handcraft skills in addition to
agriculture, they would have a source of income
when farming was unprofitable.
Though it struggled financially, Val-Kill
Industries continued through the worst years of
the Great Depression and provided employment
in the Hyde Park area. A pewter forge and
homespun weaving enterprise were added in
1934. The furniture factory and pewter operation
closed in 1936, but weaving work continued into
the 1940s.
The Museum’s Val-Kill collection includes
twenty-two pieces of furniture. Among these are
desks, tables, beds (including a bed commissioned
by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933 for the White
House), chests, and chairs. There are also
thirty-five pewter pieces and a smaller number
of unusual items that include a copper candlestick and a
wood inkwell.
Clockwise from below: Maple night
table; Maple and rush seat chair;
Walnut tuck-away table, ca. 1930s.
11
PAINTINGS
ROOSEVELT FAMILY PORTRAITS
T
he heritage of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt is the story
of early American enterprise. From the first Roosevelts,
who arrived in New Amsterdam in about 1650 and later
engaged in sugar refining and shipping to the West Indies, to the
Delanos—seven of whose ancestors were among the Mayflower
Pilgrims—the family played a prominent role in building America.
Family members were involved in everything from whaling and
the China Trade to Pennsylvania coal mining and the building
of the Panama Canal. This fascinating history can be traced in
nearly forty family portraits in the collections by artists such as
Eastman Johnson, Charles Saint-Memin, William West, and
Douglas Chandor. The collection includes distinguished portraits
of the President and First Lady.
Left: Margaret Lesley
Bush-Brown, Warren
Delano (1779–1866),
[FDR’s greatgrandfather], oil on
canvas, 1917. [Copy
of the original 1852
portrait by Charles
Loring Elliott.]
Right: William West,
Catherine Robbins
(Lyman) Delano
(1825–1896), [FDR’s
grandmother], oil on
canvas, 1843.
12
PAINTINGS
NAVAL PAINTINGS
F
DR spent a lifetime collecting artwork related to the sea,
especially art depicting the rich history of the United
States Navy. His extensive collection of naval and maritime
paintings includes nearly one hundred fifty watercolors and over
sixty oil paintings. The collection spans the eighteenth through
the twentieth centuries and includes works by Xanthus Smith,
well-known for his depictions of Civil War naval battles. Among
the other artists featured in the collection are the English
marine painter Richard Paton and Thomas Birch, a British-born
American artist noted for his portraiture and marine paintings.
One the FDR’s special interests was collecting
“eyewitness” drawings of naval actions. He
appreciated their value to the historical record.
Outstanding among such works is a scrapbook of
watercolors by William H. Meyers, a gunner aboard
the USS Dale, that depict naval actions on sea and
land during the Mexican American War
Left: Xanthus Smith, C.S.S. Merrimac
and the U.S.S. Congress, oil on canvas,
1862.
Below: Engagement between the Frigates
Chesapeake and Shannon, oil on canvas,
1813.
13
PAINTINGS
Hudson River Valley Art
P
resident Roosevelt loved his native Hudson
River Valley. Throughout his long presidency
he returned to the Valley as often as possible to
refresh his body and spirit. His affection for the region
led him to amass a sizable collection of art depicting
its landscapes and people. The collection’s twenty-two
oil paintings include nineteenth century landscapes
by Thomas Benjamin Pope and Louis Grube. There
are also ten 1941 oil studies produced by artist Olin
Dows for the New Deal-funded murals he created
for the Hyde Park, New York Post Office. Among the
fifty-one watercolors in the collection are twenty by
Mitchell Jamieson. There are also twenty watercolors
by Alexander Jackson Davis in an artist’s sketchbook
FDR purchased in 1942. The collection also features
fifty-one drawings and over two hundred fifty prints.
Clockwise from above:
Thomas Benjamin Pope, View
of the Hudson Highlands, oil
on canvas,1882; Louis Grube,
View of Rosedale [Roosevelt
Family] Estate, oil on canvas,
1855 ; Victor Prevost, View of
New Hamburg, N.Y., watercolor,
1852.
14
GIFTS OF STATE
T
he collections at the Roosevelt Museum include nearly
two hundred state gifts presented to Franklin Roosevelt
during his presidency. Each embodies the finest of that
nation’s artistry, wealth, antiquity or creativity. All are objects of
great value. Many are one-of-a-kind items or represent artisanal
traditions that have disappeared. The gifts include precious
jewelry, paintings, furniture, tapestries, weapons and pottery.
Among the many highlights of the collection are a
1,298-carat aquamarine stone from the President of Brazil,
a tiara decorated with multicolored jewels from the
Sultan of Morocco, and a set of gold daggers and
swords set with diamonds presented by
King Ibn Saud during his February
1945 meeting with FDR on the
Great Bitter Lake. There is a
gold globe from Emperor Haile
Selassie of Ethiopia, a Swedish crystal
vase from the Crown Prince and Princess
of Sweden, an eighteenth century portrait of the
Marquis de Lafayette from the French Government, and
a set of watercolor paintings by Arthur Szyk depicting “George
Washington and His Times”—a gift from the President of Poland.
Some of the more unusual items include a hand-sewn Tibetan
thanga presented by the Dalai Lama, a pair of eighteenth century
Moorish muskets from the Pasha of Marrachech, Morocco,
twenty-five specimens of pre-Columbian Peruvian pottery given
by the President of Peru, and an elaborately hand-carved wood
inkstand from King Koroki on behalf of the Tainui Canoe people
of New Zealand. The state gift collection also includes several
unusual pieces from Allied war leaders, including a Soviet
submachine gun from Russian leader Joseph Stalin.
Gold Arabian dagger
and belt set with
diamonds presented
to FDR by King
Abdulaziz Al-Saud
(Ibn Saud) in 1945.
Pre-Columbian Peruvian
pottery (part of a set of 25
pieces) presented to FDR in
1942 by Manuel Prado, the
President of Peru.
15
Gold inkwell given to
FDR by King George VI
of the United Kingdom
during his 1939 visit to
the United States.
Jeweled gold tiara given to FDR
in 1943 by the Sultan of Morocco
as a gift for Eleanor Roosevelt.
ART OF THE new deaL
Art of the People
U
nder Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership, the federal
government became a major patron of the arts during
the 1930s. This period witnessed the largest expansion
of federal support of the arts in our nation’s history. Through the
Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA),
the Section of Fine Arts of the Treasury Department, the Public
Works of Art Project of the Civil Works Administration (CWA),
and other government-run arts programs, the New Deal offered
work to thousands of unemployed artists around the country.
The art they produced continues to be seen and enjoyed in public
buildings and collections from New York to California.
The Museum has a rich collection of nearly four hundred
artworks created by New Deal artists. It includes eighty-six
paintings and one hundred six prints and drawings, along with
sculpture, carvings, pottery, models, textiles, and furniture in a
dazzling variety of styles and subjects.
Left: Mitchell Siporin,
Prairie Poets, 1936.
This WPA mural study
depicts Carl Sandburg,
Edgar Lee Masters,
and Vachel Lindsay
with a farm family.
16
FDR’S ODDITIES - PRESIDENTIAL GIFTS
L
ike all presidents, Franklin Roosevelt received gifts from
admirers. Though some of these were mass-produced
pieces, most were handmade tokens, trinkets, and works of
folk art made by ordinary Americans and mailed to the President.
When the Museum opened in 1941, FDR
created a special room—dubbed the “Oddities
Room”—for the display of selections from his gift
collection.
That collection contains thousands of
items representing the work of talented
amateurs, as well as the finest designers
and craftsmen. Some of these gifts—
including carved statuettes of the
Roosevelts by noted African American
artist Leslie Garland Bolling—are
remarkable examples of folk art. The
formats, materials, and subjects of the
gifts vary widely and encompass everything
from needlework and drawings to musical
instruments, sculpture, and furniture. They
run the gamut from the artistic to the homely,
clever, patriotic, personal, serious, witty, or
broadly humorous. A large portion features
portraits of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in
a variety of media, ranging from sculpture,
painting, and embroidery to mosaic tile,
stamps, and leaves. All were gifts of
admiration, which the President
affectionately called his “Oddities,”
and set them aside in their own special
exhibit room.
Right: Robert Lee Brown, Remember
Pearl Harbor, tooled leather, 1942.
Below: Leslie Garland Bolling,
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt,
carved poplar statuettes, 1940.
Below: Sergeant Anthony
Mechowski used shell casings to
create this ashtray, a 1944 birthday
gift for FDR.
Above: Ernestine Guerrero,
The Chimes of Normandy,
1937. Guerrero created this
piece from wood salvaged
from food relief boxes.
17
THE ART OF POLITICS
T
he Roosevelt Museum’s rich collection of campaign
memorabilia and political art offers a colorful view into
American nineteenth and twentieth century political life.
Campaign Buttons and Ephemera
The collection of campaign memorabilia numbers nearly
twenty-nine hundred items, including over twenty-five hundred
campaign buttons, some dating back to the nineteenth
century. There are also badges, banners, broadsides, cards,
license plates, neckties, plaques, postcards, stamps, stickers,
tickets and miscellaneous novelties. Most of the collection
reflects Roosevelt’s political campaigns. There is also nineteenth
century political material collected personally by FDR.
Political Cartoons
Political cartoons comprise an important part of this unique political
art collection. The cartoon collection includes over seven hundred
cartoons. Most are original artworks given to the President by the
artists. Among them are works by eighteen Pulitzer Prize winning
cartoonists: Rube Goldberg, Herbert Block (Herblock), Clifford
Berryman, Rollin Kirby, Jay “Ding” Darling, Daniel Fitzpatrick, C.D.
Batchelor, Lute Pease, Charles R. Macauley, Harold M. Talburt,
Edmund Duffy, Ross A. Lewis, Vaughan Shoemaker, Jacob Burck,
Bruce Russell, Reginald Manning, Edward D. Kuekes, and Tom Little
While much of the collection dates to the 1930s-1940s, there are
nearly two hundred original and printed cartoons from America
and Europe dating from 1719 to 1900, including original artwork by
Thomas Nast (1840-1902) and a collection of eighteenth century
engravings by English caricaturist James Sayers (1748-1823), both of
whom FDR collected.
Clockwise from above left:1932 campaign
button; Clifford Berryman, Buy War Bonds, 1943;
1936 campaign license plate ornament; Rube
Goldberg, Another Good Soldier, 1942.
18
THE POSTER COLLECTION
T
here are nearly forty-seven hundred items in the
Museum’s Poster Collection. At its heart is an immense
and unusually rich trove of World War II posters covering
every conceivable aspect of America’s war effort. There is also
a large collection of World War I posters and over two hundred
fifty political campaign posters. Well known artist/illustrators
like James Montgomery Flagg, Ben Shahn, Norman Rockwell,
Howard Chandler Christy, and Frances Adams Halstead are well
represented. Other illustrators include Adolph Treidler, Frank
Brangwyn, C.C. Beall, and H.H. Wilkinsons. The collection is
one of the largest in a public institution—thought to be second
only to the Smithsonian’s in size—but it is virtually unknown.
Providing public access to this collection will greatly enrich the
study of this important field of social and political art.
Clockwise from above left: James
Montgomery Flagg, Speed Up America,
1940; Norman Rockwell, Freedom From
Fear, 1943; Bernard Perlin, Avenge
December 7, 1942; Ben Shahn, Our Friend,
1944.
19
INTERACTIVE ACCESS STATIONS
M
any of the 35,000 objects in the Roosevelt Library’s
museum collection are works of art on paper, textiles,
and other objects made from materials that are
light sensitive or which for other reasons cannot be placed on
permanent display. These include, in particular, the Naval Prints
and Drawings collection, the Hudson Valley Prints and Drawings,
New Deal Prints and Drawings, and the vast Poster collection.
To provide visibility for these collections, Interactive Access
Stations in the form of touch screen computers will display
digital images and collection information about
individual prints, drawings and posters in
special areas of the galleries adjacent to related
collections that are on permanent display.
Each Interactive Access Station will also
contain a specially digitized version of the entire
museum catalogue—that is, a Digital Catalogue
containing a photograph of each object and its
essential catalogue information. With the Digital
Catalogue posted to the Internet as well, these
Access Stations will for the first time make the entire
Roosevelt Museum collection available to students,
researchers, and casual visitors.
Funding is needed to purchase hardware and to
transfer the museum’s present collection database
to a user-friendly version that will be able to be easily
navigated by visitors and researchers in the museum and on
the Library’s website.
20
collections care & acquisition fund
P
lacing the Museum collection on public view will offer unprecedented public
access to these important objects. Just as important, it opens the museum to a
level of transparency in the care of its collections that has never been possible in
the past. With so many objects being literally “seen” every day, visitors will be able to
witness first-hand the level of care and preservation provided for these important objects.
These dense displays will offer an opportunity to educate the public about the on-going
preservation needs of the collection and encourage financial contributions toward the
museum’s preservation program. Private funding is necessary to supplement the limited
government funding available for this work.
Federal funds cannot be used for the acquisition of collections. In the past ten years
the Roosevelt Library and Museum has missed the opportunity to purchase numerous
important pieces—both museum objects and archival holdings—because no acquisitions
funding exists. This fund seeks to establish a base level of support to acquire important
items of Roosevelt provenance when they become available and to provide a high
standard of preservation care for the Library’s collections
Salvatore Giunta created this
inlaid wood plaque as a gift for
FDR in 1936.
21
Daniel E. Greene, Eleanor
Roosevelt, oil on canvas, 1962.
$2 MILLION
The Visible Storage Galleries may also be supported through gifts designated for specific collections.
Naming opportunities are available for substantial donations to create the following special areas.
Naval Room
$500,000
FDR’s Ford
$300,000
Roosevelt Family Collection
$225,000
Val-Kill Industries
$150,000
Paintings
Roosevelt Family Portraits
$50,000
Naval Paintings
$50,000
Hudson Valley Art
$25,000
Gifts of State
$100,000
FDR’s “Oddities”—Presidential Gifts
$100,000
The Art of Politics
$50,000
Art of the New Deal
$35,000
Posters
$15,000
Digital Catalogue and Interactive Access Stations
$400,000
GRAND TOTAL
$2,000,000
To learn more about making a donation please contact Cynthia Koch, director of the
FDR Presidential Library, at cynthia.koch@nara.gov or (845) 486-7747.