Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

09/13/2021

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning …

William Wordsworth - composed this sonnet about London while standing on the Westminster Bridge in 1802.

Here is what Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her My Day column on September 14, 1942

Yesterday, we were out of doors all day, but it was not until morning that I woke early enough to have the full benefit of the early morning birds' serenade. One rather young one perched on the rail near me and repeated over and over again what seemed like a musical call. He cocked his head from side to side and his bright little eyes twinkled with each call.

The air is still soft, but cool in the evenings and early mornings. When the sun shines, the pool is still a pleasant place, but across the pond from where I sit, my swamp maple is completely red and I know that in another two weeks the autumn colors will be everywhere.

#EleanorRoosevelt #ValKill #morning #Wordsworth #HydeParkNY #FindYourPark #EncuentraTuParque #findyourmorning #HydeParkNY

09/12/2021

While #ValKillCottage remains closed for the season, you can still visit the grounds, gardens, trails and the Stone Cottage exhibit every day. The grounds are open until 7:00 PM. The Stone Cottage is open daily from 10:00 AM to Noon and from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

This week we are celebrating #NPSFW #NPSFashionWeek so here’s some of our favorite flowers in this beautiful golden color from Eleanor's gardens.

#veryfashionable #npshydepark #findyourpark #encuentratuparque #eleanorroosevelt #eleanorsgardens #valkill #stonecottage #hydeparkny #findyourgarden #hydeparktrails #hudsonvalley

While #ValKillCottage remains closed for the season, you can still visit the grounds, gardens, trails and the Stone Cottage exhibit every day. The grounds are open until 7:00 PM. The Stone Cottage is open daily from 10:00 AM to Noon and from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

This week we are celebrating #NPSFW #NPSFashionWeek so here’s some of our favorite flowers in this beautiful golden color from Eleanor's gardens.

#veryfashionable #npshydepark #findyourpark #encuentratuparque #eleanorroosevelt #eleanorsgardens #valkill #stonecottage #hydeparkny #findyourgarden #hydeparktrails #hudsonvalley

09/11/2021

#September11th #NeverForget

#September11th #NeverForget

09/10/2021

#EleanorRoosevelt #UDHR #UniversalDeclarationofHumanRights #UnitedNations #HumanRights #NPSHydePark #FirstLadyoftheWorld #NationalParkService United Nations #Article18

#EleanorRoosevelt #UDHR #UniversalDeclarationofHumanRights #UnitedNations #HumanRights #NPSHydePark #FirstLadyoftheWorld #NationalParkService United Nations #Article18

09/09/2021

#NPSFashionWeek #NPSFW

My Day, September 22, 1930
CARBONDALE, Ill., Thursday —Let me tell you first, today, about the end of my day in St. Paul, Minn. It was thrilling, chiefly because I saw a united group of women in action. Ten thousand, five hundred women filled the auditorium in the afternoon to look at a supper style show put on by Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes of New York City. Women are traditionally interested in styles. But this had an object. The women of St. Paul were showing what their own shops could produce and helping to stimulate shopping at home and the development of industry in St. Paul.

Now for a word about the fashion show, for I am fairly sure that this is my one and only style show for the year. The greens which were shown in many day and sports clothes are very soft and becoming in shade and are frequently combined with brown.

In one case, however, a light blue sweater made a pretty combination for sports wear. Almost every color and every combination, whether for day or for evening wear, has somewhere a touch of red. Your gloves can be red, or you may have a red feather in your hat or red piping on your suit. No color seems to be quite complete without that touch and I heard the women behind me say that the red accessories would be sold out in every St. Paul shop by the next day.

Those of us who have old-fashioned gold or silver jewelry which belonged to our grandmothers can bring it out and have it cleaned and put in order. It is all the fashion this year—because you can't be too much decorated.

One lady who called on me at the hotel wore her grandmother's silk dress, with lace fichu and a handkerchief edged with real lace, a pin acquired in Europe somewhere around the 1850s and a ring which dated back to the Civil War. Worn as an evening dress, it would be entirely appropriate today.

#NPSFW #NPSFashionWeek #EleanorRoosevelt #NPSHydePark #MyDay

Photos - https://www.crfashionbook.com/

09/08/2021

In the Spring of 1942 Eleanor Roosevelt wrote many articles demanding an end to bigotry and discrimination.

Race, Religion and Prejudice
New Republic 106 (11 May 1942): 630

Madame Chiang Kai-shek's recent articles force us all to realize that one of the phases of this war that we have to face is the question of race discrimination.

We have had a definite policy toward the Chinese and Japanese who wished to enter our country for many years, and I doubt very much if after this war is over we can differentiate between the peoples of Europe, the Near East and the Far East.

Perhaps the simplest way of facing the problem in the future is to say that we are fighting for freedom, and one of the freedoms we must establish is freedom from discrimination among the peoples of the world, either because of race, or of color, or of religion.

The people of the world have suddenly begun to stir and they seem to feel that in the future we should look upon each other as fellow human beings, judged by our acts, by our abilities, by our development, and not by any less fundamental differences.

Here in our own country we have any number of attitudes which have become habits and which constitute our approach to the Jewish people, the Japanese and Chinese people, the Italian people, and above all, to the Negro people in our midst.

Perhaps because the Negroes are our largest minority, our attitude towards them will have to be faced first of all. I keep on repeating that the way to face this situation is by being completely realistic. We cannot force people to accept friends for whom they have no liking, but living in a democracy it is entirely reasonable to demand that every citizen of that democracy enjoy the fundamental rights of a citizen.

Over and over again, I have stressed the rights of every citizen:

Equality before the law.
Equality of education.
Equality to hold a job according to his ability.
Equality of participation through the ballot in the government.

These are inherent rights in a democracy, and I do not see how we can fight this war and deny these rights to any citizen in our own land.

The other relationships will gradually settle themselves once these major things are part of our accepted philosophy.

It seems trite to say to the Negro, you must have patience, when he has had patience so long; you must not expect miracles overnight, when he can look back to the years of slavery and say-how many nights! he has waited for justice. Nevertheless, it is what we must continue to say in the interests of our government as a whole and of the Negro people; but that does not mean that we must sit idle and do nothing. We must keep moving forward steadily, removing restrictions which have no sense, and fighting prejudice. If we are wise we will do this where it is easiest to do it first, and watch it spread gradually to places where the old prejudices are slow to disappear.

There is now a great group of educated Negroes who can become leaders among their people, who can teach them the value of things of the mind and who qualify as the best in any field of endeavor. With these men and women it is impossible to think of any barriers of inferiority, but differences there are and always will be, and that is why on both sides there must be tact and patience and an effort at real understanding. Above everything else, no action must be taken which can cause so much bitterness that the whole liberalizing effort may be set back over a period of many years.

#EleanorRoosevelt #NewRepublic #endtodiscrimination #article #RaceReligionPrejudice #ERPapers The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project #FDRL #npshydepark #FirstLady

Photo - The Library of Congress

In the Spring of 1942 Eleanor Roosevelt wrote many articles demanding an end to bigotry and discrimination.

Race, Religion and Prejudice
New Republic 106 (11 May 1942): 630

Madame Chiang Kai-shek's recent articles force us all to realize that one of the phases of this war that we have to face is the question of race discrimination.

We have had a definite policy toward the Chinese and Japanese who wished to enter our country for many years, and I doubt very much if after this war is over we can differentiate between the peoples of Europe, the Near East and the Far East.

Perhaps the simplest way of facing the problem in the future is to say that we are fighting for freedom, and one of the freedoms we must establish is freedom from discrimination among the peoples of the world, either because of race, or of color, or of religion.

The people of the world have suddenly begun to stir and they seem to feel that in the future we should look upon each other as fellow human beings, judged by our acts, by our abilities, by our development, and not by any less fundamental differences.

Here in our own country we have any number of attitudes which have become habits and which constitute our approach to the Jewish people, the Japanese and Chinese people, the Italian people, and above all, to the Negro people in our midst.

Perhaps because the Negroes are our largest minority, our attitude towards them will have to be faced first of all. I keep on repeating that the way to face this situation is by being completely realistic. We cannot force people to accept friends for whom they have no liking, but living in a democracy it is entirely reasonable to demand that every citizen of that democracy enjoy the fundamental rights of a citizen.

Over and over again, I have stressed the rights of every citizen:

Equality before the law.
Equality of education.
Equality to hold a job according to his ability.
Equality of participation through the ballot in the government.

These are inherent rights in a democracy, and I do not see how we can fight this war and deny these rights to any citizen in our own land.

The other relationships will gradually settle themselves once these major things are part of our accepted philosophy.

It seems trite to say to the Negro, you must have patience, when he has had patience so long; you must not expect miracles overnight, when he can look back to the years of slavery and say-how many nights! he has waited for justice. Nevertheless, it is what we must continue to say in the interests of our government as a whole and of the Negro people; but that does not mean that we must sit idle and do nothing. We must keep moving forward steadily, removing restrictions which have no sense, and fighting prejudice. If we are wise we will do this where it is easiest to do it first, and watch it spread gradually to places where the old prejudices are slow to disappear.

There is now a great group of educated Negroes who can become leaders among their people, who can teach them the value of things of the mind and who qualify as the best in any field of endeavor. With these men and women it is impossible to think of any barriers of inferiority, but differences there are and always will be, and that is why on both sides there must be tact and patience and an effort at real understanding. Above everything else, no action must be taken which can cause so much bitterness that the whole liberalizing effort may be set back over a period of many years.

#EleanorRoosevelt #NewRepublic #endtodiscrimination #article #RaceReligionPrejudice #ERPapers The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project #FDRL #npshydepark #FirstLady

Photo - The Library of Congress

09/07/2021

#TravelTuesday #Jakarta #EleanorRoosevelt #Speech #UN #UnitedNations #CommitteeThree #GeneralAssembly #FirstLadyoftheWorld #TravelswithEleanor

After the end of the spring 1952 UN General Assembly session in Paris, ER traveled to Lebanon, Israel, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and back to the United States in what she called her "round-the-world trip home."

March 26, 1952 Speech Delivered in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. First I would like to thank you very much for a very nice introduction. Then I would like to say how much I wish that I could speak to you in your language. It's always a marvel to me when people speak to me in my language, and I'm very much ashamed that I cannot answer in theirs. I will try, however, to speak as simply and as clearly as possible and if the women who primarily organized this meeting feel that they want to ask me questions afterwards about anything that is not clear, I will be delighted to try to answer.

I was asked to tell you a little about my work in the UN. I began to work in 1946 in London at the first meeting of the General Assembly. I was the one woman on the United States delegation. Now in the Indonesian Constitution women have equal rights with men and many of the things which are in the Declaration of Human Rights are also in the Indonesian Constitution. But all of us know that having something in the constitution of a country doesn't always mean that it actually happens just the way it's written down in the constitution.

In my country, women today in many ways have complete equality. They have equal opportunity for education. They can work in practically any field that they wish to work in. But for a woman to be named on a delegation to the UN I knew very well was an experiment. I knew very well that if I did anything wrong it wouldn't just be my failure, it would be all women who had failed. If I hadn't been able to do the work that was to be done, then they would say, "You see it's a mistake to name a woman because women aren't capable of doing such and such a thing." So I felt a very great sense of responsibility and I behaved with the greatest possible care during that first session of the General Assembly, not only with other delegates but with my own delegates.

It just happened that I was put on Committee Three. Committee Three in the General Assembly deals with humanitarian, cultural and social questions. And the first question that caused a great deal of argument was the question of whether people displaced through the war and at that time in camps in Europe should be returned to their countries of origin against their will. The Soviet delegates were saying that everyone should go back to the country he came from because if he did not want to go back it was because he had been a traitor to his country. Many of us knew that a great many people were out of their countries because the governments of their countries had changed. It was now no longer their country; it belonged to another government and it was a different kind of government. Therefore, a good many people did not want to go back to their countries of origin. And we argued for a long time that people should not be repatriated against their will. It came up finally in the General Assembly at the very last meeting in the report of Committee Three, and the Soviets spoke on the need for sending everyone back. Anyone who didn't want to go should be sent back to be tried in his own country, they said, because he must be a traitor. Well, there was a great deal of excitement in the United States delegation, because I had served Committee Three.
To read the entire speech visit:
https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/speech-delivered-jakarta-indonesia-1952

Photo - Eleanor Roosevelt in Jakarta , erpapers GWU

#TravelTuesday #Jakarta #EleanorRoosevelt #Speech #UN #UnitedNations #CommitteeThree #GeneralAssembly #FirstLadyoftheWorld #TravelswithEleanor

After the end of the spring 1952 UN General Assembly session in Paris, ER traveled to Lebanon, Israel, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and back to the United States in what she called her "round-the-world trip home."

March 26, 1952 Speech Delivered in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. First I would like to thank you very much for a very nice introduction. Then I would like to say how much I wish that I could speak to you in your language. It's always a marvel to me when people speak to me in my language, and I'm very much ashamed that I cannot answer in theirs. I will try, however, to speak as simply and as clearly as possible and if the women who primarily organized this meeting feel that they want to ask me questions afterwards about anything that is not clear, I will be delighted to try to answer.

I was asked to tell you a little about my work in the UN. I began to work in 1946 in London at the first meeting of the General Assembly. I was the one woman on the United States delegation. Now in the Indonesian Constitution women have equal rights with men and many of the things which are in the Declaration of Human Rights are also in the Indonesian Constitution. But all of us know that having something in the constitution of a country doesn't always mean that it actually happens just the way it's written down in the constitution.

In my country, women today in many ways have complete equality. They have equal opportunity for education. They can work in practically any field that they wish to work in. But for a woman to be named on a delegation to the UN I knew very well was an experiment. I knew very well that if I did anything wrong it wouldn't just be my failure, it would be all women who had failed. If I hadn't been able to do the work that was to be done, then they would say, "You see it's a mistake to name a woman because women aren't capable of doing such and such a thing." So I felt a very great sense of responsibility and I behaved with the greatest possible care during that first session of the General Assembly, not only with other delegates but with my own delegates.

It just happened that I was put on Committee Three. Committee Three in the General Assembly deals with humanitarian, cultural and social questions. And the first question that caused a great deal of argument was the question of whether people displaced through the war and at that time in camps in Europe should be returned to their countries of origin against their will. The Soviet delegates were saying that everyone should go back to the country he came from because if he did not want to go back it was because he had been a traitor to his country. Many of us knew that a great many people were out of their countries because the governments of their countries had changed. It was now no longer their country; it belonged to another government and it was a different kind of government. Therefore, a good many people did not want to go back to their countries of origin. And we argued for a long time that people should not be repatriated against their will. It came up finally in the General Assembly at the very last meeting in the report of Committee Three, and the Soviets spoke on the need for sending everyone back. Anyone who didn't want to go should be sent back to be tried in his own country, they said, because he must be a traitor. Well, there was a great deal of excitement in the United States delegation, because I had served Committee Three.
To read the entire speech visit:
https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/speech-delivered-jakarta-indonesia-1952

Photo - Eleanor Roosevelt in Jakarta , erpapers GWU