Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Part 1, 1884-1964 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

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Collection Overview

Title: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Part 1, 1884-1964

Primary Creator: Roosevelt, Eleanor (1884-1962)

Extent: 889.62 Cubic Feet

Arrangement:

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers is organized into three distinct parts - pre-White House material, White House material, and post-White House material. Within those parts, the collection is arranged into 63 series. The series are generally arranged chronologically and then aplhabetically thereunder.

Due to the large size of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, the online finding aid has been divided into three sections. Part 1 covers boxes 1-1395.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

This collection contains material accumulated by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt during her lifetime. The pre-White House material includes early family papers, school exercise books, and correspondence with family and friends up to her years as the wife of the governor of New York. The White House material contains correspondence with family, friends, the general public, and government officials. The general public wrote requesting material assistance; commenting on her activities as First Lady, including her trips, speeches and articles; seeking her patronage; requesting an autograph, photograph or invitation to the White House; invitations to events, and sending her gifts. The correspondence with government officials asks their help in finding work, saving homes and farms and other assistance requests. The post-White House material contains correspondence with family, friends, the general public and government officials. This material also includes her correspondence and other material pertaining to her term as a delegate to the United Nations and as Chairman of the Human Rights Committee. The collection also contains copies of a number of her speeches and articles including her "My Day" column.

Administrative Information

Repository: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

Access Restrictions: The papers contain material restricted in accordance with Executive Order 12958, and material which might constitute the invasion of privacy of living persons has been closed.

Use Restrictions: The unpublished writings of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt are in the public domain. Mrs. Roosevelt's published writings are subject to her literary estate.

Acquisition Method: The papers of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt were donated by Mrs. Roosevelt and her children.

Related Materials: Numerous collections in the Library including: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Official, Personal and Secretary’s Files; Franklin D. Roosevelt: Papers pertaining to Family, Business and Personal Affairs; Franklin D. Roosevelt: Papers as Vice Presidential Candidate, 1920; Franklin D. Roosevelt: Papers as Governor of New York, 1929 -1932; Eleanor Roosevelt Oral History project; Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted; Papers of Lorena Hickok; and Roosevelt Family Papers Donated by the Children of Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and John A. Roosevelt.

Box and Folder Listing

Series 2: Family and Personal Correspondence, 1894-1957 and undated

Arranged alphabetically and thereunder chronologically. Includes messages of congratulations to Eleanor and Franklin on their engagement and the birth of their son James in 1906; condolence letters to Eleanor and Franklin after FDR's polio attack; invitations to White House affairs, 1905-1916; letters from Madame Souvestre in French with English translations; letters from David and Maude Hall Gray, Eleanor Roosevelt's aunt and uncle, written during the period when David Gray was U.S. Minister to Ireland; Edward Ludlow Hall, uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt; poetry collected by Eleanor Roosevelt; a letter sheet from the "Prinzessin Victoria Luise," the ship on which Franklin and his mother cruised in 1904; letters from the Roosevelt children, including Elliott, Franklin Jr. and James' wife, Betsy Cushing Roosevelt; messages pertaining to household management and business matters; a plan for world peace written in 1923 by FDR and his Columbia School of Law examination results.

Correspondents include Eleanor Blodgett, Mrs. William Jennings Bryan, Carrie Chapman Catt, Franklin Caulder, James M. Cox, Sara, Warren, Dora and Franklin Delano, Susie Hall, Edith Helm, Harry Hooker, Lou Henry Hoover, Esther Lape, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Carola Passavant, Endicott Peabody, Caroline Phillips, Edmund Rogers, G. Hall Roosevelt, Edith and Theodore Roosevelt, Signorina Samaia, Alfred E. Smith, Claude Swanson, Florence Willerr and Owen D. Young.

Box 1

Family & Personal Correspondence, 1894-1957 & undated
A - C
Business Matters

Box 2

Condolence Letters After FDR's Polio Attack: Letters to ER
Condolence Letters After FDR's Polio Attack: Letters to FDR
D - F
Engagement Congratulations: Letters to ER, 1904-1905
Engagement Congratulations: Letters to FDR, 1904-1905
G - K
Gray, David & Maude
Hall, Edward Ludlow
Invitations, 1902-1932
L - P
Letters in French
Longworh, Alice Roosevelt

Box 3

Poetry Selections
"Prinzessin Victoria Luise"
R - Z
Roosevelt, A - W
Roosevelt, Betsy Cushing (Mrs. James)
Roosevelt, Elliott, 1942-1945 & 1954-1957
Roosevelt, Elliott: Virginia Property
Roosevelt, Franklin D.: Bok Peace Award: "A Plan to Preserve World Peace"
Letters to ER, 1908-1920
Miscellaneous Letters & Papers, 1894-1932 & undated
Roosevelt, Franklin D. Jr., 1923-1949 & undated
Roosevelt, G. Hall
"Roosevelts in Virginia" Goodridge Wilson
Family & Personal Correspondence, 1894-1957 & undated
Souvestre, Marie