Special Topics
Controversial issues, topical document selections, and special online presentations
featuring materials from the FDR Library’s
archival collections.
We encourage you to explore the subjects below and if you have questions about the
materials represented, please send
an inquiry through Ask the Archivist or Contact the Archives.
Controversial Issues:
Concise historical information and selected digitized documents from the FDR Library’s collections presenting the many sides of these difficult issues.
Dictatorship: The Road Not Taken
FDR’s First 100 Days: Did it Work?
Left: J. Edgar Hoover to Edwin M. Watson, December 10, 1941. This map, included with a December 10, 1941 letter, shows the locations of the 1,212 Japanese aliens considered to be disloyal or dangerous that were arrested by the Bureau within 48 hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor. From the President’s Official File 10-B: Justice Department; FBI Reports, 1941; Box 15. Click here for selected archival material related to FDR and Japanese Internment.
Topical Document Selections:
Digitized documents on popular and fun topics selected
from the FDR Library’s collections
Right: Draft of December 8, 1941 Message to Congress. President Roosevelt was having lunch in his White House study on December 7, 1941 when he received word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other Pacific installations. A few hours later, the President dictated a short address to be delivered to a Joint Session of Congress the following day. His handwritten revisions—visible in this December 7 draft of the speech—made the "Day of Infamy" speech one of the most memorable in American history. From the President’s Master Speech File. Click here for selected archival material related to FDR and World War II.
Special Presentations:
Featured stories with documents, images, and other information from the FDR Library
2011 Women's History Month Feature: Frances Perkins
FDR on Federal Government Employee Unions
FDR and the Four Freedoms Speech
2010 African American History Month
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1944 State of the Union
FDR's Visits to Hyde Park During His Presidency
Birthday Balls: FDR and the March of Dimes
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Tuskegee Airmen
FDR and Dutchess County Stone Buildings
Thanksgiving 1939: The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings
Strengthening Ties: The British Royal Visit
Eleanor & Harry: Mrs. Roosevelt's Correspondence with Harry S. Truman
Left: Program for the first Birthday Ball Dinner held on January 30, 1934 at the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel. Click here to learn more about Birthday Balls and the March of Dimes.
