FDR & Hyde Park
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s connection to the Hudson River Valley began with his birth
here in 1882 and it continues to this day. Just as the Hudson River Valley was
“the landscape that defined America”, so it was also the landscape that
defined Franklin Roosevelt. Throughout his early years, his education, his
nascent political career, and finally his Presidency, his estate in Hyde Park
was always his home, physically and spiritually. It was here that he developed
his love for the natural world on his sprawling estate. It was here that he
recuperated from polio, a debilitating disease that robbed him of mobility, but
never dampened his courage or determination. It was here, during that
recuperation, that his family, friends and allies alike—including Eleanor
Roosevelt, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Louis McHenry Howe, and Herbert
Lehman—convinced him to restart his political career, a decision that would
eventually lead him to the governorship of New York and the Presidency. And it
was to here, in April 1945, at his first and only permanent home, that his body
was finally laid to rest after suffering a fatal cerebral hemorrhage while
vacationing in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Years prior to his death, Roosevelt commissioned
the construction of our nation’s first Presidential Library, the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, to be built a short walk from his
home, Springwood, in Hyde Park. The Library was completed while he was still
alive—in fact, he remains the only President to have used his library while
still serving in the White House. He wanted the American people to have access
to as many of his personal and public papers as possible. After his death, his
wife Eleanor worked to preserve this legacy. Over the ensuing years, his
friends, supporters, and admirers have strived tirelessly to ensure public
access to and preservation of the Roosevelt legacy. Today, his Hyde Park estate
remains the premier location for study of his life and Presidency. The National
Park Service manages his mansion and the property of his estate, while the
National Archives and Records Administration oversees the Franklin Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum and the new Henry A. Wallace Visitors and
Education Center. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute whose mission is
to inform new generations of the ideals and achievements of Franklin and
Eleanor Roosevelt and to inspire the application of their spirit of optimism and
innovation to the solution of current problems, serves as the non-profit
fundraising organization for the Library and Museum. It also funds conferences,
educational programs, and grants to scholars, as well as the Four Freedoms
awards. These prestigious medals are given to public figures whose life’s work
have helped sustain Roosevelt’s call to establish a world based on the Four
Freedoms: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from
want, and freedom from fear. Together, these organizations work to further
enlighten future generations and do justice to Roosevelt’s vision of informed
citizenship.
Neil Bhatiya, Marist ’06,
David Woolner, PhD
Links:
FDR
Presidential Library and Museum homepage
Research
at the FDR Presidential Library
FDR
Library Links Page
Resources
for Teachers
FDR
Library’s List of Selected Books for FDR
FDR
Library’s List of Selected Books for FDR and his Health
FDR
Library’s List of Selected Books for the New Deal
FDR
Library’s List of Selected Books for the Second World War
Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI)
Biographies
of Roosevelt Era figures
FERI
Fact Sheet
FERI’s
List of Suggested Reading
Institutions
Dedicated to the Study of the Roosevelt Era:
Roosevelt
University – Center for New Deal Studies
Roosevelt
University—Center for New Deal Studies Links Page
New
Deal Network
New
Deal Network Links Page
Franklin
D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center
Franklin
D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Links Page
The
Avalon Project at Yale Law School – Electronic Version of Selected Papers of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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