Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945] & Anna Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

N.B.: This is one of more than 60 web pages presenting -- in chronological order -- physical monuments & selected events related to
one or more famous peacemakers. For others in the series, see names in red on web page for Famous Peacemakers.

Click here for monuments related to FDR's Four Freedoms.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945] - also known by his initials FDR - "was the 32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) & a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis & world war. The only American president elected to more than two terms, he facilitated a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. With the bouncy popular song 'Happy Days Are Here Again' as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover [1874-1964] in November 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression. FDR's persistent optimism & activism contributed to a renewal of the national spirit, reflecting his victory over paralytic illness to become the longest serving president in US history. He worked closely with Winston Churchill & Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Germany & Japan in World War II, but died just as victory was in sight."

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962] "was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, & became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international author, speaker, politician & activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) because she believed it would adversely affect women."

Right click image to enlarge.

E S T A T E

January 30, 1882 - Birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945], Springwood, Hyde Park, New York (USA). "The only place in the USA where a President was born, maintained a lifelong connection & lies buried." Maintained today exactly as it was when FDR's mother, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt [1854-1941], died on September 7, 1941. Opened to the public on April 12, 1946 (first anniversary of FDR's death), when Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'Life here had always a healing quality for him... It is his life & his character & his personality which will live with us & which will endure & be imparted to those who come to see the surroundings in which he grew to maturity.'" Next to the FDR Presidential Library & Museum since June 30, 1941.

Year? - "Chinese Bell," in living room of "Springwood" (Birthplace & Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt), Hyde Park, New York (USA). About 3 feet/1 meter tall. EWL visited on April 19, 2017. National Park Service guide called this a "Chinese bell" & said the Roosevelt family rang it to call guests to dinner. He disputed that it looks more Japanese than Chinese. IMO, the bell is shaped like a typical Japanese bell, and it has many "knobs" which are common on Japanese bells but NOT on Chinese bells. I wonder when & how it was acquired by the Roosevelt family. Click here to compare "peace bells" from Japan, China & other countries. Note how similar bells were brought to the USA from Japan as trophies of WW-II. But FDR [1882-1945] was Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1913-1920, and maybe this bell was given to him at that time. /// From a visitor's blog: "FUN ROOSEVELT FACTS: Among gifts in Springwood is a bell from a Buddhist monastery; FDR's mom [Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, 1854-1941] used it respectfully and with the utmost dignity as a dinner bell. Since all dinners were formal, the first bell was a 30-minute warning; those who were not dressed in time had to eat dinner alone in their rooms, and then would be beaten thoroughly [sic] by the servants." /// From "[Joseph] Stillwell & the American Experience in China, 1911-1945" by Barbara W. Tuchman (2001): "At Hyde Park [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [1882-1945] was brought up among Chinese furnishings, among them a large blue & white porcelain garden pot in the library which according to family tradition had been used at Rose Hill ["the home the Delanos would occupy in Hong Kong"] for bathing the children. A bronze Chinese bell used as a dinner gong had been acquired by Roosevelt's grand- father from two coolies who were carrying it away from the sack at Soochow in 1863. Roosevelts's stamp collection was founded on Chinese & Hong Kong issues given to him by his mother when he was ten..." /// COMMENT BY EWL: Each of the three accounts given here appears to be a typical tour guide simplification further removed from the truth by anonymous & amateur scribes. More reliable is the Wikipedia account that Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, her mother Catherine & six brothers & sisters "lived in Hong Kong 1862-1865...where they joined Warren Delano who had resumed his business of trading in opium, then still legal." My hunch is that the bell's origin is poorly documented but that it has been in the home for so many decades that few if any visitors have questioned its source. Its Japanese origin is obvious to me but apparently has never been investigated by the National Park Service. /// Lower image shows the front of "Springwood," birthplace & lifelong home of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.

October 11, 1884 - Birth of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962], 56 West 37th Street, New York City, New York (USA). Born in her parents first house into a world of immense wealth & privilege, as her family is part of New York high society called the "swells." Her parents are Elliott Roosevelt & Anna Hall Roosevelt. Two brothers, Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. [1889–93] & Hall Roosevelt [1891–1941] are born later. Her mother dies from diphtheria when Eleanor is eight, & her father, an alcoholic confined to a sanitarium, dies less than two years later.

E S T A T E

Date? - Wilderstein estate, Rhinebeck, New York (USA). Unintentional monument. "Called the 'stepchild' of the Hudson River Valley mansions in a 2007 article in the New York Times because it was the last to be transferred from the family that built it - the Suckley family, cousins to the venerable Livingstons who seem to be the foundation of all the great families of the Valley - to trusteeship. The fact that the Suckleys ran out of money about 80 years before this transfer occurred in 1991 created a considerable preservation challenge for the non-profit organization that runs the mansion today. When I first visited the house about a decade ago, it was a dreary dark brown, having received its last paint job in 1910 with very 'good paint' according to the recorded remembrances of its most famous, and last, resident, Margaret (Daisy) Suckley [1891-1991], some 70 years later. Miss Suckley was the very close friend, correspondent & confidant of her 6th cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lived right down the road in Hyde Park when he wasn’t in the White House. It was she who gave him the famous dog Fala, namesake of one of Wilderstein’s most popular annual fundraising events, the 'Fala Gala.' // A lot of improvements have been made to the exterior of the house in the 20 years following Miss Suckley’s death, the most striking of which are shingle and siding repairs and the return of the original polychrome paint scheme. The mansion is an elaborate Queen Anne confection, complete with a five-story tower, and it demands bright, contrasting colors!"

Summer 2012 - Image from the upcoming film "Hyde Park on Hudson," starring Laura Linney as Daisy Suckley & Bill Murray (!!!!!) as FDR.

P A R K

August 20, 1964 - Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Campobello Island, New Brunswick (Canada). "From 1883 onward, the Roosevelt family made Campobello Island their summer home. Their son, Franklin D. Roosevelt, would spend his summers on Campobello from the age of one until, as an adult, he acquired a larger property - a 34-room 'cottage' - which he would use as a summer retreat until 1939. It was here that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., was born in August 1914." This is where FDR suddenly contracted polio in August 1921 at age 39. Image shows the Roosevelt Cottage in what became the international park on August 20, 1964. Entry #1264 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

1889-1902 - Allenswood Academy, Wimbledon, near London (England). Eleanor Roosevelt attends for three years. The headmistress, Marie Souvestre [1830-1905], is a noted feminist educator who seeks to cultivate independent thinking in the young women in her charge. Eleanor learns to speak French fluently.

March 17, 1905 (St. Patrick's Day) - Wedding of Eleanor Roosevelt, age 20, & Franklin Roosevelt, age 23, 5th cousins once removed, at the adjoining townhouses of Mrs. Elizabeth Livingston Ludlow & her daughter Susan (Cousin Susie) Parish in New York City, New York (USA). President Theodore Roosevelt gives away the bride, & Rev. Dr. Endicott Peabody, the groom's headmaster at Groton School, performs the ceremony. The couple spends a preliminary honeymoon of one week at Hyde Park, then sets up housekeeping in an apartment in New York. That summer they take a formal three month honeymoon in Europe.

1908-1942 - Roosevelt House, East 65th Street, New York City, New York (USA). "Brick-and-limestone townhouse. From 1908 until 1942, it was the New York City residence of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt, arguably the most influential couple to lead the nation. And from 1942 until 1992, it was Hunter College's interfaith center for students - the nation's first collegiate meeting place for students of different religions, ethnicities & interests."

1927 - Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill (ERVK), Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service (NPS), Val-Kill, New York (USA). "Eleanor Roosevelt established Val-Kill Industries in 1927 with Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman & Caroline O'Day, three friends she met through her activities in the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Party. Val-Kill was located on the banks of a stream that flowed through the Roosevelt family estate in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor & her business partners financed the construction of a small factory to provide supplemental income for local farming families who would make furniture, pewter & homespun cloth using traditional craft methods. Val-Kill Industries never became the subsistence program that Eleanor & her friends imagined, but it did pave the way for larger New Deal initiatives during FDR's presidential administration. Nancy's failing health and pressures from the Great Depression compelled the women to dissolve the partnership in 1938, at which time Eleanor Roosevelt converted the shop buildings into a cottage that eventually became her permanent residence after FDR died in 1945." Became National Historic Site in 1977. Video | Website

1927 - Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). "FDR's first time in Warm Springs was October 1924. He went to a resort in the town whose attraction was a permanent 88-degree natural spring, but whose main house, the Meriwether Inn [upper image], was described as 'ramshackle' [& torn down in 1934]. Roosevelt bought the resort & the 1,700-acre (6.9 km2) farm surrounding it in 1927. It was around this time that Bullochville was renamed Warm Springs. Roosevelt traveled to the area frequently, including sixteen times while he was President, and he died in the district on April 12, 1945 at his Little White House [middle image], which he had built in 1932. He founded the Institute after hearing about a boy who had regained the use of his legs, through a treatment known as hydrotherapy, which involves the use of water for soothing pains and treating diseases. The operations of the Institute were paid for by the Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later became the March of Dimes. The Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation (RWSIR) [lower image] currently treats about 5,000 patients every year. While the original historic pools are not generally open to the public, the institute opens the waters once a year to the public on Labor day weekend. They allow four groups of people in a day for a one and a half hour swim. The main building of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute is Georgia Hall, built in 1933 to replace the old Meriwether Inn, which was torn down as it was too dilapidated to successfully renovate to then-modern conditions. Roosevelt often hosted Thanksgiving dinners in its dining hall for those who were using the Springs. For much of its existence, the institute was the only such facility 'exclusively devoted, to polio patients."

1928-1932 - McCarthy Cottage, Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). Unintentional monument. "An early morning fire [on August 9, 2011] destroyed two historic cottages at the Georgia Department of Labor's Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation (RWSIR). They are McCarthy Cottage and E. T. Curtis Cottage.'As the first home President Franklin Roosevelt built in Warm Springs, the nation has experienced a great loss with the burning of the McCarthy Cottage,' stated Commissioner Butler. 'Because President Roosevelt resided there for four years, the McCarthy cottage was the cottage of most historical value.' Built in 1927, McCarthy Cottage was President Roosevelt's Warm Springs home until 1932 when he moved into the Little White House. President Roosevelt first came to Warm Springs in 1924, seeking a solution for the paralysis of his legs caused by polio, which he contracted three years earlier. Upon building and moving into the Little White House, Roosevelt leased the cottage to Leighton McCarthy, a well-to-do Canadian businessman whose son also had polio. McCarthy would go on to become Canadian Ambassador to the United States during World War II and his son's family would continue to reside there during treatment visits to Warm Springs until the 1970s'."

January 1, 1929 - Albany, New York (USA). FDR is inaugurated 44th governor of the State of New York.

March 4, 1933 - Washington, DC (USA). FDR is inaugurated 32nd president of the USA. Roosevelt names Cordell Hull [1871-1955] Secretary of State.

Date? - Secret train platform, beneath Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, New York (USA). Unintentional monument. "Over the weekend we had a chance to visit the long-abandoned Waldorf-Astoria train platform, which allowed VIP's to enter the hotel in a more private manner - most famously it was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, possibly to hide the fact that he was in a wheelchair suffering from polio. The mysterious track, known as Track 61, still houses the train car & private elevator, which were both large enough for FDR's armor-plated Pierce Arrow car. Legend has it that the car would drive off the train, onto the platform and straight into the elevator, which would lead to the hotel's garage."

1933 - Arthurdale, Preston County, West Virginia (USA). Eleanor Roosevelt's "pet project." "The first of many New Deal planned communities established under FDR's administration. It was intended to take impoverished laborers, farmers & coal miners & move them to a modern rural community that would allow them to become economically self-sufficient... The Arthurdale Historic District is a national historic district encompassing 147 contributing buildings, 1 contributing structures, and 1 contributing site. As a historic district, it is significant because, at the time of its listing, all 165 houses were extant, as well as the Inn, four of the six factories, the pottery, well house, cemeteries, most of the community center buildings & the original road system and parking lot. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989."

1934 - Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, Lower East Site, New York City, New York (USA). Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt [1854-1941] was the 2nd wife of James Roosevelt, Sr. [1828-1900], from 1880. FDR was her only child. "Commissioner Robert Moses' earliest projects illustrate the Parks Department's commitment to recreation. Sara D. Roosevelt Park was an early priority. He announced plans for the sprawling site in February 1934. Tenements cleared & streets closed originally for housing were utilized for playgrounds, a seven–block–long stretch from Canal to Houston streets in one of the densest part of the city." Why is there a maple leaf on the sign?

April 18, 1936 - Grave of Louis Howe, Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River, Massachusetts (USA). Louis McHenry Howe [1871-1935] was was an intimate friend & close political advisor to FDR. He, along with Eleanor Roosevelt & Margurite (Missy) LeHand [1898-1944], was one of the few close associates who supported FDR throughout the most difficult stages of his personal & political recuperation after being afflicted by paralytic illness.

May 29, 1937 - Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt), Monmouth County, New Jersey (USA). "Created during the Great Depression as part of FDR's New Deal. Home to a cooperative farming & garment manufacturing project under the discretion of the Resettlement Administration, but was conceived and largely planned out by Benjamin Brown & and Hyman Alef. Albert Einstein gave the town his political & moral support. Artist Ben Shahn [1898-1968] lived in the town & in 1937-1938 painted a 12' x 45' fresco mural viewable in the current Roosevelt Public School... Name of the town was changed to Roosevelt as of November 9, 1945, based on the results of a referendum held 3 days earlier, in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died on April 12, 1945.

1938 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, Pine Mountain Scenic Highway, Georgia 190 at Georgia 354, near FDR State Park, King's Gap, Georgia (USA). FDR chose the route of the highway. It & the bridge were constructed between 1934 & 1938.

Date? - Marker for "Longleaf Pine Planting," near Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA).

1939 - Top Cottage, Hyde Park, New York (USA). Also known as Hill-Top Cottage. "Was a private retreat designed by & for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Built in 1938 to 1939, during Roosevelt's second term as President, it was designed to accommodate his need for wheelchair accessibility. It was one of the earliest such buildings in the country, the first significant building designed by a disabled person & the only building designed by a sitting US President other than Thomas Jefferson. Although it was meant as a retreat, FDR also received notable guests at the cottage, including Britain's King George VI & Queen Elizabeth. After half a century in private ownership, it was restored & given to the National Park Service, which today operates it as part of the nearby Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

January 6, 1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address in which he articulated his "Four Freedoms." Roosevelt said, "We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: Freedom of speech, freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear."

June 30, 1941 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum, Hyde Park, New York (USA). Next to the Roosevelt home Springwood (qv). "The first presidential library built in the USA. Conceived & built under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1939 to 1940." Video | Website

September 7, 1941 - Death of FDR's mother, Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York (USA). Suddenly, 230 days after FDR's 3rd inauguration as president & two weeks before her 87th birthday. Funeral held at her home Springwood in Hyde Park (qv). Images show her grave in churchyard of St. James Episcopal Church, Hyde Park (1811). Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt [1854-1941] was the 2nd wife of James Roosevelt, Sr. [1828-1900], from 1880. FDR was her only child. Her memory is also commemorated with the Sara Delano Roosevelt Park in New York City's Lower East Side, which was dedicated during her lifetime, in 1934.

August 10-12, 1941 - Atlantic Charter Conference, Argentia Bay (Newfoundland). First meeting between FDR & PM Winston Churchill. Photo shows them on board the HMS Prince of Wales. The cruiser will be sunk by Japanese bombers off the east coast of Malaysia on December 10, 1941.

December 7, 1941 - Japanese Attack, Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i (USA).

1943 - Four Freedoms Series, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (USA). By Norman Rockwell [1894-1978]. "Published in The Saturday Evening Post over the course of four consecutive weeks alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day. Later, they were the highlight of a touring exhibition sponsored by the Saturday Evening Post & the US Department of the Treasury. The touring exhibition & accompanying sales drives raised over US$132 million in the sale of war bonds." Where are the original paintings today?

1943 - Four Freedoms Memorial, Madison, Florida (USA). "A striking sculpture of four angels, their wings unfurled in the wind. Dedicated to Colin P. Kelly, a B-17 pilot whose plane was shot down just days after Pearl Harbor. Represents President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms that he articulated in his 1941 State of the Union address. Roosevelt said, 'We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: Freedom of speech, freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.'"

April 12, 1945 - Death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945], "Little White House," Warm Springs, Georgia (USA). "On the morning of April 13, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin & loaded onto the presidential train [middle image]. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported back to Hyde Park by train, guarded by four servicemen, one each from the Army, Navy, Marines & Coast Guard. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on April 15 [right image]." /// Pullman Sleeping Car Glengyle built in 1918 which provided 1st Class accommodations for family & dignitaries on FDR's funeral train is in Museum of the American Railroad, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas.

January 10-February 14, 1946 - Plaque for First Meeting of UN General Assembly, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, London (England). Eleanor Roosevelt is a member of the US delegation. Text of plaque: "To the glory of God and in prayer for peace on Earth this tablet commemorates the first meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, Jan.10-Feb.14 1946." Named in "A Peace Trail Through London" by Valerie Flessati (1998).

September 15, 1946 - San Antonio, Texas (USA). Inscribed: "Erected by the Comite Mexicano de Accion Civica y Cultural, 1945-1946."

1946 - Bronze statue of Franklin D Roosevelt, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow (Scotland). "Sketch for the memorial in Grosvenor Square, London, by William Reid Dick."

1948 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Grosvenor Square, London (England). "The statue sits in a garden dedicated to FDR. This is in an area with an agglomeration of embassies, including the US Embassy which occupies the western side of the square. The flowers above were laid after the 9/11/2001attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City.

October 28, 1945 - May 14, 1994 - June 15, 2007 - Freedom Court," Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (Springwood Estate), Hyde Park, New York (USA). This is a complicated monument because it consists of three parts erected over a span of 62 years (not to mention the adjacent library & museum). "Freedom Court" includes (1) 1945 bust of FDR by Walter Russell [1871-1963], (2) 1994 "BreakFree" by artist Edwina Sandys (grand-daughter of Churchill) & (3) 2007 bust of Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon [1906-1985]. /// Made from four segments of the Berlin Wall [1961-1989], "'BreakFree' shows the figures of a man & a woman emerging from symbolic, giant barbed wire, expressing Man's irresistible quest for freedom. Appropriately, this sculpture stands on a podium inscribed around the base with Roosevelt's 'Four Freedoms':" Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want & Freedom from fear. /// Right image shows Sandys & Nemon's daughter Aurelia at 2007 dedication of the Churchill bust during a conference whose theme was "Roosevelt & Churchill: The Legacy of Two Statesmen." In foreground is the 1945 bust of FDR by Walter Russell. (Sandys' "Breakthrough" [qv] was also made from the Berlin Wall & placed at Fulton, Missouri, in 1990.) Visited by EWL on April 19, 2017. FOUR_FREEDOMS BERLIN_WALL 1945 1994 2007 NY FDR US-UK

December 10, 1948 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). "Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris (France). The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the World War-II & represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions & laws. The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, & the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights & its two Optional Protocols. In 1966, the General Assembly adopted the two detailed Covenants, which complete the International Bill of Human Rights; and in 1976, after the Covenants had been ratified by a sufficient number of individual nations, the Bill took on the force of international law."

S C U L P T

1950 - Statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Akershus Fortress, near Radhusplassen, Oslo (Norway). Overlooks the harbor. Sculpted by Noreby Stinius Fuller. "FDR is a hero to many Norwesgians because he fought to liberate Norway from Nazi tyranny during World War II." /// "Following an invitation by President Roosevelt, Crown Princess Märtha [1901-1954] went to the USA on the USS American Legion, via the then Finnish port city of Petsamo. In the USA, she & her three children initially took up residence in the White House. In August 1941, Crown Princess Märtha traveled with President Roosevelt aboard the presidential yacht, USS Potomac (AG-25), and sailed to Newfoundland & Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchill. The friendship that The Crown Couple had cultivated with the Roosevelts was further developed during the war years. In 1942, the U.S. presented the Norwegian forces with the gift of a U-boat, which was received by Crown Princess Märtha, who in her reply gave a speech in support of the Norwegian liberation. Her impressive work to assist the American Red Cross and on behalf of Norwegian interests greatly impressed Roosevelt and influenced his 'Look to Norway' speech in 1942."

S C U L P T

2005 - Statue of Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, Massachusetts Avenue at 34th Street, NW, Washington, DC (USA). Created by Kirsten Kokkin. A gift of the Norwegian American Foundation to His Majesty King Harald V of Norway & the Norwegian Government in memory of the King’s mother and her outstanding contribution to the war effort of the Norwegians in exile during World War II.

S C U L P T

January 2, 1958 - Polio Wall of Fame, Founder's Hall, Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, Warm Springs, Georgia (USA). Also called the "Polio Hall of Fame." Assembles busts of 14 men & one woman who were instrumental in polio research & treatment, plus Franklin Delano Roosevelt & his close aide Basil O'Connor. (The first four are from Germany, Sweden & Austria.) Designed by sculptor Edmond Romulus Amateis [1897-1981] who also sculpted the "Great Frieze of War & Peace" in Kansas City, Missouri (qv).

D A M

July 17, 1958 - Peace Monument, Robert Moses-Robert H. Saunders Power House & Dam, St. Lawrence-Franklin Deleno Roosevelt Power Project, St. Lawrence River between Massena, New York (USA), & Cornwall, Ontario (Canada). The dam's 32 turbine-generators are divided equally by the international border, with the two sections operated independently by the New York Power Authorty (NYPA) & Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the monument on the international border inside the power house.

S H R I N E

1962 - USS Arizona Memorial Musuem, National Park Service (NPS), 1 Arizona Memorial Place, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Oahu Island, Hawaii (USA). "The underwater USS Arizona serves as the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941." One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008).

August 15, 1962 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, Lubec, Maine (USA), & Campobello Island, New Brunswick (Canada). Eleanor Roosevelt attended the dedication. /// In the foreground of the image are the Lubec breakwall, floating pier & boatramp, the waterfront business district, US Post Office & Customs (at right end of the bridge). Mostly visible on Campobello Island (at the far side of the bridge) are (from the left) a lobster pound, New Brunswick Tourism Information Centre & Canada Customs (white buildings at left end of bridge) & the Natural Area of Roosevelt-Campobello International Park, from Upper Duck Pond by the bridge to Liberty Point in the distant center. Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, can be seen nine miles offshore in the hazy distance.

S T O N E

1985 - "SunSweep," Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Weshpool, New Brunswick (Canada). In Canada but accesible only by road from the US. One of 3 stone monuments by sculptor David Barr spanning 2,778 miles of the international border between the US & Canada. Entry #1265 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

November 7, 1962 - Death of Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962], New York City, New York (USA). "Her funeral at Hyde Park was attended by President John F. Kennedy & former Presidents Truman & Eisenhower. At her memorial service, Adlai Stevenson asked, 'What other single human being has touched & transformed the existence of so many?' Stevenson also said that Roosevelt was someone 'who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness.' She was laid to rest next to Franklin at the family compound in Hyde Park, New York, on November 10, 1962."

1976 - Four Freedoms Monument, Sunset Park, Ohio River, Evansville, Indiana (USA). Next to "Japanese Pagoda" (qv). Designed by local engineer Rupert Condict. Has four columns from former E&TH Depot (right image) plus separate stones for each of the 50 states. President Franklin D. Roosevelt [1882-1945] announced the Four Freedoms on January 6, 1941

1995 - Rehabilitation Pools, Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation (RWSIR), Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia (USA). "Refurbished by the State of Georgia in 1994-95 for the 50th anniversary of FDR's death."

1995 - "The Allies", Bond Street, London (England). Statues of Franklin Delano Roosevelt & Winston Churchill. Sculpted by Lawrence Holofcener. Commorates 50 years of peace in Europe. Omits Joseph Stalin. One of 309 London monuments in Kershman (2007), page 258.

1995 - Bust of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Elberton, Georgia (USA). "Alongside the Elberton Civic Center & just a few feet away from a large Masonic plaque inset into its corner is a strange granite bust. Originally completed in 1941, the bust bore the semblance of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, years later in the dark of the night the good people of Elberton destroyed the statue. When it was restored in 1995, the figure looked nothing like FDR. Moreover, the new bust wears a tie embellished with peculiar symbols. Could this figure be the mysterious Robert C. Christian, the man who designed & funded the sinister Georgia Guidestones monument only about 7.5 miles north of the statue & completed on March 22, 1980?"

October 5, 1996 - Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial, Riverside Park, Riverside Drive at 72nd Street, New York City, New York (USA). "A bronze statue of Roosevelt at the center of a circular plant bed is the memorial's principal feature. The surrounding granite pavement is inscribed with a summary of her achievements & a quote from her 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights." /// "Dedicated in the presence of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Penelope Jencks was the sculptor. A new landscape on the site of a former West Side Highway access ramp was designed by Bruce Kelly/David Varnell Landscape Architects. Funding for the $1.3 million project, which included a renovated entranceway, was provided by the City of New York, the State of New York & the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument Fund."

May 2, 1997 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Vast 7.5-acre memorial has four outdoor "rooms" (one for each of Roosevelt's four terms as president). Click here for all 21 FDR quotes.

May 2, 1997 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Here is the "war quote" in room 3 (next to jumbled stones representing the destruction of war): "I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war." (From an address at Chautauqua, NY, August 14, 1936.) Entry #1160 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

May 2, 1997 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). Here is the "peace quote" in room 4 (next to statue of Eleanor Roosevelt): "The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation... It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world." (From an address to Congress after his return from Yalta, March 1, 1945.) Entry #1161 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

May 2, 1997 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms," Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Tidal Basin, Washington, DC (USA). One of the 21 quotes carved into the granite walls of the memorial. Entry #1160 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

M U S E U M

1997 - Cordell Hull Birthplace & Museum State Park, 1300 Cordell Hull Memorial Drive, Byrdstown, Tennessee (USA). Preserves Hull's birthplace & various personal effects Hull donated to the citizens of Pickett County, including his 1945 Nobel Peace Prize. Cordell Hull [1871-1955] was the longest serving Secretary of State 1933-1944. President Roosevelt called him "The Father of the United Nations." Click here for monuments to all Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

November 9, 2000 - National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, Washington, DC (USA). Pays homage to the thousands of Japanese men & women who were imprisioned 1942-1945 in ten American relocation camps: Amache (Granada), Heart Mountain, Gila River, Jerome, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poslon, Rohwer, Topaz & Tule Lake. At the center of the memorial is a bronze sculpture by Nina A. Akamu of two cranes ensnared in barbed wire. Rising above the confines of the memorial wall, the crane is meant to symbolize "rising beyond limitations." Click here for "Japanese Americans Disunited: How a memorial to unify the Japanese American community became a symbol of disunity" by Francis Y. Sogi & Yeiichi (Kelly) Kuwayama.

2003 - Franklin Delano & Eleanor Roosevelt statue, Senator Robert S. Kerr Memorial Garden, outside the Henry A. Wallace Visitor & Education Center, Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York (USA). On the south lawn of their Hyde Park estate. Modeled on a photograph which can be seen in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. The sculpture was designed and cast by a team of ten people from StudioEIS at the Tallix foundry for the opening of the Wallace Center in 2003.

B O O K

2010 - "Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage" by Hazel Rowley, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, pp. 345. "From FDR’s lifelong romance with Lucy Mercer [1891-1948] to Eleanor’s purported lesbianism—and many scandals in between—the American public has never tired of speculating about the ties that bound these two headstrong individuals. Some claim that Eleanor sacrificed her personal happiness to accommodate FDR’s needs; others claim that the marriage was nothing more than a gracious façade for political convenience. No one has told the full story until now."

C A R V I N G

May 10, 2012 - Stone Carving of Rosa Parks, Human Rights Porch, Narthex, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC (USA). "The area includes likenesses of Oscar Romero, Eleanor Roosevelt & John T. Walker (first African American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington once arrested at a protest rally against apartheid at the South African Embassy)... The statue of Rosa Parks [1913-2005] was commissioned along with a carving of Mother Teresa that will be dedicated later this year." /// Right image shows statue of Eleanor Roosevelt which is about two feet (0.6 m) tall & above the archway leading to the west narthex.

October 17, 2012 - Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, East River, New York City, New York (USA). "Plans were announced in 1973, but for decades a seemingly endless series of delays left its organizers doubtful of its completion. In fact, until recently, few New Yorkers had even heard of the proposed memorial or knew much about the long, complicated history of its intended site—a 2-mile-long, 800-foot-wide island in the East River... Hewing as closely as possible to the original design of Estonian-born architect Louis Kahn [1901-1974], the four-acre park includes a triangular-shaped lawn, flanked by more than 100 linden trees, that narrows as it approaches the island’s tip. The centerpiece of the memorial is a bronze bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt based on an earlier work by American sculptor Jo Davidson [1883-1952]. Just beyond the bust lies a space Kahn dubbed the 'Room,' designed to give visitors a place for quiet contemplation. Its 36-ton granite blocks are purposely set just an inch apart from each other, providing a unique perspective of Manhattan through narrow slits."

Fall 2012? - FDR Hope Memorial, Southpoint Park, Roosevelt Island, East River, New York City, New York (USA). By sculptor Meredith Bergmann. "A memorial sculpture being erected for Franklin Delano Roosevelt on his namesake New York City island will depict the beloved president in his wheelchair. Will show the four-term president seated in a wheelchair while greeting a young girl wearing a leg brace. "This will be great for the children. Now, they can say, 'Look what you can be,' " said Jim Bates, president of the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association. The 5½-foot-tall bronze statue, which is scheduled to be unveiled in fall 2012, is being funded by private donations and the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute."