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Before his final trip to Warm Springs, FDR spent his last day at the White House, 80 years ago on March 29, 1945. Before his train departed, he presented Jonathan Daniels with his commission as the new Press Secretary.
Explore the contents of FDR's Oval Office Desk: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/advancedsearch/Objects/labelText%3AFDR%E2%80%99S%20OVAL%20OFFICE%20DESK
80 years ago, on March 28, 1945, FDR spent his last day in Hyde Park.
Explore the contents of FDR's Private Study on our website: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/collections/10457/fdrs-private-study/objects
This is the FDR's actual office, not a recreation. The study remains almost precisely as he left it on his last visit here.
These Rauch & Dietsch eyeglasses were from the desk in Eleanor Roosevelt's bedroom in her 74th Street apartment in New York City.
See more details on our website: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/.../eyeglasses-and...
"I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down...but I know that you will realize that it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about ten pounds of steel around on the bottom of my legs."
- Franklin Roosevelt, Address to Congress on the Yalta Conference, March 1, 1945
After the Yalta Conference, FDR made a grueling 7,000-mile journey home by plane and ship. While at sea, his long-time aide and friend, Edwin "Pa" Watson, died of a stroke. Watson's death cast a pall over the returning presidential party.
By the time he returned to Washington, the President was exhausted. But he was determined to report quickly to the nation about the conference. On March 1, he addressed a joint session of Congress at the Capitol. His audience was struck by FDR's gaunt appearance. Even more striking was that he delivered the speech while seated. FDR confronted the issue directly in the first line of his address, publicly acknowledging his disability for the first and only time in his presidential career.
Marines raise the American flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/520748
Marines on the beach at Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/532543
Landing craft filled with supplies on the beach at Iwo Jima: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/513218
In September 1940, in response to pressure from Black leaders inside and outside the administration, including William Hastie and Mary McLeod Bethune, the Army announced its Air Corps would begin training Black pilots. In January 1941, a flight training facility for Black airmen was established at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute. Pilots who trained there formed the all-Black 332nd Fighter Group—which became popularly known as the “Tuskegee Airmen.”
Day 48: Crimea Conference - Great Bitter Lake
After the historic conference in Yalta, President Roosevelt traveled from the Crimea region to Egypt where he boarded the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. It would be here that FDR would confer with several Heads-of-State in this region of the world over just a few days time. Security was high as World War II hostilities were ongoing. After much diplomatic correspondence and preparation, all leaders welcomed this opportunity to finally meet and establish a personal friendship with the President. They came together to discuss the major political issues that would affect their countries in the approaching post-war era.
On February 13, King Farouk of Egypt traveled from Cairo and spent much of the day meeting with the President and touring the ship. Emperor Haile Salassie of Ethiopia arrived on board later that evening, bringing with him several gifts—a gold globe and a gold cigarette box with filigree design.
The next day King Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia arrived with his large entourage of 48 people. He brought with him many gifts for the President and his family, including:
Eleanor Roosevelt wore this outfit during a February 12, 1962, meeting with President John F. Kennedy at the White House for the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
See more detailed images on our website: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/31378/outfit-worn-by-eleanor-roosevelt
📷: NPx 77-55(167)
Day 47 - Yalta Conference
“I didn’t say the result was good. I said it was the best I could do.” -Franklin Roosevelt to diplomat Adolf Berle, Jr.
In the winter of 1945, Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin for the last time. The setting was the Ukrainian town of Yalta.
The Big Three gathered to chart a course for final victory in World War II. But during the Yalta Conference, they also struggled to create the basis for post-war cooperation.
FDR received Stalin’s firm commitment to enter the increasingly bloody war against Japan three months after Germany’s defeat. With American casualties rising in the Pacific war— and the atomic bomb yet untested— this was a significant achievement for the President. The Big Three also formally agreed to another of FDR’s priorities—the establishment of the United Nations organization. But there were serious disagreements about the future of Germany and the fate of areas occupied by Soviet armies, especially Poland.
While at the Yalta Conference, Joseph Stalin presented President Roosevelt with this set of bear fur gloves and Dukat papirosa (unfiltered) cigarettes. Inside the box are 13 unused cigarettes.
As a memento of the trip, this short snorter was created using a one chervonitz Soviet bill. A short snorter was a bill, typically from the destination country, signed by fellow travelers of a transoceanic flight. While Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Steve Early’s names are handwritten on the edges of the bill, they did not sign the bill. The bill was signed by Edwin M. Watson (just days before he died), Ross T. McIntire, Edward Flynn, Harry L. Hopkins, James F. Byrnes, William Leahy, an unidentifiable signature, and Anna Roosevelt Boettiger.
The Yalta Conference concluded 80 years ago today, February 11, 1945.
In 1936, FDR appointed Mary McLeod Bethune as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration (NYA). She served there from 1936 until the agency’s demise in 1943. The highest ranking African American in the federal government, Bethune was also the first Black woman to administer a federal program.
Bethune occupied a uniquely powerful position among Black officials in Washington. Before joining the New Deal, she had forged a distinguished career as an educator, women’s club movement leader, and civil rights advocate. Her speeches and regular contributions to Black newspapers further raised her public profile, helping her earn the title “The First Lady of the Struggle.”
Read more: https://fdr.blogs.archives.gov/2024/03/18/the-first-lady-of-the-struggle/
At the start of World War II, the U.S. Navy restricted Black sailors to its “messman” branch. But the extraordinary heroism of Messman Doris “Dorie” Miller, who manned an anti-aircraft gun during Japan’s December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, helped initiate change. Publicity by the NAACP and the Black press about Miller’s exploits helped convince FDR to award him the Navy Cross—the first ever given to a Black sailor. In April 1942, the Navy announced that Black recruits would be trained in a range of specialties beyond messmen—including combat positions.
Miller became an iconic emblem of the fight for Black civil rights and his likeness was reproduced on buttons, wartime commemorative items, and prints like this one: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/.../black-americans...
In November 1943, he was killed in action while serving aboard the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine.
The print is currently on display in the FDR Library's special exhibition, BLACK AMERICANS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE ROOSEVELTS, 1932-1962: https://www.fdrlibrary.org/civil-rights-special-exhibit
On May 15, 1942, FDR signed a bill establishing the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), later renamed the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). More than 150,000 women served in the Army during World War II.
See more on our website: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/20941/calling-waac---