 |
| Outside the Library with the big fella. |
Yesterday was probably one of the most humbling days of
my life, when I visited the former home and Presidential Library of FranklinDelano Roosevelt, where he was born, grew up, raised his own family with the
equally inspiring Eleanor and was laid to rest in his mother’s garden after his
death in 1945. Whilst there are three major sites concerned with FDR: Little
White House in Georgia, Campobello in Maine and here – this is probably the
most important and the one which the President himself most dearly called home,
though his actual ownership of the place was only 4 years. Like Fala, FDR’s
faithful Scottish Terrier who he only received as a gift in 1940, whilst his
deeded connection with it was short, it was undoubtedly profound – so too with
the site here at Springwood, which had been his mother Sara’s until her death
in 1941.
Springwood (the family home), the archive and library
(planned by FDR when he was still a sitting President before his 3rd term
pressgang – it even includes the study FDR built for himself and where he
recorded two of his famous fireside chats), Val-Kill (Eleanor’s retreat and
later home, after Springwood transferred to the National Parks Service) and Top
Cottage (FDR’s retreat and planned retirement cottage) are all part of this
huge memorial to a colossus of the Twentieth Century.
On my visit I spent much of the morning in the archive,
after being greeted by Kirsten, the Supervisory Archivist, and Bill, the Deputy
Director, and presenting them with their Robin Hood hat, “ay up” duck and the
contact card for Cllr Edwards, the current Lord Mayor of Nottingham, to re-establish
that historic link. I looked through all of the papers associated with NRMTS
from the collections of Eleanor, Anna Halsted and John A. Roosevelt plus the
Roosevelt Institute and found the original letter sent from Lord Mayor Francis
Carney to Eleanor Roosevelt about the scholarship, plus many other letters back
and forth across the Atlantic between the family, the scholarship committee and
scholars! Thanks so much to Patrick and to Christian for helping me out!
 |
| The Roosevelt Ride bus at Top Cottage. |
A whistle-stop tour of the fantastic museum followed but
I was on a tight schedule after my time in the archive. It was a great museum
and I really want to go back and really immerse myself in it but didn’t want to
miss my bus to Top Cottage (FDR’s retreat). After a lift on the Roosevelt Ride
bus, we were given a tour of TC by Ranger Bob and in our group of 11 visitors
there was one woman who had studied English at University of Nottingham and
lived in Beeston whilst a student! After returning from TC it was the tour of
Springwood with Ranger Paul, the ancestral home, to see his childhood room, the
room he was born in, his and Eleanor’s room and the room of his mother. Both
sites were illuminating in their adaptation and design to support secretly FDR
and his mobility. I also stopped a while to contemplate near his grave where he
and Eleanor are buried.
The last person to mention and thank is Sal, who works on
the front desk at the Visitors Centre and was an indefatigable help to me on
the day – sorting my tours and passes, making sure I didn’t miss the bus back
to the railway station, talking about British theatre in the 1970s and
generally winding me up! It’s people like this that animate a place that could
become stale – certainly not a trait that you could associate with FDR and his
memorial should be vibrant and engaging like the man himself!
It was a huge day and one which further convinced me that
we are living in a world that was originally conceived by FDR and created in
his image – much of what we called Post-War Consensus in the UK was built
around central planks of FDR’s New Deal and delivering on his 4 Freedoms, the antithesis
of which being Beveridge’s Giant Evils. The New Deal gave America hope in what
was a dark time of spiralling unemployment, poverty and despair. Neo-Liberalism
of the Thatcher-Reagan axis has eroded much of this and curbed domestic
intervention – something I’d like to see return.
FDR was not the social reformer that he could have been
when we look at him through a 21st Century lens – he couldn’t propose an
anti-lynching bill through the Senate as it would have destroyed much of his
support in the South upon which he relied, he could have pressured the Senate
to drop quotas on European migration during the late 1930s into the Second
World War, which may have save thousands from the gas chambers, and most
damningly he interned 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent through an
Executive Order signed after Pearl Harbour in the hysteria that followed the
attack.
Truly though he cannot be written off or underestimated,
nor can Eleanor either who was a great moral guide for him. To be the recipient
of a scholarship that bears his name whilst travelling a nation which he, more
than anyone, tried to steer the ship in some of its darkest hours is a profound
honour.