Welcome Remarks Eleanor Roosevelt Forum with the Concord Museum
Greetings from the National Archives’ flagship building in Washington, DC, which sits on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank peoples. I am David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to this forum examining the life and legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Few individuals had as dramatic effect on 20th-century history both in this country and abroad than Mrs. Roosevelt, and we are proud to partner with the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Concord Museum on this evening’s discussion.
No scholar knows more about our subject tonight and has spent more time examining her papers than Allida Black the editor emeritus of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project and former research professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University. Professor Black is recognized as a leading expert on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has written and edited 10 books as well as a variety of articles on women, politics, and human rights policy. She has also curated exhibits on human rights for presidential libraries and other renowned repositories; and has received awards from three universities for her commitment to students and her teaching. She currently also serves as a Senior Advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The spark for this evening’s forum is a new biography by David Michaelis[Mic -kay–lus], titled simply, Eleanor, which is now out in paperback.
“This is the perfect biography for our times,” writes Walter Isaacson. “The story of a determined woman who willed herself to become the voice for the voiceless, a fighter for freedom, and a tribute for the nobility of America’s true values. This comprehensive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, filled with new information, portrays her in all of her glorious complexity. It’s a wonderful read with valuable lessons about leadership, partnership, and love.”
David Michaelis is the bestselling author of Schulz and Peanuts and N.C. Wyeth which won the Ambassador Book Award for Biography. Since we are partnering with the Concord Museum, let me note that this is a bit of a homecoming of sorts as David is a proud graduate of Concord Academy and has traversed the shores of Walden Pond and the trails on which the British Regulars marched on April 19, 1775.
It is a pleasure to welcome tonight’s moderator back to the National Archives. Tom Putnam is the former director of the Kennedy Library and served as the Acting Director of the Office of Presidential Libraries before he chose to abandon the 20th century having been wooed by the siren song of Concord’s reformers, Transcendentalists, and revolutionaries. He is a close friend, and we are pleased that he has spearheaded this partnership with the National Archives and the FDR Library.
As you may know, the National Archives administers the network of Presidential Libraries from Herbert Hoover to Donald J. Trump. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library was our first. We now have 15 libraries––in total with more than 660 million pages of textual materials and 640,000 museum objects.
I would like to express my appreciation to our colleagues at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and throughout the presidential library system who work tirelessly to provide access to the documents that define us as a people.
I was pleased that in his acknowledgements David Michaelis calls out (and I quote) “the Roosevelt Library’s supervisory archivist, Kirsten Strigel Carter and her superb team including Matthew Hanson, Sarah Navins, and Patrick Fahy.”
He notes that in the stacks at Hyde Park, Mrs. Roosevelt’s paper rise 889 cubic feet––more than a million documents––their content traversing no fewer than nine ages of world history, from the Victorian era to the space age.”
Let me close with these words from this new biography: “Luckily Eleanor Roosevelt believed in protecting and guaranteeing individual freedom. Nothing could have forged a greater trust with her future biographers, scholars, and historians than the counterintuitive measure of making her personal and professional papers available for all to study.”
I thank you all for joining us this evening as we explore the life and legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt with historian Allida Black and biographer David Michaelis.
Greetings from the National Archives’ flagship building in Washington, DC, which sits on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank peoples. I am David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to this forum examining the life and legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Few individuals had as dramatic effect on 20th-century history both in this country and abroad than Mrs. Roosevelt, and we are proud to partner with the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Concord Museum on this evening’s discussion.
No scholar knows more about our subject tonight and has spent more time examining her papers than Allida Black the editor emeritus of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project and former research professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University. Professor Black is recognized as a leading expert on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has written and edited 10 books as well as a variety of articles on women, politics, and human rights policy. She has also curated exhibits on human rights for presidential libraries and other renowned repositories; and has received awards from three universities for her commitment to students and her teaching. She currently also serves as a Senior Advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The spark for this evening’s forum is a new biography by David Michaelis, titled simply, Eleanor, which is now out in paperback.
“This is the perfect biography for our times,” writes Walter Isaacson. “The story of a determined woman who willed herself to become the voice for the voiceless, a fighter for freedom, and a tribute for the nobility of America’s true values. This comprehensive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, filled with new information, portrays her in all of her glorious complexity. It’s a wonderful read with valuable lessons about leadership, partnership, and love.”
David Michaelis is the bestselling author of Schulz and Peanuts and N.C. Wyeth which won the Ambassador Book Award for Biography. Since we are partnering with the Concord Museum, let me note that this is a bit of a homecoming of sorts as David is a proud graduate of Concord Academy and has traversed the shores of Walden Pond and the trails on which the British Regulars marched on April 19, 1775.
It is a pleasure to welcome tonight’s moderator back to the National Archives. Tom Putnam is the former director of the Kennedy Library and served as the Acting Director of the Office of Presidential Libraries before he chose to abandon the 20th century having been wooed by the siren song of Concord’s reformers, Transcendentalists, and revolutionaries. He is a close friend, and we are pleased that he has spearheaded this partnership with the National Archives and the FDR Library.
As you may know, the National Archives administers the network of Presidential Libraries from Herbert Hoover to Donald J. Trump. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library was our first. We now have 15 libraries––in total with more than 660 million pages of textual materials and 640,000 museum objects.
I would like to express my appreciation to our colleagues at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and throughout the presidential library system who work tirelessly to provide access to the documents that define us as a people.
I was pleased that in his acknowledgements David Michaelis calls out (and I quote) “the Roosevelt Library’s supervisory archivist, Kirsten Strigel Carter and her superb team including Matthew Hanson, Sarah Navins, and Patrick Fahy.”
He notes that in the stacks at Hyde Park, Mrs. Roosevelt’s paper rise 889 cubic feet––more than a million documents––their content traversing no fewer than nine ages of world history, from the Victorian era to the space age.”
Let me close with these words from this new biography: “Luckily Eleanor Roosevelt believed in protecting and guaranteeing individual freedom. Nothing could have forged a greater trust with her future biographers, scholars, and historians than the counterintuitive measure of making her personal and professional papers available for all to study.”
I thank you all for joining us this evening as we explore the life and legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt with historian Allida Black and biographer David Michaelis.