First National Historic site to be dedicated to a first lady, and the only Historic Site dedicated to one first lady. Val kill encompasses two major buildings. The Stone Cottage was built in 1925 to initially serve as a retreat for Eleanor Roosevelt and her two political mentors nancy cook and mary dickerman. It was land that fdr had purchased in 1911 to do forest ri experiment forestry on, but by the time 1940 came along, she was getting active in her own political life and she needed a place to have friends and associates and talk politics and plan political strategy. Fdr said that the big house did not serve Eleanor Roosevelts purposes at all, and she used to say that for 40 years, she was a prisoner there, and so it is important for her to have her own space to really do things that she was interested in and not have to worry about whether or not her motherinlaw had to give her permission to do this or that, and her motherinlaws home. So this is her little space. The building that we are in right now, which is later Eleanor Roosevelts home is really initially built to be a furniture factory that she started because she was very concerned about young people in her community of hyde park were farmers who could not make a decent live willing are the through farming, and she thought that by teaching them a trade they could add to the earnings and have a u much bmuch better and so nancy cook ran the val Kill Industries. It was 1927 to 1936 and they made some really nice furniture there. And in this room, all of the wood things that you can see except for the carved trunks are examples of the val kill furniture produced here. They made pewter products as well. This is at a time when she was first lady of new york state for a while, and then first lady of the nation. And the duties kept her extremely busy, but the commitment to community and val Kill Industries never worked. T the Great Depression came along and furniture like wine in the sen ter of the room would have cost you 125 which was a small fortune in the Great Depression years. And so, mrs. Roosevelt said that she ended up being the best customer that val Kill Industries ever had. When it became too much for her to keep going ont with it financially, with great reluctance in 1936 shut down val kill and remodeled the building into her home. She called it her cottage of 20 rooms. Well, the outside of the building pretty much looks like a furniture factory. It is stucco over cement block. Described it a whole bunch of houses built together. It was built in different stages. Two separate factory buildings and then a little additions were added on for a showroom and a forge and so forth. It is nothing elaborate and people who come here feel very much at home, and the people who came to visit mrs. Roosevelt felt comfortable and relax are and the point was to have people come here to talk and share ideas and talk about issues of the day and how perhaps they could deal with those issues. The women met in the 1920s. Nancy cook was the executive k secretary of the Womens Division of the new york state democratic committee. She invited Eleanor Roosevelt to come speak at a luncheon when she was just getting really involved in political activity after fdr had contracted polio and not able to raeally keep hi name in front of the public, because his dream was to be the president of the United States one day, and she wanted to keep the dream alive at a time when he was feeling down over the fact that he may not be able to walk again. So she was going out and trying to keep the ideas in front of the American People. I have had this opportunity to greet the people of Southern California and telling them what a pleasure it is to be here and even if for a little while. That is when she met nancy and marian when she went to speak at a luncheon of the womens disvision women e womens Democratic Party, and they were two veterans on the scene, and they were much more active in the political scene than eleanor was. Mary was very active in politics and ran for Political Office in 1919 and very early on when the women had gotten vote. And she garnered quite a few vote, and she didnt win, but she got quite a few votes for that time period. So basically, nancy and marian became Eleanor Roosevelts political mentors at a time when Eleanor Roosevelt was just Getting Started in political life. We are in a room that is originally was a living room and office for Eleanor Roosevelts secretary norvina thompson or tommy as she was called. She lived here until her death in the early 1950s with Eleanor Roosevelt, and then mrs. Roosevelt took the over the use of the home, and became her office sitting room. This is where she would receive guests and work everyday at this desk made at the val kill industri industries, and the interesting thing about the desk is that are there is a little name plate on there there, and it is actually her first name is misspelled on the name plate. This was given to her as a gift by a child. And she obviously knew that it was misspelled, but she said thank you very much and she used it until her death. It was not important to her that the name was appreciated the gift that the child had given her. She wrote a column called my daily day which was her way to the reach tout the American People, and connecting the government to the American People in a time when people were feeling a lot of fear and despair after they had lost their savings. And she started to write a column six days a week, and no matter where she was tashgs that column could be written and she could be traveling and overses,s but that column would be writ the ten, but many times it was wr written right here at this desk at val kill. The my day column allowed people to the realize that the first lady was not just a hostess, because partner with the president of the United States. She was there sharing her thoughts and ideas with the president and even suggesting some of the changes that he needed to make to help improve peoples lives, and people realized they had a very activist first lady in Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor roosevelt and fdr were radio people. This was before television was really produced widely, and Eleanor Roosevelt had her own radio program, and very unusual. She was the first first lady to have a radio program. And when pearl harbor happened, Eleanor Roosevelt was the first person to address the American People about pearl harbor. Not the president of the United States, but Eleanor Roosevelt. I am speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. The cabinet is convening and the members of congress are meeting with the president , the state department has come in to ta talk to talk to the president at the very time that japans airships were bombing our citizens in hawaii ha and the fi philippines and sinking one of the transports on the way to hawaii. By tomorrow morning the congress will have a full report and ready for action but in the meantime, we, the people, we are p prepaired for action. It was the first time that a first lady would have and probably the only time that a first lady would have addressed the nation on a national crisis. Mrs. Roosevelt had one of the modern inventions of that time period, the television in her ho home. She was not a television watcher, and maybe she would put it on to see the Political Convention r or some Important News story, but she was a person who used television to get ideas out to the american public. She had her own Television Program called prospects of mankind, but she did a televisitel Television Commercial for margarine and in those the days for a first lady to be on tv was a scandal. Years ago, people never dreamed of eating and talk abo perhaps they had started talking about during the meal here in the dining room. Mrs. Roosevelt usually sat in the chair, and this is her favorite chair and everybody would gather in the chairs to sit, and sometimes she had a huge group that would almost have walltowall people, and people seated on the floors and one of the people said that it is a a hobby and collection and she did that at val kill and it is a situation where she loved to have conversation. And over here in this area, she has a little library, and she was an avid reader, and she read books onle almost any topic both fiction and nonfiction, and she love loves to read poetry out loud, and quite often when her grandchildren visited in the summer, she would have them here and read aloud to them on the nice day of course reading to them outside. But she would always spend time outside reading to the grandchildren, and one of the grandchildren told her that the moment they arrived, the mother would hand them a sunl shun from the reading list and they did not appreciate it, but she did this because she wanted to read the books in the visit here which is educational and important to them. But this alcove really had an important part of val kill here. It is a story that she and john kennedy and senator john kennedy met in this alcove. Now, the meeting happened because john kennedy was since running for the presidency of the United States in 1960. He wanted her support. She had been a backer of adelaide stevenson, and she was not especially fond of him. She felt that he was too young the be president , and she was worried about his commitment to the civil rights legislation. But he needed her support he felt in order to win what he knew would be a very close election. She was a very powerful woman in the Democratic Party at a time when women didnt have a lot of power in politic, but Eleanor Roosevelt did. She was well respect and he knew that without her support he might not win that the election, and he came here wanting to win that support and asking for her support, and so they have a very intense meeting here, and she wanted him to promise that he would approve civil rights legislation and that is a cause that was very close to her heart. She made him promise, that and when he agreed to do that, she did agree to support him. John kennedy came to visit me at hyde park, and we talked together. I learned that he is truly interested in carrying on many of the things which my husband had just begun. Mr. Kennedy is a strong and determined person who as president will provide the leadership of greater Social Security benefits that a civilized nation demands. I have been studying mr. K kennedys programs to the look at his very remarkable record, and i think that you will join me in voting for john f. Kennedy for president. That election was close, and he did win, but many people were of active support of him that gave him the extra edge to become president of the United States. This is mrs. Roosevelt r arriving in paris one of 53 countries to converge on the General Assembly in our nations history. Eleanor roosevelt became a delegate of the United Nations, because once she left the white house, president truman decided that she wanted him to do something which fdr planned on doing which is to establish the United Nations in the hope that an organization like that would prevent future wars with franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had lived through two wars world war i and two, and they wanted the future to be a peaceful one. President truman felt that Eleanor Roosevelt would be the perfect person to represent the United States at the initial organizing meeting of the United Nations. She was actually the only woman delegate from the u. S. She knew that none of the men were too happy to have her as a member of the delegation. She figured that they were trying to find a spot for her where she could do the least damage as she said, because they felt that she didnt have qualifications to be a good delegate. So they put her on a committee called committee three which was going to work on more social kinds of programs. That would end up being the most Important Committee that they had at the United Nations, because her proudest achievement was the the universal declaration of human rights, because in the 30 articles that are in that document, it outlines all of the rights that every human being on this planet should have in order to achieve world peace. She always felt that was the one thing that she accomplished that made everything she did prior to that worthwhile. We are ton the second floor f mrs. Roosevelts home, and we are now entering her bedroom, and this was a room she probably d didnt use a lot during the year, because she was traveling. When she was first lady, she travelled a huge amount of times. And remember, this is the time when airplane flight was fairly new, but she was a woman who liked to try new and unusual things. She loved flying. In fact, even in the war years, mrs. Roosevelt traveled oversea s at a time when it was dangerous to be traveling overseas, but she wanted to study what people in europe were doing in the wartime. She went into some not safe areas in the pacific, because, again, she wanted to report back to the president what was happening during the war, and even after she left the white house, she was traveling on be h behalf of the United Nations, and even after she left the u. N. , she was a goodwill ambassador talking about u. N. And the importance of people supporting the United Nations. In the strength that we should be concerned that off of this bedroom was her favorite sleeping area. The sleeping r porch. And sleeping porches were added on to houses in the time when air conditioning was not something that most people had. Eleanor roosevelt loved nature, and she would take two or three walks a day, and she had two scotty d scottie dogs that she would take with her. And she would enjoy nature, and quite often in her kol lom my daily day she would talk about the birds or the pond or the trees or the purple blue strife which is a nflower that grew in the pond in july and august. She could see a garden from here, and she could see the tennis court that was put in for the family to enjoy. And even the outdoor fireplace where barbeques were held during fdrs lifetime as well as the time that Eleanor Roosevelt lived here on her own. Hot dog picnics were a big way to entertain the guests. In the summertime, this would be used for picnic, and swimming pool, too, and it was quite histor historic, because people like king george iii and other notables swam in that pool. Eleanor roosevelt passed away in 1962. When she died, this was not given over to the National Parks service as fdrs was. Her son john was living in the Stone Cottage and by then mary cook and marian had moved away. He lived here for a number of years and then he did decide to sell it to val kill. He did offer it to the National Government in 1970, and they were not interested. And so he sold the property, and sold Eleanor Roosevelts furniture at public auction. It was in 1975 that a Grass Roots Movement here in hyde park started the movement to save val kill and make it into a National Historic site. Eleanor roosevelts story is not just the story of a first lady, but it is a woman activist who really devoted her life to improving the world. She had always hoped that there would be world peace one day, and she is an inspiration to the women, and woman of great courage who spoke out against issues that really needed to be addressed like civil rights. And she made a difference in the wor world, and she was incredible role model for women even today. She was a woman who was way ahead of her time. And she was a woman who was very important to the 20th century, but the ideas in the 21st century still ring loud today. Coming up today on cspan3s American History tv. Next, efforts to save slave house, and then we will take you to the Harriet Tubman underground railroad visitor center. And this afternoon we will talk about drafting the u. S. Constitution. And we will go tonight to view the Herbert Hoover museum, and the Henry Ford Museum of innovation in michigan to see the president ial vehicles. American history tv is in prime Time Beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Tonight, book tv is in primetime with a look at afterwards and the late Antonin Scalia by his son who authored a book ska can leah spe scalia speaks. And Kayleigh Mack knnini is als interviewed about her new book and also scott kelly is going be interviewed about his book endurance. Tonight, scott pruitt is going to address the conservative Political Action conference. And state leaders are gather in in washington, d. C. , this weekend for the annual winter meeting and throughout the day saturday, the National Governors association will host panels to talk about jobs, the Opioid Crisis and the future of agriculture and availability, and cspans live coverage begins at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on washington journal, our companion channel on cspan. Since 2011, architecture has been compiling a database of slave owner buildings. It includes photography and preservation of slave i history. Up next on american artifacts we travel to southern virginia to the North Carolina border to z visit the plantation to learn about joe b. Hill andhe