We will continue our look at the presidency of franklin roosevelt. Up next, a tour of valkill cottage in hyde park, new york. Certainly, this became the very First NationalHistoric Site to be dedicated to a first lady and the only Historic Site dedicated to one first lady. Valkill encompasses two major buildings. The first building, the Stone Cottage, was built in 1925 to initially serve as a retreat for Eleanor Roosevelt and her two political mentors, nancy cook and Marian Dickerman. It was built on the easternmost end of the roosevelt property at the time. It was land fdr had purchased in 1911 to do forestry experiments on. But he offered to build his wife eleanor a Little Cottage here, because by the early 1920s, she was getting very active in political life, and she really needed her own space to bring friends and associates and have a place where she could talk politics and plan political strategy. Fdr realized the big house really didnt serve Eleanor Roosevelts purposes well, because that was her motherinlaws house and she used to say that for 40 years, she was just a visitor there, so it was important for her to have her own space where she could 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, in her motherinlaws home. So this is her little space. Now, the building that were in right now which later became Eleanor Roosevelts home, was really initially built to be a furniture factory which she started because she was very concerned about young people in her community of hyde park were farmers who could not make a decent living through farming and she thought that by teaching them a trade they could add to the earnings and have a much better life and so nancy cook ran the valkill industries. It was a nineyear operation from 1927 until 1936. They made some really nice furniture there. And in this room, all of the wood things that you can see except for the carved trunk are examples of the valkill furniture produced here. They also made pewter products for awhile. This was at a time of her life when she was first lady of new york state for awhile, then first lady of the nation and her official duties kept her extremely busy but her commitment to her community and valkill industries never wavered. However, the Great Depression came along, the furniture was all handmade, pretty pricey, little table like the one in the center of the room would have cost you back then about 125, which was a small fortune during the Great Depression years. So mrs. Roosevelt used to say she was the best customer valkill industries ever had. When it became too much for her to keep going ont with it financially, she then with great reluctance in 1936 shut down the valkill industries and remodeled this 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. It is actually as one child described it, it looks like a whole lot of houses bunched together. The building actually was built in several stages. Two separate factory buildings and then little additions were added on for a showroom and a pewter forge and so forth. Inside, its kind of like anyones home. It is nothing elaborate and people who come here feel very much at home, the visitors do, but the people who came to visit mrs. Roosevelt also felt very comfortable and relaxed because her whole point was to have people come here and talk, and share ideas, and talk about issues of the day and how perhaps they could deal with those issues. Eleanor roosevelt and nancy cook and Marian Dickerman met during the early 1920s. Nancy cook was the executive 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 was not able to really keep his name in front of the public, because his dream was to become president of the United States one day and she wanted to keep his dream alive at a time when he was really feeling pretty down over the fact that he might not be able to walk again. So she was going out and trying to keep his ideas in front of the American People. I have had this opportunity of greeting the people of Southern California and telling them what a pleasure it is to be here, even for a little while. That is when she met nancy and marian when she went to speak at a luncheon of the Womens Division of the new York State Democratic Committee and they were two veterans of the political scene. They were very very active in political life much earlier than Eleanor Roosevelt was. Nancy and marian were like partners. Marian was also very active in politics. In fact, she ran for Political Office in 1919, very early on after women had gotten the vote, and she garnered quite a few votes. She didnt win, but she did get 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 originally was a living room and office for Eleanor Roosevelts secretary, Melvina Thompson or tommy as she was called. She lived here until her death in the early 50s with Eleanor Roosevelt, and then mrs. Roosevelt took over the use of this area and this became her sitting area. This is where she would receive guests and work everyday at this desk which was made at the valkill industries. The interesting thing about the desk, theres a little nameplate on there. Its actually, her first name is misspelled on that name plate. This was given to her as a gift by a child. She obviously noticed right away that her name was misspelled but she didnt say a word. She said thank you very much and she used it from that day until the time of her death. This tells you a lot about Eleanor Roosevelt. It was not important to her that her name was misspelled. She appreciated the gift that this child had given her. Mrs. Roosevelt wrote a daily column my day which was her way of reaching out to the American People and connecting the government to the American People during a time when people were feeling a lot of fear, lot of despair, after the Great Depression happened and people had lost everything, their homes, their jobs, their life savings. It was her close friend lorina hickok who suggested she do the column. This was a column Eleanor Roosevelt wrote six days a week, no matter where she was, that column would be written. She could be traveling or overseas, that column would be written. But many times that column was written right here at this desk at valkill. The my day column really made people realize the first lady was more than just a hostess at the white house, that the first lady at that point was a partner with the president of the United States, that she was there sharing her thoughts and ideas with the president , and even suggesting some of the changes he needed to make to help improve peoples lives. So 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, very unusual. She was the first first lady to really 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 leaders in congress are meeting with the president , the state department and army and Navy Officials have been with the president all afternoon. In fact, the japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that japans airships were bombing our citizens in hawaii and the philippines, and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to hawaii. By tomorrow morning, the members of congress will have a full report and be ready for action. In the meantime, we, the people, are already prepared for action. It was the first time that a first lady would have and probably the only time a first lady would have addressed the nation about a national crisis. Mrs. Roosevelt had one of the modern inventions of that time period, the television, in her home. She wasnt a television watcher. Maybe she would turn it on to see some Political Convention or an Important News story. But she was a person who used television again to get ideas out to the american public. She had her own Television Program called prospects of mankind but also she did a commercial for television for a product back then called good luck margarine. Back in those days, for a former first lady to do a Television Commercial was considered a scandal. Years ago, most people never dreamed of eating margarine, but times have changed. Nowadays you can get margarine which really tastes delicious. Thats what ive spread on my toast. I thoroughly enjoy it. After she did that Television Commercial and she did it not to make money for herself but she wanted to use that money to help feed poor people overseas. So she wrote to her daughter anna and said when i got when i had completed that commercial for television, i got tons and tons of letters here commenting on it, and she told her daughter anna that it was kind of divided. Half the people who wrote to me were sad i ruined my reputation and half the people who wrote to me were happy that i ruined my reputation. We are now entering Eleanor Roosevelts living room and after meals, people would gather and sit and talk about issues that they perhaps had started talking about during the meal here in the dining room. Mrs. Roosevelt usually sat in this chair. This was her favorite chair and then everyone would gather in these other chairs to sit. Sometimes she had such a huge group, it was almost literally walltowall people. People even receipt eseated on floors. People say her hobby in life was people, she collected them. She definitely did that here at valkill. This was a place where she loved to have conversation. And over here in this area, she had a little library, and she was an avid reader, and she read books on almost any topic you can imagine, both fiction and nonfiction. She loved reading poetry out loud and quite often, when her grandchildren visited her here in the summer, she would have them here and she would read aloud to them on a nice day, of course, she would be reading to them outside. But she would always spend time every single day when she was here reading to her grandchildren. And one of her grandchildren told us that the moment they arrived, their grandmother would hand them a suggested Summer Reading list. They didnt really appreciate it. But she did this because she wanted them to at least read a book during their visit here, which she felt was very educational and important to them. But this alcove really had a very important part in the story here at valkill. Its a bit historic. Because she and john kennedy, then senator john kennedy, met in this little alcove. Now, the meeting happened because john kennedy was then running for the presidency of the United States in august of 1960. He wanted Eleanor Roosevelts support. She had been a backer of adelaide stevenson but the Democratic Convention had nominated john kennedy. She wasnt especially fond of john kennedy. She felt he was a little bit too young to be president and she was worried about his commitment to 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 politics, but Eleanor Roosevelt did. She was wellrespected and he knew without her support, he might not win that election. So he came literally here wanting to get her support, asking her for her support. So they had a very intense meeting together here. She wanted him to promise that he would support civil rights legislation if he became president. That was a cause very close to her heart. She made him promise that and when he finally agreed to do that, she did agree to support him. John f. Kennedy came to visit me at hyde park. We talked together and i learned that he was 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 for greater Social Security benefits which the social welfare of a civilized nation demand. I urge you to study mr. Kennedys program to look at his very remarkable record in congress, and i think you will join me in voting for john f. Kennedy for president. That election was close but he did win and many people felt it was her active support of him that gave him that little extra edge to become president of the United States. Mrs. Roosevelt arrives in paris. One of the delegates from 58 countries converging on the french capital for the most critical session of the General Assembly in United Nations history. Eleanor roosevelt became a delegate to the United Nations because once she left the white house, president truman decided that he wanted to do something that fdr had always planned on doing, which was to establish a United Nations in the hope that an organization like that would prevent future wars. Both franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had lived through two major wars, world woar i and world war ii and they wanted the future to be a peaceful one. President truman felt Eleanor Roosevelt would be the perfect person to represent the United States at the original 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 that 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 the 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 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 on the second floor of mrs. Roosevelts home, and we are now entering her bedroom, and this was a room she probably 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 was a 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 during the war years, mrs. Roosevelt traveled overseas at a time when it was pretty dangerous to be traveling overseas, but she wanted to study what people in europe were doing during the wartime. She went into some really not very 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 behalf of the United Nations and even after she left the u. N. , she was kind of a good will ambassador, talking about the u. N. And the importance of people supporting the United Nations. It is right that we should be gravely concerned with the gaps that still separate us from each other, with the problems we have left unsolved. So off of this bedroom, there was her favorite sleeping area. Her sleeping porch. And sleeping porches were added on to houses during a time when air conditioning was not something that most people had. Eleanor roosevelt was a person who loved outdoors. She loved nature. Here at valkill she would take at least two or three walks every day. She had little scottie dogs who would accompany her and her outdoor time was a time when she could kind of think about things and just relax and enjoy nature. And in her daily column my day quite often she would talk about things she could see from her sleeping porch, some of the birds out there in the trees or the pond, or the flowers that grew in the pond. She would talk about it every year 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 of entertaining guests. Really, valkill was kind of the backyard to the big roosevelt home. During the summertime this was used a lot for parties and picnics there was a Swimming Pool here, too, in front of the Stone Cottage where the president loved to swim and it was quite a historic pool, because people like King George Vi of Great Britain and Winston Churchill both swam in that pool. Eleanor roosevelt passed away in november of 1962. When she died, this was not given over to the National Park service as fdrs home was. Her son john was living here at the time of her death, in the stoep c Stone Cottage. He lived here for a number of years, then he decided to actually sell valkill. He did offer it to the National Park service and the federal government in 1970. They were not interested. And so he sold the property, and sold Eleanor Roosevelts furniture at public auction. It was in 1975 that a Grassroots Movement here in hyde park started the movement to save valkill 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, so she is really an inspiration to women because she was a 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 world and she is an incredible role model for women even today. She was a woman who was way ahead of her time. She was a woman who was very important to the 20th century, but her ideas in the 21st century still ring loud today. Heres whats ahead. Up next, efforts to save historic slave houses. Then its a visit to the Harriet Tubman underground Railroad Visitors Center and a little bit later, a look at the drafting of the u. S. Constitution. Join us tonight for American History tv in prime time from our american artifacts series, we will visit the Herbert Hoover president ial library and museum to review the american president s live portraits exhibit and the ford museum in michigan to view president ial vehicles. Thats prime Time Beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Tonight, book tv is in primetime with a look at after wards. The son of Supreme Court justice antonin scalia. And Kayleigh Mcenany is also interviewed about her new book and also scott kelly is going be interviewed about his book endurance. Book tv all this week in prime time on cspan 2. Also, epa administrator scott pruitt and Fox News Channel host je Jeanine Pirro address the conservative Political Action conference. Live coverage begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on our companion network cspan. State governors from across the country are gathering here in washington, d. C. This weekend for their annual winter meeting and throughout the day saturday, the National Governors association will host panels to talk about jobs, the Opioid Crisis as well as the future of agriculture and food availability. Cspans live coverage begins tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. Eastern after washington journal on our companion network, cspan. Since 2011, an