He was looking for a way to preserve the papers of his administration and also his personal papers. And so, he created a library on the grounds of his a here in hyde park, new york. What he decided to do was raise private money to build the library and then he gave it to the government to be operated by the national archive. That model was followed by subsequent president s. This is the first of the president ial libraries that was created and operated by the national archives. About 10 euros ago, the library embarked on an ambitious plan to look at the entire museum and really bring it up to date. The new galleries opened in 2013 and basically everything you see at the museum now dates from that 2013 reopening. It is all brandnew. A fresh look at the lives of franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and at his presidency. In 1932,ition began the year he was elected president of the u. S. That was a year of tremendous crisis for the nation and the world. The country was in the third year of the great depression. In 1929, the depression began and unemployment in the u. S. Was at three point 2 . At the time he was running for president in 1932, it is almost 25 . Of the election in 1932 was a nation in a state of disarray and fear. This gallery really point that out. We have dramatic photography that shows the state of affairs and nationally. This photograph in particular is very poignant. This is of central park. In the foreground, you see a shantytown, one of many that have sprouted up around the country. Many of them are nicknamed over towns. This particular one ho over towns. They are in the shadow of the metropolitan museum of arts. This is a reminder of the scale of human suffering in the year 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt is running for president. The 1932 Democratic Convention was held in chicago. When roosevelt was nominated, he received word of the nomination in albany. He did something unprecedented in american politics and quite dramatic. He flew out to the convention to accept the nomination in person. Americant point, when president ial candidate received the nomination of their party, they would receive a delegation formally at their home or at a political site in their home state. Did not go tothey the convention or deliver a speech. Roosevelt broke with that convention in a dramatic way. Speech his acceptance was an electrifying moment in political history. It was in that speech that he first uses the expression the new deal. To renew theyself deal for the American People. Herman eberhardt that expression becomes obviously very highly associated with his presidency but it premiered at this moment when he delivers his acceptance speech. Aosevelt was elected in landslide in 1932. In those days, after the election, there was a long period between when the election took place and when the president actually took the oath of office. On march 4, 1933, he took the oath of office. He took it on a family bible. This was a dutch family bible that had been in his family for generations. It had come over in the 17th century with the family when it came to america. This is a unique bible in many regards. Most importantly, it is the only bible used by president s for four different inaugurations. Subsequently, there was the constitutional amendment passed that limits president s to two terms. It is in dutch. It is quite large. I always say that i feel sorry for the clerk that had to hold this. Inaugural is3 famous for many reasons but the most enduring line from his speech is something we all remember. Beliefme assert my firm that the only thing we have to fear is, fear it self. Herman eberhardt and he says that at a time when the nation really is in a state of fear. The low point of the great depression. People are frightened. He is trying to steel the nerves of the people. Is a lot of speculation about where that line came from. We have on display here the first pages from several drafts of the speech. The first is in roosevelts handwriting. It was written in late february, 1933. In the first draft, you do not see that line about fear itself at all. It does appear on page one of the final draft which was put together on march 1, 1933. That is the first time we see it in the speech. There is a lot written and discussed about where this line comes from. We know that louis howell, his chief political adviser, is the person that put the line into the speech that we do not know where he got the line from. There are all sorts of theories about this. I think the most plausible one is that henry david thoreau, a century earlier, had once written nothing is so much to be feared as fear. That is a line that is awfully close to the one inserted into the speech for roosevelt to deliver. That wey be thoreau have to thank for that. But there are theories about that. The last draft i want to show you is the actual reading copy. This is page one of the actual reading copy that roosevelt used on march 4, 1933. What is interesting about this draft is that you see a little line that he added. We know he wrote that in pencil while he was waiting in the Capitol Building to go out and deliver the speech. The line as you see it on the page is that this is a day of consecration. And he wrote a day of national consecration. 39,ntil the age of roosevelt had a turned life including a political career that was on an upward trajectory. In 1920, the democratic partys candidate. He was widely seen as a candidate for president in 1924 and 1928. However, at this point in his life tragedy struck. In 1921, he contracted polio which left him paralyzed permanently from the waist down. Initially, he withdrew from politics completely. And it was a crisis in his life and a time when he disappeared from politics. He focused onme, trying to find a cure for his condition although he never was able to walk again unassisted. On building worked up his body, trying to figure out a way to plausibly be able to reenter political life. And so, he built up his upper body and he was looking for ways to be able to stand in public and to be able to approximate and ability to walk in public. In order to do that, he had to use very heavy steel braces. These are an example from our collection. These weighed about 10 pounds and locked at the knees. It was only through the use of braces like these that fdr was able to stand. That allowed him to stand. But, to be able to have an ability to walk in public, he needed to do more. Cane, like this one that long to him, and he would often lock arms with a very strong companion. And then supporting himself on those two sources, he would hitch his body forward and have a slow and jerky walkie could do over short distances. This took tremendous physical strength and he had to build up his upper body in order to do that. It also took a great deal of concentration. The interesting thing about roosevelt is that over time he was able to master that so he could smile and nod and act as if he did not have a care in the world. Techniques gave him the ability to go back out into public, into public life and reenter politics. It took him a long time to get to that point. It was not until 1928 that he runs again for political office. He ran in that year for governor of new york. He was elected narrowly and then reelected in a landslide in 1937 himself up to become the democratic partys candidate for president in 1932. After the inaugural, he springs into action during what became known as his first 100 days. During those days in office, he passes a whole series of legislation and other acts that galvanized the nations of attention and really he was pushing reforms in a variety of areas to arrest the decline of the nation. Arguably, the most important achievement of his first term and that when he was most proud of was the Social Security act passed in 1935. It provided for old age pensions for americans and unemployment insurance. This was probably has purchased achievement of the entire Community Deal and a real high point of his first term. One of the things we wanted to be sure that visitors to the museum understood what the continuing reality of his disability was. This was a man who is paralyzed from the waist down. What is interesting was to see what the publics perception of that was. One of the things we point out to visitors here is that we have 130,000 photographs of fdr in our collection but we only have four that show him in a wheelchair. That is because there was an unspoken rule that was observed by the press and the media at the time that you do not photograph the president sitting in a wheelchair or photograph him in ways that would reveal the extent of his disability. The public knew that up that fdr had contracted polio and he had some form of disability. What was not understood was how great of a disability it was. Incredible photograph of fdr is taken right in front of the home here in hyde park on Election Night in 1936. He is beaming because he has tremendous victory. This was a huge landslide. He wins every state in the nation but for the state of maine and vermont. His mother is to the left of him. Two of his sons. And on the far right, Eleanor Roosevelt. This victory was so immense that fdr really felt confident going into his second term. That he would be able to expand the new deal. He had all kinds of ambitious plans on what he wanted to do on the domestic front during the second term. President s find out as they go into the second term, events can sometimes take surprising turns. In fact, his second term turned out to be a much different than he thought it would be. Very early in the second term, fdr is involved in a big conflict with congress. Theecomes concerned that Supreme Court is striking down a of new deal legislation. He becomes concerned in particular that there is a Court Case Involving the Social Security act and that it may end h the court striking down striking it down as unconstitutional. He beat best he comes up with another plan. It was a plant to put additional members on to the Supreme Court. Presumably, at one point, he would then get the majority that would support his legislation. This becomes a very contentious issue. Despite the large democratic majorities in the house in the senate, his plan for the reform of the court fails. Featt is a Major Political for him. On top of that, the country goes into a recession. The Unemployment Rate had been going down throughout his first term. In 1937 and 1938, the socalled roosevelt accession comes in and unemployment begins to go back up. This also weakens him politically in a critical moment. Despite the importance of all of these developments, i think the most dramatic an Important Development that occurred during his second term and one that really takes the whole focus of his presidency in a different direction, are the rise of threats overseas that occur during the midand late 1930s. This large map of europe and of asia begins to illustrate that story. You have overseas threats rising with japan, in asia, with germany and italy in europe, and north africa. Threats, these rising overseas threats, occupied more and more of his time and attention. And ultimately, they lead to his decision to run for an unprecedented third term as president. The 1940 election was very controversial. Reasons. He was running for an unprecedented third term as president. No previous president had ever served more than two terms. The other big issue was the war. World war ii broke out in europe in 1939. And in the subsequent year, there were tremendous advances by germany in europe. And roosevelt was very concerned to provide aid to Great Britain which was really struggling hard to hold out against the not see on slot. Opinion wasn public here he isolationist at the time. People had sympathy for the victims of hitlers aggression but they were very leery about getting involved directly. There was a lot of fear in some parts of the country that roosevelt, if reelected, would pull the nation into world war ii. That issue was a key one during the 1940 campaign. In the end, rousseff roosevelt was reelected to a third term. He lost some support in the midwest that he still wins i a fairly comfortable margin. By a fairly comfortable margin. On the afternoon of december 7, 1941, fdr was in his private study in the white house residence. It was sunday afternoon. Most of the staff was not in the building. Roosevelt was alone except for his close advisor, harry hopkins. Roosevelt was actually working with his stamp collection when suddenly the phone on his desktop brings and it was the secretary of the navy telling him that the Pearl Harbor Navy base in hawaii was under attack i japan. Roosevelt immediately calls in his advisers. The whole staff comes back to the white house and they go into crisis mode. Late in the afternoon, roosevelt at one point asked all of the Staff Members to leave his study but for his private secretary. At that point, he sits down with her and he dictates, himself, the first draft of one of the most famous speeches of his presidency. 7, 1941,day, december a date that will live in infamy. Herman eberhardt this is the first draft of that speech. It to hisdictated secretary and she in turn, typed it out. What you see on these pages is in pencil, fdr personally editing his speech. There are a lot of fascinating edits in this but the most famous one is what he did to the first sentence. He takes the original words World History and changes it to infamy and he changes the suddenly. Taneously to he transforms the sentence into yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy. The United States of america was suddenly and elaborately attacked by the empire of japan. It has come down through the decades to us today as one of the most memorable lines of his presidency. The whole speech was a memorable one and a very short one. Only about six minutes when he delivers it the following day to a joint session of congress. This indoor miss globe was actually this enormous globe was in the office during world war ii. He received it as a gift from general George C Marshall who was chief of staff of the u. S. Army during the war. Marshall had a number of these large globes made under a special order from a company in chicago. He gave it to fdr as a Christmas Gift in 1942. Roosevelt kept it by his desk it is finally balanced on rollers. This sort of thing was obviously very handy for a disabled president to have at his fingertips when he is planning and involved in a global war. Obviously, made a lot of use of this during world war ii. In of the things we look at this portion of the exhibition is his attendance at keyword time conferences. He went to a number of conferences during the war but arguably the two most important were the terror ron the tehran conference and yalta. He met with the big three, winston churchill, joseph stalin, and roosevelt. Word,efore the end of the fdr is already thinking about the postwar perio. In november, 1943, when he journeys to tehran, he has several important things on the agenda. One of them is trying to ensure that his partners in the allied coalition will sign on to the idea of a postwar organization which becomes the United Nations. He hopes it will prevent the outbreak of a third world war. One of the interesting documents we have on display is actually a little sketch that fdr made at conference in 1943. It is in his handwriting. In this drawing, you can see in his own writing, a real broad sketch of what he thought the United Nations might be. It starts on the left with the circle. That represented the nations that were at that time in the coalition. This represents the idea of what becomes the uns general assembly. In the center, you have something marked executive committee. This is really the fulltime staff of what would become the United Nations, the secretariat. Four circle marked police. The was his conception of the or the Security Council. Those he had in mind were the United States, Great Britain, the soviet union, and the fourth country was going to be china which he felt was an up and coming power and deserving to be among these policeman or the Security Council of the United Nations. These were the ideas he was kicking around for this postwar organization. It is very telling that he was thinking so far ahead. This was 1943. The war was far from over but he was already thinking about what would come after the war. In 1944, in the midst of world war ii, he runs for an unprecedented fourth term as president. ,ou can see in this photograph the president is in ill health. He is suffering from heart disease. And he is really slowing down although the public is not quite aware of how ill he is. Roosevelt runs in 1944 and at the 1944 Democratic Convention, there was a big fight over who would be his running mate. His current Vice President was henry wallace, a very liberal figure in the democratic party. There were members of the party that were more conservative that did not want wallace in that position. They wanted a more conservative Vice President. In the end, there is a compromise. They agree on a candidate for Vice President and that man you can see at the far end of that photograph, harry truman. This road graph was after the 1945 inaugural. Fdr is not in good health. In fact, he dies three months after this photograph was taken in april of 1945. He is succeeded by harry truman who is standing to his left in the photograph. Fdrtly after the inaugural, departed on a 7000 mile tourney to yalta in the crimea which was the final great conference he attended with the big three, stalin, churchill, and roosevelt. After that conference, fdr returns to the United States and he appears before congress in march of 1945 to deliver an address reporting on what he had done at the yalta conference. What is extraordinary about this beach to a joint session of congress is that he delivered the speech from a seated position. He did that because he was exhausted and suffering from poor health. In the course of that speech, he directly acknowledges his disability for the only time in his presidency. Mr. Speaker, members of the i have taken the unusual posture of sitting down during the presentation of what i want to say. I know you recognize this as. Eing easier for me this was anardt extraordinary moment at the end of his life and presidency. The one and only time in his presidency that he is knowledge is his speech to the joint session of congress about the delta conference, he travels georgiawarm springs, where he had kept a retreat for many years. It was the site of the Rehabilitation Center he had set up in the 1920s for the treatment of georgia polio patients. He was down there in warm springs on april 12, 1945, when he was stricken by a massive cerebral hemorrhage and i that afternoon. This was a profound shock to the country. People in his inner circle, his family and close political advisers, understood that he was very ill but the general public did not know that. Onn the announcement came april 12, 1945, of his death, there was grief of a very profound nature throughout the nation. What you need to understand about this is that the country is at war and he has been president for over 12 years. Younger people especially had no other president. I often point out to people that soldier or a sailor, 18 or 19 years old, you would have been very young, five or six years old when he was first inaugurated. This hits with real power across the nation and you see it reflected in the film and photography of the public mourning that occurs in the days and weeks after his death on april 12. At the very end of the gallery dealing with his presidency, we present what is probably the most important artifact in the collection. That is the actual Oval Office Desk and share that he used throughout his presidency. What happened was in the aftermath of his death, his successor harry truman did not feel right keeping the desk and share used by fdr so he gave them to Eleanor Roosevelt who in turn donated them to the library. Deskdition to the actual and chair, we have many of the items he had on the desk at the time of his death. We have it arranged almost as close as we could get it to the way it looked in march of 1945, the last time he sat here. You see a wide variety of things. Whimsical items. He had a good sense of humor. He enjoyed having toys and things. But also, some very serious items. Things he was using. On the left side, you see a portfolio that has the portraits sons who all served in americas military during world war ii. Like all parents, his children were serving in the military and he wanted to have a photograph of them nearby on his working desk. On the right side, you see his daily schedule. New would have been a schedule tucked into the holder every day with a list of his appointments. We have it arranged for the last day that he was at the desk in march of 1945. The last thing to point out about the chair. If you look carefully at the armrests, you can see that they are worn down. That is from over 12 years of the president using them, and being disabled, he is putting a lot of pressure there getting in and out of the chair. It is heavily worn down. Roosevelt is certainly one of the most consequential president s in our entire history. He dramatically changed the relationship of the American People to the federal government. Reforms that have a continuing impact on our lives today and he had a worldwide impact through his advocacy for the United Nations and other International Organizations which he hoped would ensure Greater International Cooperation and ultimately, Greater Peace among nations. Youre watching American History tv. All weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook on cspan history. Marks the 320 fifth anniversary of the salem, massachusetts, which trial. In 1692 and 1693, men and women suspected of witchcraft were put in jail, on trial, and executed. Margo burns talks about the primary resources for a book she is compiling. 12 people worked for many years to cpi