Paul sparrow, director of the fdr library, what is this room and what kind of history was major . This room was totally unique in the president ial Library System because its the only room that actually use by sitting president at a president ial library. When fdr for Start Construction on the library in 1938 he eight you soon he would leave office at the end of 1940 at the end of his second term as every president before him had but because of the rising tensions in europe, the Democratic Party nominated him for a third term and he was elected. So when this library open in june 1941 he was still president. So this became essentially the northern oval office. He was up here on many, many occasions. He entertained both political leaders like Winston Churchill and shang kaishek from china. He did write a broadcast from here. Two of his fireside chats and for other reader broadcast all came from the film during that period annually conducted the war in europe and the pacific from this room. Of the 30 fireside chats, is at number right . 30. Do you remember which ones . That are too technically called fireside chats and there are some other reader broadcast like on Election Night or he did to Christmas Eve broadcast from here. So september 71 in 1942 was one of the fireside chats and in december 1943 the Christmas Eve broadcast he did from the far side chat. Its a very, very interesting broadcast because you just return from tehran and cairo where he had met with church on shang kaishek and joseph stalin. Any talk about the congress. It talked about United Nations and the idea that this was the first time the big three had gotten together and so he came here to sort of rest and recuperate. He had his whole family, and stayed at the big aspect that was a very important night turkey was communicating to america what the war commit, how we were going fight the war and the scope of this global battle. He was talking about how the russian front, what was happening on the russian front and how the americanbritish forces coming to ask up to italy were putting pressure on nazi germany. Expansion, the success in the pacific. It was agreed whether with the turning point in the war. Why do that in 1942, 1943 the allies had really struggled. The nazis in japanese had one victory after victory but suddenly the sense of the tide had turned and now with these big three meetings an important moment for hi them to connect io the American Public that the was going to be an into this terrible global conflict and that he had a vision for the world after the war ended, that this United Nations going to come together and sort of create a body for governing world peace as it helped the league of nations would and that this you this new United Nations be an Important Organization looking forward. Whats the story of the portrait over your shoulder . So Franklin Roosevelt didnt have a home appear. His mother so much springwood and so when they came up her you would live at his mother sounds and they had a study in her home. So from 19339041 that was his office as president when he came to hyde park. She loved that because all of the foreign leaders and political it would come to rome and she would attended. She really enjoyed that. Theres a funny story which is when you decide is going to donate the property to the federal government so they can build a library, he had a big public signing ceremony where he and eleanor sign the deed of the property over to the federal government only they didnt on the property. The property still belong to say her and she wasnt totally please. She had gotten on a cruise ship and county fairs so that a fly over the deed so she could sign the deed over to them so they could set over to the federal government. During the lead up to the building of the building, sarah wanted great Something Special solution does Portrait Commission and give to my library open so she can look over his shoulder nature he didnt make any mistakes. The story of the relationship, how close were they, the whole idea that she went to college with him and upstairs in the home . Did she have a bedroom right next to his . In the home theres three bedrooms on the second floor. He has a corner bedroom, she has a corner bedroom and it was a bedroom in the middle which eleanor slept in after franklin came down with polio. They had an extraordinary relationship. Sarah is sometimes maligned as being this controlling figure but she was really inspirational figure in so many ways. And the grandchildren really loved and adored her. From an early age she devoted her life to franklin. It was a difficult childbirth. Doctors told her you can never have another child. So the new this was going to be their only child. James roosevelt was almost 25 years older had a child from a previous marriage that he was much older. They really had this household, the three of them. Growing up fdr had everything you wanted. He was an adult child. They traveled the world, went to europe every year. He had sailboats and everything is hard to decide. They had a home in new york, one in europe, one up on the border with canada and maine. So they really were a very close family. She wanted to make sure that he had everything he could have. I think its one of the amusing stories that sarah thought franklin was successful because he was a delano not a roosevelt. The Delano Family were involved with the china trade. Her father had made and lost fortunes in the china trade. Sarah went to china when she was a teenager. Sailed across the pacific and a clipper ship that a family owned and lived in china as her father is trying to rebuild his business. She was a very cosmopolitan woman and understood the world beyond americas shores. She provided guidance for him. She gave him strength and selfconfidence, and throughout the relationship right up until 1941 when she died, she remained a source of strength for him. He turned to her in times when he needed someone to believe in him. I think that is essence of it. There were conflicts between eleanor and sir because she played such a dominant role in his life because it was their home and she build a house for the two of them were in new york where it was a duplex. One side was franklin and eleanor is all. The other side was seras home. She put doors on every floor. She was also a very strong support for him. How long to chew spend when he was there . She was in boston for part of the time in cambridge part of the time. That is sometimes overplayed but there was no question that she felt like she needed to be around for him. Franklin was not a great student. He did what he needed to do. He was very involved with crimson, the school newspaper. He was a journalist and he would have his press conferences because of his years at the harvard crimson but he was very independent even though she was living in that, in the same town as he was. Whats more interesting is after he graduated we met eleanor he fell in love with her, was that he told sarah the wanted to get married and she was not a fan of this idea all. She told hi them that he had to wait a year, they could announce a, keep it secret, that he had to wait a year before the announced it. And then she did everything she could to distract him. At the end of the year franklin, they were committed and franklin and eleanor got married in 1905. At that point i think the conflict between eleanor and sarah begin to evolve because eleanor became a mother and raised five children. There were differences and how you should mother. Sarah had been a very doting, very devoted mother her whole life, dedicated to franklin. As eleanor became more politically active she had a life outside the family. If there were conflict between them it had to do with the changing role of women that were happening during that period and particularly eleanor his political worries that she became involved with first labor unions in europe and the Womens Movement and became an active political participant not just a mother. Where standing in the study of fdrs which actually use when he was alive, died in 1945 where is the library relationship to say new york city and how easy is it for people to get here . Hyde park is about two hours north of new york city right on the hudson river. Going back a little bit theres a reason a number of the leading families in america live alone here, the asters, the vanderbilts, the roosevelt lived up. There were a number of very important american consulate along the hudson river because it was essentially americas main street, particularly in the colonial era. It was important through way for moving goods up and down the river into new york which was of course a major seaport and a hub for trade with europe. This was an important area. Once the trains are built in the 19th century it became very easy and i would have come to us to get from new york up into this area. As a matter fact, theres a train station in hyde park and there was a siding writer on this property when roosevelt was president that they could essentially store his president ial car when he would come up. It was fairly easy for him to get to washington to hear and for him to get from new york to hear. The family had apartments in new york almost dragged his entire life so they went back and forth quite frequently but it was easy to get here. It was one of the reasons that as franklin matured as president , particularly going to war years, he had two escapes. He had georgia, the warm springs, for polio that he created and then there was hyde park. He would come here, he could really feel like this was his home. He could relax, he could indulge in his passions, walk in the woods, seeing the birds come having his friends over, being with his books, this was the place he was really comfortable. So how did paul sparrow get here . Well, i was involved with the Television Business for a long time and then became involved with museums. I spent about 16 years there and immersing idea how do we tell history in new and different ways . When the opportunity came to become involved with the National Archives i had been a client of the National Archives almost my entire career. I love the National Archives, its one of americas great treasures. When the opportunity came to become the director, this was a dream job, something id been preparing for my whole life. Im a storyteller and this is the greatest story in American History. People can argue but i feel that Franklin Roosevelt was our greatest president and franklin and eleanor are our most important political couple. Lincoln helped in the civil war turkey only serve four years. George washington helped create american democracy as he noted he served eight years. Roosevelt served 12 years to the two greatest crises of the joint center, the Great Depression and world war ii and was a leader that transcended in some ways what it politically or had been prior to that. Fundamentally changed the way the federal government interacts with its citizens. When he became president america was in its most dire state, 25, 35 unemployment. Millions of people homeless. People were literally starving in the streets. The federal government had no role in helping them. They had no mechanism even help them. Roosevelt came in and said thats not right. This is a government of the people for the people by the people there for the government has to find ways to put people back to work come to them keep their homes, to help them provide for their fonts, to prove the environment. He faced one of the grade of our mental disasters history because of terrible land practices in the midwest. They had plowed at the birds, not played any trees. Terrible dustbowl. He really understood you had to stop that for the farmers to be successful, you had to stop this erosion of soil. The civilian conservation corps planted 2 billion trees from texas to canada, and those when stops essentially prevented further erosion and transform the landscape of americas midwest. He created a safety net for americans who are losing their jobs, who are losing their homes. And that is change everything thats happened since then we can argue about the policies, how much of the federal government did, i didnt pay for these. But theres no question there was a fundamental change in the relationship between the federal government and americans. Where did you grow up . I grew up on long island. Where did you go to college . The college at uc santa cruz. I have an unusual background. I was a music major and then a documentary filmmaker before i went into televisions are not the traditional archivist or academic historian, but i did come up as a storyteller. So almost all of my work in television really was finding stories and then finding the best way to tell the stories. What can a document is to do . The first was about elephant seals in california, santa cruz of course is one of the breeding areas for elephant seals. There is just a few miles from uc santa cruz and i did a documentary film about elephant seals. I was hired to do the sound recording and on my first day of shooting, my first documentary we were standing on a beach in the cameramen was standing next to me and i saw this on running down the beach and i was like where you going . Hes running a fesses again. I turn around and and theres a bull elephant seal about ten feet behind me charging on the right to kill me and i went charging up the beach, jumped on this sent him to get away from hiit and that was my first exposure and i said this is an interesting job. I should look into this. What did you do in television . I started out as an editor at the became produced and produced eventually executive producer. I worked in San Francisco or the first part of my career and was in washington for most of my career if one of my more interesting exploits was as executive producer of americas most wanted. I used to help catch criminals which was a fascinating way to see the power of television in community with people. It was one of tvs First Interactive programs where we would put peoples picture on, but if owner up and police are going to rest them. It showed you there was a real time phenomenon that could happen with television. It really made the world a better place. We returned 35 missing children, caught 1002 judges, it was an interesting period. How long have you been director here, and who owns it and who do you answer to . How many people work year . For the library as part of the National Archives and there are 13 president ial libraries, theres about the 14th with president obama. This was the first president ial library, the First Federal president ial library. I work for the archivist of the United States. Theres probably about 30 people who work your over all in the editorial and Public Program people, our museum curators. We have an Important Role to play in this community. We have a visitor center. We do a lot of Public Programming and we try to make this a silly available. We are an either of National Archives inside the National Park. So like in a lot of circumstances fdr put two different organizations in charge of the same thing. He gave his home and the property to the National Park service but he gave his library and the property the library is on to the National Archives. The other facilities nearby are part of the National Parks system or ellen roosevelts home at valkill, a small cottage built in 1940 what is going to retire. Its one of the first homes that a fully wheelchair accessible. No threshold on the doors. All the windows are low. He really wanted to live there when he left the white house. These are all part of the National Park complex and part of what we think of as the Roosevelt Legacy here in hyde park. How many square feet devoted to exhibits and do you have a foundation and what does it cost to run on . Its about 12,000 square feet of pure exhibit space and we did something unusual which is that we used some of the Storage Space we keep things that are not technically on display and would put glass bowls on thin so the public can see things like part of the Art Collection and fdrs car which is ledger car he drove the king in queen of england around. Had special and controls that lack and driving even though he is paralyzed. It has many of his ship models, an extraordinary ship model collection. The visible storage area helps people see behind the scenes and some of the storage we have. There is a foundation, the roseville institute is our 501 c~ 3 part of. The way the federal government has structured the president ial Library System is the federal government will pay for the preservation and storage of the actual records, the archives themselves and the attorneys associate with the president ial library. It will pay for the staff to maintain that but they will not pay for ancillary things like education programs, new exhibits, technology, educational outreach. So any private money to be able to do those things. A model that was greater by Franklin Roosevelt was all the money to build the building was raised privately and then everything that he owned was donated to the federal government and the federal government agreed that they would manage it and preserve it. One of the things that he think this generation particularly people have a hard t