And so, he created a library on the grounds of his 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 years 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 of the roosevelt presidency. The exhibition began in 1932, the year he was elected president of the u. S. 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 3. 2 . At the time he was running for president in 1932, it is almost 25 . The context of the election in 1932 was a nation in a state of disarray and fear. This gallery really points that out. We have dramatic photography that shows the state of affairs and nationally. This photograph in particular is very poignant. This is a photograph of new yorks central park in in the 1932. Foreground, you see a shantytown, one of many that have sprouted up around the nation. Many of them are nicknamed hoovervilles. 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. And then he did something unprecedented in american politics and quite dramatic. He flew out to the convention to accept the nomination in person. Up to that point, when an american 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. They did not go to the convention or deliver a speech. Roosevelt broke with that convention in a dramatic way. Hearing his acceptance speech at convention. It was an electrifying moment in political history. It was in that speech that he first uses the expression the new deal. Fdr i pledge myself to the new the deal for the American People. Herman eberhardt that expression becomes obviously very highly associated with his entire presidency but it premiered at this moment when he delivers his acceptance speech. Roosevelt was elected in a 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 takes the oath on this enormous and historic family bible. This is a dutch family bible that had been in his family for generations. It had come over with the roosevelts in the 17th century with the family when it came over 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. He was elected to four terms. Subsequently, there was the constitutional amendment passed that limits president s to two terms. This is unique. It is in dutch. It is quite large. I always say that i feel sorry for the clerk that had to hold this during those inaugural ceremonies. Roosevelts 1933 inaugural is famous for many reasons but the most enduring line from his speech is something we all remember. Fdr let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Herman eberhardt and he says that at a time when the nation really is in a state of fear. It is the low point of the great depression. People are frightened. I think he is trying to steel the nerves of the people. There 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 has been 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 but we do not know for sure 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. So it may be thoreau that we have to thank for that. There are other 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 at the top that roosevelt 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 this is a day of consecration. And he wrote a day of national consecration. Up until the age of 39, roosevelt had a charmed life including a political career that was on an upward trajectory. In 1920, he had been the democratic partys candidate for Vice President. He was widely seen as a candidate for president in 1924 or 1928. However, at this point in his life, tragedy struck. In 1921, roosevelt 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 for a time. During that time, he focused on trying to find a cure for his condition although he never was able to walk again unassisted. But, he also worked on buildingn 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 an 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 would allow him to stand. But in order to be able to mimic the ability to walk in public, he needed to do more. He would take a cane, like this one that belonged to him, and he would often lock arms with a very strong companion. And then supporting himself on those two sources, he would pitch his body forward and have a slow and jerky walk he 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 be smiling and nodding and acting as if he did not have a care in the world when in fact he is focusing carefully on being able to walk that short distance. These kinds of 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 1930. That is what sets him up to become the democratic partys candidate for president in 1932. 4 inaugural, he fo springs into action during what became known as his first 100 days. During this first 100 days in office, he passes a whole series of legislation and other acts that really galvanized the nations attention. 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 the one 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 his proudest achievement of the entire new 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 was the continuing reality of his disability. 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 fdr had contracted polio and he had some form of disability. But what really was not understood was how great of a disability it was. This incredible photograph of fdr is taken right in front of the home here in hyde park on Election Night in 1936. Of course he is beaming because , he has just won a tremendous victory. This was a huge landslide. He wins every state in the nation except for 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 for what he wanted to do on the domestic front during the second term. But, as a lot of 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 lot different than he thought it would be. Very early in the second term, fdr is involved in a big conflict with congress. He becomes concerned that the Supreme Court is striking down a lot 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 with the court striking it down as unconstitutional. He comes up with another plan. He calls it a reform plan but his opponents call a Court Packing plan. It was a plan 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 and in the senate, his plan for the reform of the court or Court Packing fails. And it is a Major Political defeat 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 recession comes in and unemployment begins to go back up. This also weakens him politically at a critical moment. Despite the importance of all of these developments, i think the most dramatic and 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. And these 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. For two reasons. He was running for an unprecedented third term as president. No previous president had ever served more than two terms. And 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 nazi onslaught. But, American Public opinion was very 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, roosevelt was reelected to a third term. He lost some support in the midwest but he still wins by a fairly comfortable margin. 54. 8 of the vote to 44. 8 for his opponent. On the afternoon of december 7, 1941, fdr was in his private study in the white house residence. It was a sunday afternoon. Most of the staff was not in the building. In fact roosevelt was alone , except for his close advisor, harry hopkins. Roosevelt was actually working with his stamp collection when suddenly the phone on his desk rings and it was the secretary of the navy telling him that the Pearl Harbor Navy base in hawaii was under attack by japan. Roosevelt immediately calls in his advisers. All of the staff comes back to the white house and they go into crisis mode. In the late afternoon, roosevelt at one point asked all of the Staff Members to leave his study in the residence except 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. Yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. Herman eberhardt this is the first draft of that speech. Roosevelt dictated it to his 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. In the first sentence, he takes the original words World History and changes it to infamy and he changes the word simultaneously to suddenly. In that way he transforms the , sentence into yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date that which will live in infamy. The United States of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the empire of japan. A line that has come down through the decades to us today as one of the most memorable lines of his presidency. In fact 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 enormous globe was in the oval office during world war ii. This 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. This globe is balanced on some finely tuned rollers. If i were to touch it in a light touch, i could move it in any way. 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. Roosevelt, obviously, made a lot of use of this during world war ii. One of the things we look at in this portion of the exhibition is his attendance at key wartime conferences. He went to a number of conferences during the war but arguably the two most important were the tehran conference and yalta conference. He met with the big three, winston churchill, joseph stalin, and roosevelt. Long before the end of the war, fdr is already thinking about the postwar period. 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 the tehran conference in 1943. One of the interesting documents this is in his handwriting. An aide later saved this little sketch. 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 little circle. That represented the nations 40 that were at that time in the Coalition Fighting the axis powers. This represents the idea of what becomes the u. N. 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. The last circle marked four police. That was his conception of the four policemen or the Security Council. The four police 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 fouring among these policemen or the Security Council of the United Nations. These were the ideas he was kicking around for this postwar organization. I think 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. As you 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 was going to be his running mate. His sitting Vice President was