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 time with is timeframe. National archives has to think on a timeframe of hundreds of years. If you think about our great founding charters, declaration of independence, the constitution, the emancipation proclamation, these document are hundreds of years old. We have to be thinking in terms of what our historians of students 100 years of now going to be able to do to look and understand the Roosevelt Administration, or other president ial libraries. You have to look at a timeframe where you are balancing the delicate preservation of these pieces of paper, of the books, the artifacts but you need to share them with the public. Everything here belongs to the American People, and fdr wanted the American People to come to hyde park to study him, to see his collections. Because he knew if these people were just in some Federal Building in washington, d. C. , that people who would come to study him wouldnt really understand who he was. His character was formed by being here in hyde park. What i does it cost to run te sulfate . To be honest i cant give you a number because the way the federal Government Works theres five t different budgets for security and maintenance and staffing and i would say the overall cost somewhere in the 7 9 million range if you were to add it all up and we dont have a single budget. How many visitors a year . We had almost 200,000 visitors last year. We were very lucky in 2014 the great documentary filmmaker ken burns did a wonderful series for Public Television called the roosevelt, and intimate portrait. It was a fantastic series and really raise Public Interest in the roosevelts and we saw attendance really starte startio climb at that point. I been here less than ten years. Im a newbie to the Roosevelt Legacy family, but in that. What we try to do is expand at. A new permanent exhibit opens in 2013 right before the roosevelt space cannot which was helpful. The narrative that we kill in our permanent exhibit was 13 years in the making. They put together a group of historians in 2000 is it okay if we will completely rethink what the president ial library should be, how do we tell that story . How to would be honest . How do we confront the issues . How do we deal with the controversies . How do we admit his failures and celebrate his successes . The entire exhibit was reconceived edible is i think one of the most successful president ial libraries because enough time has passed where we can deal with things like the japanese internment. Our temporary exhibit right now is called images of interment, incarceration of japaneseamericans during world war ii. Features to any photographs, extraordinary pictures taken that really documents the process of the japanese american, many of whom were american citizen of the 120,000 were incarcerated, 80,000 were legal american citizens and how their Constitutional Rights were violated by a man that i many people think was one of our greatest champions of the civil rights. And yet because of the story of the time, because of the pressure of the war, because of the nature of the japanese surprise attack on pearl harbor these people were singled out and put into these camps. So by looking at that story we can examine the inner workings of the Roosevelt Administration here but more portly put a lesson of the for people to say heres what happened, why did it happen and how can we prevent it from happening. In the 1980s a federal commission determined that it was, in fact, a mistake. The federal government apologize. Ronald reagan sent letters all the surviving people who would been in the camps and 20,000 restitution payment was made. So by having the ability to be academically honest, to be intellectually rigorous in a way we are investigating this legacy, we are giving great credence, sing this was an extraordinary mentoring expert at times. Made mistakes. He made Great Strides in changing our politics and if you want to learn more, come and visit. In this room there are a lot of books. In this libraries are a tremendous number of books. How many books did fdr have in his collection . Fdr had an inquisitive mind. There were 22,000 books in his personal collection. We have about 50,000 books total in the library, many of which required acquired after retired, books about the roosevelts padilla 22,000 books. There are 91 914 books in this m alone. Every book was selected by fdr to be in this room. This room is almost identical to the way it was on the day that fdr died. Nothing has changed, from furniture was moved but this is basically as it was on the day Franklin Roosevelt died. He served four years in the soon as it is. The books are faceting pretense and a bookshelf of all the Winston Churchill books. That was one of the most extraordinaire friendships in American History between two leaders. And every time churchill came out with the new book, he wrote 15 million words. Anytime he came up with a new book he would sign it and send it over to fdr to look at, and he would write footnotes. So Winston Churchill inscribed one book a fresh egg from a a faithful in. And he loved sharing those things. The two of them were very, very close. He has a whole bookcase there, rugged kipling turkey love rudyard kipling. We have a book by Robert Louis Stevenson have one of his favorite authors. Its a First Edition and its amazing when you open the cover theres a little watercolor right there glued into the front page with Robert Louis Stevenson signature. He is certain that he was tickled interested with his books, naval history. He has a worldclass collection of naval history books. He collected ships logs. He collected the first person manuscript. He loved books written by people who on ships that did interesting things, whether there are circumnavigating the or scientific expeditions. His collection is quite extraordinary. If theres one book in his collection, the biggest impact on his presidency, its a book called the influence of sea power on World History published in the late 19th century. He has three volumes of it to one was his older brothers, one is given to buys uncle fred and this book was influential and other russians develop the navy in world war i, at the japanese developed the navy and world war ii and was about how large naval fleets can influence military conflict. It was very influential in how come he was assistant secretary in 11 and he helped rebuild the American Navy and then be prepared for world war ii. The book selection gives you insight into things is interested in, and you could tell that he was almost insatiably curious. Whats the story of the English Version of mein kampf . So in 1933, the first english translation of adolf hitlers mein kampf was published in this country as my battle. Franklin roosevelt read and spoke german and french fluently. He had read the original german, he had read mein kampf in the original german. He understood the message that hitler was giving his people. Hitler and bozo came to power at exactly the same time. In the front piece of the book it says this has been so heavily executed as to not reflect the true story or if you read in the original company would tell something very different because he read in the original at almost all of the dishes at the summit is and have been taken out of the english translation. So thats typical of how he was keeping up with what was going on in the world, had a very cosmopolitan view of International Politics and is able to discern exactly what was really being said versus what was being sent to the people. Is there almost 1000 books in this room and another 21,000 books in this library, where do you keep them . The books are kept in a special room. Its a room that was designed by fdr himself. And a big renovation in 2013 a decision was made all of the upper storage rooms with the documents are kept were updated. That room was kept exactly the way it was. So his original bookshelves. As the extrawide files or he could get up and out in his wheelchair. It at some of the original clamshell cases that he would put his speech and document since we could keep them on his lap in his wheelchair and look at them. He really intended to work and use this as a repository for his vitriol after he left the white house. So the library is one whole side of it, the book bags are fdr books and on the other side are all the books that were acquired either after he died or might it belong to members. He started clicking as a child and he created a little stamp which you would put i in the bos that were his, had little roosevelt pressed on it. In many of his books when he got the book he would sign his name, right the day. Sometimes he would write the location ricotta, hyde park, white house, wherever. Occasionally in some books he would write little note in it. He was an avid reader of detective novels, and one of interesting stories is about a book called the starspangled virgin which is an issue that takes place on st. Croix. In the front he has is that a date individual about this as see page 7476. 76 pick you open up those pages and its a description of a motorcade going through and the protagonist is on the side of the road and when he realizes who goes by, he says that he and. He made an indication inside syrias president , 1939, you know, arguably the busiest man and woman yet he has time to look at these books and to make notes in the margin on a reference to a trip he made as president in 1934. One of the bibles thats on display is a dutch from 1660. It was used all four times during inaugurated. The only president that inaugurated four times, obviously. Its a very large book and reflects his beliefs that family is important. He was not a traditionally sort of devout christian and he used references in the bible all of the time. And he used them as a way of making a point. You know, he believed the bible was very effective in providing advice and how people should act. How do you convince people to do the right thing. He thought the bible was very effective in doing that. Thats why he quotes it all of the time. He had a sermonlike qualities. If you look at the dday prayer which was put out on june 6th, 1944, appointed which he did not know, greatest military assault of history was going to be a success or failure and its a very personal prayer and reflects his belief that we are at a critical moment in World History and that his belief in the American People comes flu that prayer. Almighty god, our sons cried of our nation this day on mighty endeavor, critical to preserve our religion and civilization and set free its suffering humanity. Lead them straight, give strength to their arms, steadfastness in their faith. They will need blessings. For the enemy is strong. Success may not come with rushing speed but a gain and a gain and they know that by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. How do you separate his great grade school time and High School Time . They used the library of congress organizational system and organized by subject matter. There was a book shelf full of history books about new york state, duchess county, hudson river. This is duchess county. He has the document, the deed of sale for hyde park from 1689 between the dutch settlers and native americans who lived here. Its in dutch. He has all sorts of early records of the development of the new york state. Early families of new york state. He really cared and was interested in this. He also had enormous number of books about American History, international history, a collection of all his speech which is were bound and he would often give as christmas presents even to his wife. Here, honey, merry christmas, here are my speeches. He was a birder. You can see a number of his birds and he has a complete volume set of birds of america, but he has a whole range of Natural History books because he was deeply interesting in how nature worked. He planted almost 250,000 trees in this park alone in hyde park and described himself as a tree grower. He thought of himself as a tree grower. Great funny story during world war ii, he had actually a Christmas Tree farm and sold Christmas Trees and Winston Churchill came and spent christmas at the white house and they dont really have the same tradition of or ornamented Christmas Tree and next year Winston Churchill has one delivered. Can public walkthrough where his private papers are i mean, public books are . No, theres a glass door, you can see the book shelf with new york and dutchs county history. What are the rules of people touching the books and does anybody get to read them . This is open to the public so you can go into to Research Room and ask for certain documents, speeches, books. That over time, certain documents become fragile or so valuable like the pearl harbor speech. Wife to bring out a reproduction. That speech is priceless and fragile. We create productions and all the times we get box out to you and you sign it out and you can look through material. Many books are available for people to come and look at in the reference room. They cant take them home with them but they can look at them. There are some books, that have become so fragile or valuable that they cant be checked out. If they are shown to historian or a scholar usual archivist. Again, we have to think in terms of hundreds of years. We want them to be available three generations from now. One of the guiding strategies for the National Archives is make access happen, a whole process where we want to digitize documents and make them as widely available as possible. Not everyone can come to hyde park. People come to you and you show them things, it doesnt work as well in the modern world. How much is Available Online right now . We have a million documents. 19million of payments and doesnt include the book, about a million online, all of the speeches are online. This is a fabulous thing. They allowed us to digitize master piece files and linked them up when there was audio available and sometimes you might have six or seven different drafts of major speech and you can see all of the drafts with handwritten comments and notes from advisers to other people and you can go back and watch the evolution of the speeches. Everyone knows in his first inaugural address. The famous lines is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That line doesnt show up until the seventh draft of the speech. Did he write it . Theres argument about what twai wrote it but he gets credit. Theres no question that it was a seminole moment in that open part of the speech and came as they were evolving the speech, as they were trying to craft a message, what did he want to say to the American People. What was it that they needed to hear at that moment. Its one of the things that when you study a lot, thereon radio broadcast, you realize that he transformed the way president s spoke. When he was governor he started the idea of radio conversations and when he became president he perfected the idea of having a personal conversation. He would vision his neighbors sitting across the table from him when he would do chats. Best example of political persuasiveness first chat as president. Few days after he took office. He took office, the last president inaugurated in march, march fourth, 1933, four years later he was the first president inaugurated in january and the first thing he did was shut down all the banks. He called it a bank holiday because a thousand banks had failed in the weeks running up to inauguration. On the sunday night before the reopening of the banks he gave his first far sight chats. That was one of the short ones. Extraordinary speech. I want to take a few minutes to talk about banking and as will rogers said he did such a good job of explaining the banking crisis even the bankers understood it. He explained how banks work which is you give money to bank and bank lend it out to businesses and they can do business. The money isnt just sitting in a volt because it was such a problem. He was going to open banks in 12 Federal Reserve cities. He knew he had enough cash in Federal Reserve banks in the city that it was f there was a run on the bank he could load it with cash and meet the demand and end the fear. He was so persuasive that at the end of the first week after banks opened there wasnt end, he ended the banking crisis simply with his words and thats the sign of a great leader. Go back and relate and we have a president that tweets but back in the days of farside chats, i read that one of the reasons they did the radio chats was because the newspapers were all biased against him and this was a way to go around that, is that true . Every president wants to find a way to talk to the American Public. If they could just get their point across and get the media out of the way they would convince the American People that they were right. Franklin roosevelt felt very strongly that he needed to communicate to the American People. There were the reporters and photographers who covered him, who loved him and rich publishers and owners who detested him. Why, why did they detest him . He shifted the financial responsibility for the upper class. He had changed the taxing system. He had changed the power of labor, he had shifted the balance of power where capital had been dominant and labor submissive, he tried to balance that out. He encouraged legislation to restrict the power of big capital and big money and so the 1 were very disturbed about this. They considered him a traitor to his class. One of his ancestors Isaac Roosevelt had been a partner in creation of bank of new york. He understood you had to fundamentally bring the working class up if you were going to get the economy working again. They had to have purchasing power, you had to give them decent jobs and you had to give them security and make them feel like they were part of the economy so you could lift home ownership, bring people back to the and do things you had to do to have a healthy economy. So the journalists who covered him, you know, when he would press conferences in the white house he would sit behind the oval office and press stream in and sit in the corner and surround him and Smoke Cigarettes and have back and forth with him. He had over 900 press conferences during presidency and there would be back and forth. Sometimes he would say this is off the record, he knew a lot of them by name. He would make jokes and feed them information. Eleanor roosevelt is incredibly effective political partner. When he we wanted to find out what was in the world, he would send Eleanor Roosevelt. She would go out and find what the farmers were i think to and come back to report. If he we wanted to test out an idea he wanted to have Eleanor Roosevelt talk about it first in column and speeches and if it created a big ruckus, its the mrs. , i cant control her, she does whatever she wants. They were very Effective Team and she was a media power house. People dont appreciate her impact, so she wrote a column every day for 20 years. Six days a week. She had radio shows, she was on television after franklin died and after the war. She was a very, very influential person and helped those in needs. Theres a picture of fdr in a wheelchair. Ive got right behind me, im bumping, im going step back, you can explain it, one of the wheelchair that is sit in the office all of the time. You talk about the media and you say out there that we have only seen him in one of these in a public photo four times. Correct. Why did the media not show this . Whats interesting about this is several things. You can tell its not a traditional wheelchair, its a kitchen chair with a couple of wheels on the back. The first life of fdrs life he was healthy, he didnt get polio till late 30s and he went into almost seclusion. He had been president ial candidate and nationally known public figure and secretary of the navy and he was determined that he was going to be able to walk again. The American Public knew that he had polio and slightly crippled. When he appeared at the Democratic Convention in 1928 he had innovation, he would stagger up and use steel braces to be able to brace himself so people knew that he was crippled in some way but very few people knew that he was completely paralyzed from the waist down and tremendous prejudice about people who were disabled. You were physical disabled you might be mentally disabled. They we wanted to really downplay his physical disability. So the press was not allowed to photograph him in his wheelchair. Often times when he was doing speeches, he would come in wheelchair and so he would be sitting in a chair when he guests or the press arrived. If a photographer at public event said he was being helped out of a car or put in wheelchair or carried, they were told not to take photographs of that. Theres News Coverage before he comes to podium, the camera is away from podium and as soon as hes done speaking the camera pans away and you dont see him as he leaves the podium. This was a very important secret for the white house to keep. They didnt want people to understand the extent of his disability and they wanted him to portray confidence, of energy, of course, he did. He was incredibly dynamic and everybody who met him was awed and you could see all pictures campaigning, hes standing strong, enormous chest and very strong in upper body and worked out constantly. Youre much more likely to see him in a Swimming Pool where he looks like everybody else throwing the ball than you are to see him with his crippled and weathered legs. My mother who is from connecticut went to college down in virginia and she would always tell the stories that when people referred to president roosevelt, they never used his name, they called him that man in the white house and that he was a very unpopular figure and she would tell stories about his life. She was born in 1916 so she lived through this entire period and believed that he had been americas greatest leader. She was enormous fan of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a scientist and felt support for research and support for education were vitally important. So she instilled in me a love for the roosevelts and also real interest in history. My family mostly scientists so they were expecting me to go into the world of scientists, i went a different path but the story telling always fascinated me and theres extraordinary stories of roosevelt thats hard not to become a fan. Back to the books. Did he read when he was president or did he ever write a book . Well, he published several books of his speeches but he tid not ever write a book on his own. He had a screen play that he had written that in the 20s he was trying to sell to the hollywood movie studios, it was sort of a spy mystery. It was pretty awful. No one bought it. He wrote the four word to a book but no, he never wrote a bikebook that was published. Now, what does a director do . Nothing. I have the greatest staff in the world, they do all the work i stand up and talk to people like you. What really is extraordinary is the commitment of the people who work for the National Archives. They believe in the mission. They are deeply committed. We have many people who have been 10, 15 years who have dedicated their lives to institution. Where do they train . Most of them go to college in Library Sciences or museum studies. The world of archives is changing. There are core fundamentals you have to do in the way you preserve documents, the way you organize them and put them in sets and collections and how you make them available to the public, some of the Core Functions havent changed significantly but the world of digitization has changed in providing access. You have to think in terms of 100 years, you cant just think in terms of tomorrow. How often do they have somebody who came out of television and came out of journalism instead of coming out of history or archival training . I dont know the answer to that. I know there are a number of people who were authors or journalists who risen to Library Director status. So if youve got a very highlyskilled and competent staff i dont have to worry about the fact whether the records are being properly maintained because i know they r. My job is to try to help raise money for library, increase visibility, do Public Program, connect with the community and interface with the rest of the federal government, National Park service, so its not as important that i have technical archival skills, the importance is how to be a manager and support they need. Weve watched this new president suggest cutting a lot of things in the arts and the humanities. What will happen if all of a sudden they cut all of the money from the federal government to run a place like . You adapt and change. The government has fluctuated back and forth in the way they fund things. There are certain key functions of the federal government. The National Archives maintain all federal records so you cant really do away with the National Archives, they are an essential function of government. They keep congressional records, they keep the records of all the agencies, they keep president ial records, make those records available to the public and cords available to congress and they perform vital function that cannot be changed. If theres a cut you would have to shift to private support. It would be very difficult to raise money necessary to support an institution at level and quality at these institutions. The president ial libraries have the finest examples of Research Institutions and museums. Everything thats done is done to preserve this material and to make it accessible to the public. Its possible that they should shift over to private funding structure but very difficult. In the museum, not library, there are lots of new charts and one of them that caught my attention when i was walking through, in 1933 the United States government spent 4 billion, in 1941, 34 billion. In 1933, 24. 9 unemployment in the United States, obviously in the middle of the depression. 4. 7 unemployment. Does it say then that when theres war thats good for the country, theres a lot more manufacturing, a lot more people have jobs . Well, i think theres two Different Things going on there. One is that the federal spending that started in the 1930s was not primarily military spending. Most of the early spending by the federal government had to do with job creation, had to do with infrastructure redevelopment, had to do with creation of new regulatory agencies that provide support for farmers, homeowners, conservation core so most of that was money going into directly the American Economy but not primarily military in nature. The military buildup doesnt start to 38 or 39 and in 1940 and really transforming the industrial side of American Economy into a military complex. Theres no question that in times of extreme economic distress government funding is critical to maintaining economic stability. Now, again, we can argue that policies, we can argue how much government should be involved, how much you should let the market determine, the market had failed. At this point the government had to step in because the market was incapable of making a correction at that point. When you have smaller crises often times the market is capable of making adjustments and getting back on track, but in this case, the federal spending for military which created the massive deficits provided for full employment. So in that case, yes, the creation of full employment was driven by military spending but if you look at that chart, unemployment is dropping dramatically even before massive military spending kicks in. Talking about books on Lyndon Johnson he points out that fdr was important to Lyndon Johnson. Do you have any personal history of that relationship and were there other politicians that he was responsible for running . One thing he was genius at was detecting town. He saw something in Lyndon Johnson. The way Lyndon Johnson became a political figure in texas was through distribution and federal funding that was going through the districts. This was a very controversial issue at that point. The idea of federal money going to state and local projects and so Lyndon Johnson was able to use that as one to build cash and he served in congress, he was one of fdrs most loyal supporters. Now he was still a fairly junior congressman at that point but he believed in fdrs mission and if you look at almost everything he attempted to do, johnson attempted to do during Great Society years, he was trying to fulfill the work of Franklin Roosevelt. He believed war on poverty, lifting people who were most in need, the civil rights agenda, Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights act. These were things that were directly related of Franklin Roosevelt. A few people that he idolized more. His daughter showed me something that fdr gave Lyndon Johnson. A deep connection there. Fdr influenced an entire generation and not just people who served directly with him but people who served in the armed forces in world war ii. Every president served up until bill clinton served in world war ii. I voted for fdr four times. Fdr is on the mind of all politicians as they judge themselves in terms of what you accomplished. He was a great pragmatist, one of the things hes labeled as a liberal, progressive communist, but when you look at his actual policies and the way he would compromise with congress, he was a pragmatist on top of everything and in the early parts of his administration he supported the growth of labor. When you look at the labor party, he shifts focus to industrial. He has to work with big business and creates a system where in many cases contracts with guarantied 10 or whatever they spent because they needed the big business, what did we need at that point, what was the most important thing, we arm to repair for the conflict. I think the best politicians of both parties look at his success in changing the way federal Government Works. Look at his success in moving the legislation through congress and use that as a role model for how they can be seen. What would he feel today if he saw that we were 20 trillion in debt and that we are going to have to change things like entitlement, Social Security in order to pay for it in a few years . Fdr believed that everyone should pay their fair slair and committed to writing some income inequality but in world war ii, everyone suffered, the amount of gas you could buy, the amount of beef, everything you could buy in the store, everything in your daily life, every single american was impacted by the war. 10million americans in uniform during the war. He believed that that had to be equally spread about. He understood that there was going to be a massive deficit during the world but he also believed that rebuilding of the infrastructure was going to create an economy that when the war ended we would be Major Economic power in the world and we would be able to pay for expenses down. There were sacrifices made throughout. If you look at one of the most important components of the entire administration during the war years were the war bond efforts. They put massive efforts into giving people getting people to give money to the federal government and at tend of the war they will give toyota you with a 1 or 2 interest earned so it wasnt that he was taxing the American People, it is your duty, it is your responsibility as american citizens to support the federal government in this war against fascism. Do you want your liberty, do you believe in america, do you believe in democracy . If so, then you need to contribute. Its a different attitude that we have today where most of the burden of military Service Falls on the small population. Director of fdr library and museum. Honor to have you, thank you. Discusses his book fdr and the post office. A World Leaders passion. Stamp collecting was extremely important to fdr. In fact, when he was writing the book fdr in the post office i found four letters in the archives in his handwriting, not typed written that actually credited stamp collecting with saving his life after he became until and ended up being confined to a wheel share and what he meant by that, what i gathered from the four letters to family and friends was that