#val-kill

[fdrlibrary]

National Hot Dog Month

This smoke-stained sculpture of Huckleberry Finn eating a hot dog once hung over the large stone picnic fireplace at Val-Kill.

Learn more on our Digital Artifact Collection» https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/8472

📷: NPx 73-113:31 - Picnic for Princess Juliana of the Netherlands at Val-kill, Hyde Park, New York. L-R: SS, SS, Princess Irene, Princess Beatrix, Princess Juliana, Mrs. J.R. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt in background with unidentified man, FDR, children's nurse, Grace Tully, Ethel Roosevelt (Mrs. FDR, Jr.), October 9, 1943. The sculpture is hanging over the barbeque fireplace.

[fdrlibrary]

This pewter pitcher was designed by Nancy Cook for Val-Kill Industries. Cook (1884-1962) -  suffragist, activist, political reformer, furniture designer - co-owned Val-Kill Industries with Eleanor and Marion Dickerman: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/9741

NPx 81-91(602) - Nancy Cook and Eleanor Roosevelt as they hang their NRA poster on the Val Kill Industry factory, Hyde Park, New York, 1933

To learn more about Nancy Cook: https://www.nps.gov/people/nancycook.htm

[fdrlibrary]

Cards Anyone?

In 1926 Eleanor Roosevelt and friends Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman, and Caroline O’Day created Val-Kill Industries on an estate purchased in Hyde Park. The enterprise created employment for local craftspeople. To promote the business, the Roosevelts gifted several pieces created in the Val-Kill pewter forge during the holidays and other times of the year. This card case was given by Franklin D. Roosevelt to Judge Samuel I. Rosenman and includes a deck of Wedgwood style playing cards. Learn more: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/30524/franklin-d-roosevelt-medallion-playing-card-case

FDR enjoyed playing solitaire. Here he plays aboard the presidential train on September 19, 1942, while his cousin, Laura Delano, sits in an adjoining chair with Fala. (📷: NPx 73-113:115)

[fdrlibrary]

#NationalTweedDay!

Eleanor Roosevelt was a fan of tweed and not only wore tweed, including this  Kauffman Saddlery Co. riding jacket, but she also had several tweed luggage pieces, including this Saks Fifth Avenue suitcase. Tweed fabric was also produced at Val-Kill Industries, a business she co-owned with Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman, and Caroline O'Day in Hyde Park, New York.

[fdrlibrary]

As you get ready for any egg-inspired activities this Easter weekend, take this lesson from Eleanor Roosevelt - if you are going to bend the rules to help yourself win, don't get caught on camera!

This 1930's Val-Kill picnic footage was recently donated to the FDR Library by the family of Marguerite LeHand.

[electronicsquid]

Eleanor Roosevelt and Fala say goodbye to visiting school children

(Martha Holmes. 1948)

[eleanorrooseveltvalkillp]

I received a rather pathetic letter the other day from a shut-in, that is to say a handicapped person who has to rely on other people to be taken about. She feels that most of us who do not have physical handicaps are lacking in understanding of the many ways in which we could be helpful. That stirred my thoughts and perhaps it will stir you to do things you might not think of otherwise. She writes: 'Specifically, I am referring to the fact that no facilities have been set up for us to register or to vote and thus express our opinion in this democracy. We who are afflicted, tied with chains of physical circumstances to wheel chairs and stretcher beds are constantly battling with the people in the outer world to be recognized as human beings...The only way we ever get a chance to express ourselves is if we are fortunate enough to have someone of our own, or a friend, to wheel us to the polling place...I feel that the government should provide for us as well as for other citizens.'

Eleanor Roosevelt, January 17, 1953, “My Day”

[juliaannjardine-blog]

External Blogssss!

The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership has been having me do amazing things for the past year of my life. You can check out what I've been doing with them at the non-profit's website here. 

In addition, you can find four blog posts I did summer 2014 for Bard's Center for Civic Engagement award here! I have to say, the writing in those is a little embarrassing. Alas, I am past it, and I'm sure present me will always see one-year-ago me that way. C'est la vie.