#FDR Library

[spiritundaunted]

One more from the FDR library - a poster that is part of a display about the Royal Visit of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth to America. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

I love art from this period. It's so warm and colorful (although both Bertie & Elizabeth had blue eyes! lol We will forgive the artist. This time! 😉)

[darrinjoakley]

Franklin D Roosevelt

[deadpresidents]

Can you recommend any active history blogs?

I don't follow all that many blogs, so I'm sure some of my readers can share their recommendations in the replies. Of the blogs that I do follow, here are a few activate sites that regularly update with some great material:

•The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (@richardnixonlibrary)

•The California State Library (@californiastatelibrary)

•The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (@fdrlibrary)

•Today's Document from the National Archives (@todaysdocument)

•The National Archives (@usnatarchives)

I really wish that the LBJ Library (@lbjlibrary) still updated their Tumblr regularly because they used to post some interesting stuff. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum (@fordlibrarymuseum) has also been inactive for a few months, but they were one of my favorite things to see on my dashboard when they posted regularly. A few years ago, the National Archives actually started an awesome Tumblr called Our Presidents (@ourpresidents) that was like the mothership for all of the other Presidential Library blogs in the NARA's Presidential Library system. It was a GREAT idea and one of my favorite blogs, but it just stopped posting a couple years ago. I wish they would get that one going again. I think those inactive sites still have their old posts and archives available, so you can still go back and see what we're missing.

Like I said, I'm sure some of my readers have better suggestions than I do about this that they can share in the replies, so what are some of your favorite history blogs?

[deadpresidents]

I know World War II was going on and he probably didn't have the energy to spend on this, but it's a travesty that history doesn't actually have a photograph of FDR wearing this.

I've been reading a lot about President Ford lately, and after seeing some of the photos of what they were wearing in the White House in the mid-70s, this vest wouldn't have been out of place then.

Luella Smith of Inglewood, California sent Franklin Roosevelt this handmade button vest on January 3, 1944. In a letter that accompanied her gift she noted: “I want you to have your picture made in it and a photo sent to me to put on my stand so that I can admire my boy in the White House, I know you are busy but it sure would make me happy."

See more on our website: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/30602/button-vest

[mouseandboo]

Postcrossing US-10719569 by Gail Anderson Via Flickr: Postcard with a photo of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 Ford "Phaeton" with special manual controls. This is on display at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. Sent to a Postcrossing member in Germany,

[authoraj]

My first children’s book about FDR’s love of trees and nature. Did you know his favorite tree was the Tulip Poplar

What do you love about FDR?

[garnetsandroses]

don’t want to be known for making 0 note posts about 3 hour films but oppenheimer was good. if anyone was doubting lol

[3liza]

FDR already solved the "what are people supposed to DO in a post-scarcity capitalist society besides imploding and then overthrowing the government" with the New Deal and specifically the public works project/Works Progress Administration. the library doesnt really NEED a cubist mural, especially not a government-funded one, but that's the kind of shit you actually should be directing taxpayer money towards if you want to create a relatively stable capitalist socialist state. i mean we did and do actually need bridges and manhole covers and asphalt and apartment blocks which were also a major part of the program as i understand it, in current year of our lord a ton of American infrastructure is still running on top of New Deal concrete which desperately needs retrofitting and maintenance lol, but the new deal funded a lot of library murals too. borderline unthinkable in 2025 to imagine a widely-known and publicly-accepted presidential plan to occupy idle labor force during an employment crisis with building playgrounds and lawns and so on

[usnatarchives]

Veterans Day originally began as Armistice Day, which celebrated the end of World War I. After World War II, the day was expanded “Veterans Day” to honor all veterans, not just the service members who died during the First World War.

At the National Archives, we are proud to serve veterans through our work at the National Personnel Records Center. Veterans who need their service records for benefits can find help here.

Families of veterans who have died may also ask for copies of service records for family history, military burial, and medal replacement.

Image: Disabled veteran, ca. 1943, ARC 195917, FDR Library

[todaysdocument]

Dust Storm; "Dust Storm Approaching Spearman, Texas."

Collection FDR-PHOCO: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain PhotographsSeries: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs

This black and white photograph shows a large cloud of dust looming over several buildings in the foreground.

[hezigler]

"A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship" Duke Ellington (the Blanton-Webster band, 1942)

Al Dorne, a self taught artist and former boxer, was responsible for several dramatic anti-loose-talk posters for the War Department during WWII: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/21601/less-dangerous-than-careless-talk

Follow along throughout 2024 as we feature more #TheArtOfWar WWII posters from our collection.

[salvia-plathitudes]

The Trump administration has slashed so many qualified positions, it makes me think of the president who did the opposite. I’d like to see us go the FDR route and create jobs for the sake of creating jobs.

In its eight years of operation, the WPA oversaw the construction or repair of more than 650,000 miles of roads. It built playgrounds, airports, schools, hospitals, and recreational centers. It gave jobs to millions of workers. Soil erosion control, water conservation, the preservation of wildlife, and other environmental protection activities became a part of the everyday life and activities of American citizens under the Civilian Conservation Corp.

Some were even paid to rake leaves! Thousands of artists who painted murals and other projects, theater performers, and authors were federally sponsored. Traveling libraries were built to spread literacy.

It was too socialist to live, but it helped drag the United States out of the Great Depression.

[indecisiveavocado]

a whole new level of awful: donald trump directly contradicts the constitution, potentially turning presidents into kings

Yesterday, Donald Trump directly contradicted the Constitution in an executive order.

Wait, what's an executive order?

An executive order is a direction by the President to agencies, often legally binding. They're often quite boring. The first executive order issued this year (2025) was establishing a chain of succession in some obscure office.

Executive orders are common, but not incredibly so. Since 1937, the most prolific president in absolute terms was FDR, with 2023, and the least prolific Biden, with 160. If you account for the varying numbers of years, the most prolific was still FDR, with around 252 per year, and the least prolific Obama, with around 35 per year. That's not a huge number.

The critical thing about executive orders is that there is no congressional process. None. They are made by the President's whims, and can be used to effectively pass laws that could not be passed otherwise. For instance, Executive Order 9066, by FDR, established the Japanese-American internment camps. Congress did not review this; the only way to challenge it was via the courts. Similarly for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Executive Order 12127, by Jimmy Carter, established FEMA. Other executive orders have prohibited discrimination in the federal and sometimes civilian workforce, established the Peace Corps, created the National Labor Relations Board, and, much more recently, banned travel from many Muslim-majority countries to the US as part of Trump's Muslim ban. Again, there is almost no oversight. The only way to fight this is via the courts.

What does this one say, and how does that contradict the Constitution?

This executive order states, effectively, that if someone is born in the US but has a parent who is undocumented, they are not a US citizen. This directly contradicts the Fourteenth Amendment, which states "All persons born...in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States".

What are the consequences of this if it's allowed to stand?

If it is allowed to stand, it will have two far-reaching consequences that will change American democracy and turn into, effectively, a kingdom.

The first change is based on the fact that executive orders would now be elevated above the Constitution, thus meaning any executive order Trump signs--and remember, there are no restrictions on these--would be law.

The second change would be that there would be no recourse. There would be no way to fight back against it save by appealing to the goodness of his heart (of which, of course, there is none), because, after all, what appeal can be made? If it's above the Constitution, it's also above any other law that might be invoked to show it's illegal. In other words, if upheld as legal, this executive order would elevate executive orders, and with them the President, to the unchallengeable supreme law of the land.

It would turn the president--right now that's Trump, God save us all--into a king.

Will it be allowed to stand?

I don't know. The Supreme Court has shown some slight backbone, but overall it has pretty much yielded to Trump. Unless two or more typically conservative justices--so two of Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, or Barrett--stray from Trump's party line, that order will probably be upheld. I don't think they'll do so; after all, doing so would basically remove their power. But I'm not as confident as I'd like to be.

Basically, our democracy's continuation is now in the hands of six awful people.

Is there anything I can do?

Not really. I mean, yes, lobby, call your congresspeople, mail them angry letters, support your local library, all that jazz. But honestly, there isn't so much you can do when it's at this scale. (Unless, of course, you're Trump or a Supreme Court justice. In which case, hi, please stop this!) Just knowing about it and sharing that knowledge will help.

[authoraj]

[kushblazer666]

say what you will about fdr’s legacy and the merits of his large scale policies but he was so cool for just paying people to walk around the countryside and record random people playing songs just to have the record. ive spent 45 minutes listening to blues songs recorded in the 30s just go on your music platform of choice and look for “library of congress” its so goated

[gnatswatting]

• I have never been one of those who are disturbed with the fear that the assembling of many races would destroy the ideals of the founders. I have rather seen it as a means by which true American ideals may be strengthened and given a broader, a more vital significance in the life of the whole world. —Franklin D. Roosevelt

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Hotel Stevens, Chicago, Illinois October 1, 1932 FDR Presidential Library & Museum ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Hotel Stevens, Chicago, Illinois October 1, 1932 FDR Presidential Library & Museum (at Internet Archive)