Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

See a temporary display of artifacts from our collection that feature various American symbols from the bald eagle to the Statue of Liberty. On view in our Behind the Scenes area of the Museum through May!

For more information about this collection:

The New York World's Fair opened on this day, April 30, 1939, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens. Take a look at our collection of artifacts from the Fair:

Happy Birthday to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands!

Happy Birthday to actress, politician, and diplomat Shirley Temple Black!

See this 1938 letter and Shirley Temple Police Force badge on display in our current exhibition "SIGNATURE MOMENTS: Letters From the Famous, the Infamous, and Everyday Americans."

Happy Birthday to theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer

See this 1950 letter regarding "flying disks" from Oppenheimer to Eleanor on display in our current exhibition "SIGNATURE MOMENTS: Letters From the Famous, the Infamous, and Everyday Americans."

Remembering Queen Elizabeth II on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Happy Birthday to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins!

Happy Birthday to publisher Condé Nast!

This “Sunbonnet Sue” quilt was made in 1937 by 11-year-old Mary Kathleen Carden of Seattle, Washington. She used leftover scraps of fabric to create it. After completing each block, she would ask a friend, teacher, or family member to sign it. She then sewed a running stitch over the autograph, making each block a unique reminder of people who were special to her.

While Carden was working on her quilt, her mother read in a local newspaper that Eleanor Roosevelt was coming to Washington State to visit her daughter, Anna, and would be staying at a hotel in downtown Seattle. Mother and daughter decided to take a bus to the hotel, where they left two quilt blocks, a stamped self-addressed envelope, and a note asking Mrs. Roosevelt and Anna to sign the blocks and return them in the mail. Mary Kathleen was thrilled when the signed blocks arrived in the mail. She added them to her quilt.

Eleanor and Anna’s signature blocks are visible in the portion of the quilt displayed here. The quilt was donated to the Roosevelt Library in 2024 by Barbara Kellog Coulson—Mary Kathleen’s granddaughter.

Happy Birthday to theoretical physicist Albert Einstein!

Happy Birthday to singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte!

Happy Birthday to best-selling author John Steinbeck!

Educator, government administrator, and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was the highest-ranking African American in the Roosevelt administration. She served as Director of Negro Affairs at the National Youth Administration (NYA) from 1935 until Congress ended funding for the agency in 1943. Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt became political associates and close friends during the 1930s. In this somber letter, she reflects on the NYA’s legacy and mourns its end. The NYA was a New Deal agency that assisted young people aged 16 to 24 with education and job training, including trade school and work-study programs. ER’s handwritten note indicates she hoped to secure a new position for Bethune: “Write her a letter Tell her I’ll see her the first time I’m back (ask FDR if he found anything for her).”

The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, took place in Lake Placid, New York from February 4-15, 1932. On February 4, 1932, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt formally opened the Olympics in Lake Placid.

Happy Birthday to inventor Thomas Edison!

See Edison's 1915 letter to FDR and much more in our current exhibition "SIGNATURE MOMENTS: Letters From the Famous, the Infamous, and Everyday Americans."