#artifact collection

Did someone you know visit the "Hit the Beach" Great Lakes tour in 1945? The headliner for this exhibit was the LST-512, aka 𝑈𝑆𝑆 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑦. Visitors could explore a mock jungle, view weaponry, and watch live landing demonstrations:

Learn more about this poster: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/14609

Follow along throughout 2024 as we feature more #TheArtOfWar WWII posters from our Digital Artifact Collection.

See what you've been missing all year by checking out all of our FDR the Collector posts.

FDR enjoyed collecting pig figurines and kept this one on his Oval Office desk. It was a Christmas gift from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937. The First Lady had admired the pig during a guided tour of a Rural Arts Exhibit staged in Washington D.C. It was made at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. The exhibit’s organizer, Allen E. Eaton, gave the pig to her. When FDR opened his gift he reportedly said, “Don’t let Henry see this,” referring to Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Wallace led a controversial campaign to encourage farmers to destroy pigs to maintain pork prices.

See more of the objects on FDR's Oval Office desk on our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/advancedsearch/Objects/collections%3AOn%20Permanent%20Exhibit%3BlabelText%3Aoval

Join us throughout 2023 as we present #FDRtheCollector, featuring artifacts personally collected, purchased, or retained by Franklin Roosevelt, all from our Digital Artifact Collection.

World War II profoundly affected the lives of American women as the nation mobilized for national defense. With factories booming and millions of men entering the military, labor shortages threatened the war effort. To help overcome this problem, the government urged women to enter the workforce in greater numbers. Millions responded, including many who took well-paying industrial jobs previously reserved for men. Between 1940 and 1944 the percentage of women workers in the iron and steel industry jumped from 6.7% to 22.3%. In the automotive sector it increased from 5.7% to 24.4% and in the chemical industry from 15.4% to 31.6%. Between 1941 and 1944, the number of working women rose from 14.6 million to 19.4 million. Married women accounted for over two-thirds of this increase.

While encouraging women to join the industrial workforce, wartime recruitment posters sometimes offered mixed messages that reflected, and reinforced, the pervasive gender discrimination present in America during the 1940s. The imagery in many was calculated to assure Americans that female war workers retained their traditional femininity. Some offered reassuring messages that women would happily exchange their “overalls for aprons” when the men returned from battle. While many women wished to remain in their jobs after the war, they were encouraged to give up their positions to returning veterans. During demobilization, they were terminated in disproportionately large numbers. Ultimately, most wartime employment gains for women were reversed. Yet the experiences of women war workers helped inspire the postwar women’s rights movement.

Learn more about this poster on our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/.../theres-work-to-be...

On August 10, 1921, FDR spent a strenuous day sailing and swimming near his family's summer home on Campobello Island. Tired and feverish, he went to bed early, not realizing he was suffering the first symptoms of a polio attack.

Blend, shadow, conceal... are we talking about beauty tips? Nope, we're talking about instructional training posters from 1943. The "Camouflage Blinds the Enemy" poster series were a vivid reminder of the right and wrong ways to use camouflage affectively in the field. See more posters in this collection:

https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/.../%22Camouflage...

Follow along throughout 2024 as we feature more #TheArtOfWar WWII posters from our Digital Artifact Collection.

This was Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite portrait of his wife.

His son, Elliott, commissioned it shortly after FDR’s election to the presidency. The Roosevelt children presented it to their father as a birthday gift during a celebration at the family’s Hyde Park home on January 30, 1933.

Roosevelt shipped the painting to the White House, where he placed it in a prominent location in his private Study. It remained there until his death in 1945.

“You know, I’ve always liked that portrait,” he once remarked to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. “It’s a beautiful portrait, don’t you think so? . . . You know the hair’s just right, isn’t it? Lovely hair! Eleanor has lovely hair, don’t you think so?”

Eleanor had a very different reaction to the portrait. When she first saw it she burst into tears. She told reporters she wanted to burn it “because it makes me look too pretty.” After FDR’s death, she gave the painting to Elliott.

The portrait closely resembles a 1927 photograph of Eleanor by Edward Steichen. Artist Otto Schmidt likely used that photo as a reference because Mrs. Roosevelt did not pose formally for him (though she did allow the painter to sketch her at St. James Church in Hyde Park and other social functions).

Schmidt was a prominent painter of business and social figures in the Philadelphia area.

Join us throughout 2023 as we present #FDRtheCollector, featuring artifacts personally collected, purchased, or retained by Franklin Roosevelt, all from our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/19401

This cigarette box was presented to FDR in December 1944 by Siegfried Heyman of New York City. The package of Camel cigarettes stored in this box was left by FDR on his last visit to his private study in March 1945.

Join us throughout 2023 as we present #FDRtheCollector, featuring artifacts personally collected, purchased, or retained by Franklin Roosevelt, all from our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/3947/scottie-dog-cigarette-box