Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of Franklin Roosevelt and one of the most influential first ladies in United States history.

Link to the White House site for short biography

Blanche Wiesen Cook Continues Her Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, The New York Times (November 18, 2016)

Primary Sources

Eleanor Roosevelt Letter to the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1939

Eleanor Roosevelt's Four Basic Rights, 1944

• Her statement of the four basic rights that every citizen must enjoy

Image from LivingNewDeal.org, Department of Geography, University of California Berkeley

My Day Newspaper Columns

My Day: A Comprehensive Electronic Edition of Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day Newspaper Columns

• 6 Day a week Newspaper Column that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote from December 30, 1935 to September 26, 1962

• At its height, the column appeared in 90 newspaper nationwide with a readership of 4,034,552

• By the 1950s, the column voiced her political positions and political activities

My Day, The First Lady in Her Own Words

Progressive Era and the New Deal

Roosevelt represented several ideologies of the Progressive Era. She believed that the environment in which an individual lived in played a large role on shaping this person's socioeconomic 'fate.'

This perspective rejected Social Darwinism and embraced 'Social Gospel.'

• Roosevelt believed that the government had a social responsibility to maintain equality, justice, and various living/working standards.

In the early 1920s, Roosevelt became a member of several unions/clubs preaching similar attitudes.

• Women's Trade Union League
• League of Women's Voters
• National Consumers League
• City Club of New York
• These groups fought to establish a minimum wage, maximum hours, child labor laws, and worker safety standards.

Official White House Portrait

Eleanor Roosevelt also supposedly bisexual and had a close romantic friendship with White House journalist, Lorena A. Hickok.

The Declaration of Human Rights

As a U.S. international delegate she also helped craft the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in December 1945.

Click here for a video of Eleanor Roosevelt giving a speech on human rights

Link to the Creation of the United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Videos

• How Eleanor Roosevelt Redefined the Role of First Lady 
• Eleanor Roosevelt Interview (1957)
• Brain Pop Eleanor Roosevelt  

Teaching Resources

• Eleanor Roosevelt Teaching Resources (links to lesson plans and case studies for all grade levels) 
• National Park Service: First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill (lesson plan on Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site) 
• Using Photographs and Cartoons to Teach About Eleanor Roosevelt (lesson plan with lots of links)
• Eleanor Roosevelt Curriculum Guide (vocabulary list, primary sources, in-class activities, etc.)