The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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HYDE PARK, N.Y., Friday—After bidding good-bye to my guests yesterday morning, I flew back to New York, and met Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes for lunch. After lunch I went with Mrs. Morgenthau to help her select the furniture which she is placing in the school library at Arthurdale, West Virginia. Her mother, Mrs. Morris Fatman, was very much interested in the project there, and ever since her death, Mrs. Morgenthau has been doing, either with her sister, or alone, certain things in memory of her mother which she felt her mother would like to do. She is going to furnish for the residents in Arthurdale, the school library, which is used as a community library and which will be a meeting place for young and old. It seems to me such a wonderful thing to do in memory of someone you have lived to keep alive their interests by continuing your own interest in the things that they cared about.

Last evening I took Anna and John and some of their friends to the theatre. When you come to New York from other places in the United States, you naturally feel that you want to see such plays as you have heard much about, and so I chose "You Can't Take It With You." I have already told you how much I was entertained by this play when I saw it first, and last night I enjoyed watching the keen amusement of my children, who seemed to catch every point which had appealed to me.

Afterwards we all went over to the Waldorf-Astoria to see my little friend, Roberta Jonay, open in a new engagement there.

This morning my children are devoting themselves entirely to business and so I am spending the day in Hyde Park. I like New York City, probably because I was born and brought up there, and I can always find something I want to do, but at this season of the year, I would rather have one hour in the country than a whole day in any city. As I motored up I kept thinking how delightful it is that we now have parkways which are so beautifully landscaped and laid out so that we can get glimpses of the best of our scenery wherever we are.

The Belgian Ambassador spoke of our park systems the other night at dinner, and said that he hoped to take the Prime Minister's wife over the Skyline Drive in Virginia, which he considers a very beautiful trip. I have driven in the years gone by over many of the beautiful drives in Europe, but I think that we can match their scenery with scenery of our own in many parts of this country. Sometimes because of our great spaces, it seems even more majestic and grand.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Fatman, Lisette Lehman, 1864-1936 [ index ]
         Mother of Elinor Morgenthau; Mrs. Morris Fatman
  • Morgenthau, Elinor, -1949 [ index ]
         American Democratic Party activist; spouse of US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
         [ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ]
  • Rhodes, June Hamilton [ index ]
         American, manager of Democratic women's activities in Al Smith's 1928 Campaign, ER's assistant in DNC women's activities
  • Roosevelt, Anne Clark, 1916-1973 [ index ]
         American; spouse of John Aspinwall Roosevelt
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ]
  • Roosevelt, John A. (John Aspinwall), 1916-1981 [ index ]
         American politician; ER's and FDR's youngest son
         [ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ]
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 26, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on May 2, 2022.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated June 25, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 25 June 1937, AERP, FDRL