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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK—Last Saturday morning we were called for to attend the morning program of the golden anniversary of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

The president of the University, Mr. Elmer Ellis, was with us and he was evidently proud of the fact that this anniversary of the first school of journalism in the country had been celebrated with such success during the previous few days. He also told me that during the first days of March the university will sponsor a World Press Congress, to which celebrities from all over the world will come.

The objective of last week's celebration was, of course, first to commemorate the founding of the school of journalism and to honor its founders and builders; second, to secure recognition of the importance of a strong free press for keeping the people free and for winning freedom for enslaved peoples; third, to win from the American people a higher regard for journalism as a profession, as important in the lives of the people and as a bulwark in their heritage of freedom.

These seemed to me to be the most important objectives set forth, and the program, as it was worked out, certainly attracted people from all over the country. My participation, of course, was in the area of the women journalists, and there the famed columnist, Inez Robb, who is a graduate of the University of Missouri, was the co-chairman who arranged for the attendance of various women in different fields of journalism.

I enjoyed very much hearing Mary Haworth speak of the particular value of the kind of psychiatric understanding that she can bring to bear on the problems of troubled individuals.

Then at lunch we heard Eleanor Lambert tell of her work in the fashion world. Also, she showed us some pictures of the fashions for spring, which delighted my soul as I never have time to go to see fashion shows, and naturally I have the interest that the average woman has in clothes. I was happy to hear her say that the important thing was for people to wear suitable clothes on all occasions, and that all clothes were an expression of the life one was living at the period in which one moved about.

As you look at some of the pictures of ancient times this fact seems particularly true. Certain fashions could never have been worn unless people lived in a certain way. But I confess that when she showed us a picture of a missile and then showed us a picture of a straight chemise it was a new idea that it was the missile that created this fashion. I never liked the missile, so now I know why I don't like the chemise!

After the lunch I met with a group of about 30 journalism students, some of them from other countries, who asked me questions for about half an hour. Following that I saw a group of young men who are connected with our Collegiate Council of the American Association for the United Nations. They are putting on a mock General Assembly, and we exchanged several ideas.

Shortly after that Mrs. Harold Bassage drove me to St. Louis, where I was an overnight guest of my husband's old friend, Mr. Lionberger Davis. Following my lecture Sunday evening in St. Louis, I returned to New York.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1959, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 18, 1959

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 June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL