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

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NEW YORK, Thursday—Yesterday afternoon I had my first real time off since this past session of the United Nations General Assembly began in April. I found myself arriving a few minutes after two at the Museum of Modern Art.

First I went to see the model house on display in the Museum garden. I don't really like it from the outside and the price seems too extravagant for most people who would live in it. If one could get the price down, there are features about it which would be tremendously attractive to a housewife who was doing her own work.

The kitchen and laundry are well planned and compact, though I do not quite see the point of a bed in the laundry. If it is meant for a maid, few men or women servants of today would be satisfied with quarters of that kind. If it is meant for an extra guest on an overcrowded occasion, there is some point to it.

I particularly like the children's playroom with nothing but those hollow blocks which could be made into furniture and still remain toys. That, and the play yard outside, has great possibilities for further development, and the children's bedroom is adequate. I like the arrangement of the guest room and I think it could be very attractive.

The master bedroom, bath and closet over the garage, on the opposite side of the house from the guest room, was nice in some ways, but it would not allow much privacy. If anyone wanted to use the living room and you happened to want to go to bed, only a curtain would separate you from those who wished to stay awake.

The living room and dining room with the overhanging porch and the stone tables and benches outside the window, had great charm and were well and practically arranged.

The big windows everywhere add a great deal to the house because they take in the outdoors and make you feel that you are living with much more space than you actually have. The cost still seems prohibitive, however!

Afterwards I saw the exhibition of prints which I enjoyed immensely and from there went up to look at the Italian exhibition of modern painters and sculptors which soon will be on view. They were all very interesting, for they reflected the effect of Mussolini, the war and the after-war period.

Finally the time arrived for me to go to my meeting with Mrs. William Dick Sporborg and to see a very remarkable film called "The Land of Liberty," on which Dr. James T. Shotwell was the historical adviser.

The question of producing or rather of asking the movie industry whether it would consider producing a film on Human Rights which had commercial value, was brought up for discussion and I hope will receive serious consideration, since it is essential that people everywhere throughout the world gain a knowledge of these rights and what can be done to achieve them.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1949, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Shotwell, James T., 1874-1965 [ index ]
         Canadian-born American history professor; influenced the inclusion of a human rights declaration in the UN Charter
         [ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | ANB ]
  • Sporborg, Constance Amberg, 1879-1961 [ index ]
         American women's rights activist; President of the National Council of Jewish Women; served on U.S. National Committee for UNESCO
         [ LC | ISNI | VIAF | SNAC ]
Organizations
Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 24, 1949

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

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