Photo Credit: Roosevelt House Historic Photos
Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, and it is also the 108th wedding anniversary of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The couple married on Saint Patrick’s Day, 1905, because it was the best day for Eleanor’s uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, to come to New York to celebrate the holiday and meet his family obligations. Since Eleanor’s parents had passed away, President Roosevelt accompanied the bride in the ceremony which took place at Eleanor’s godparents’ house on East 76th Street. The bride wore a full-length gown and lace vale that had belonged to her grandmother. The New York Times described her as “a very slight and very tall figure, a handsome young woman of much charm” and went on to report on how the ebullient Theodore Roosevelt was the center of attention during the reception, “the President is never so happy as when he is one of the chief actors in a great family gathering.”
Several decades after the wedding, March 17, 1944, was another important day in Roosevelt history. At the order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dr. Fred Shipman, first director of the new FDR Presidential Library, flew to Italy to survey and save important historical documents and archives. His work was part of the larger mission of the “Monuments Men”, the group commissioned by the President to find and save art stolen by the Nazis, which was popularized in the recent movie of that name.
Deborah S. Gardner, Ph.D., is the Historian & Curator at Roosevelt House.