Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884. She was the niece of former President Theodore Roosevelt, and later became the wife of future President Franklin D. Roosevelt (her fifth cousin).
She is known for her role as First Lady during the Great Depression and World War II. She was the first woman in that role to hold a press conference, and she was an advocate for minorities, the disadvantaged, and the disabled.
In her post–White House life, she served as chair of the Human Rights Commission for the United Nations General Assembly and as first chairperson of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
But to get a different sense of Mrs. Roosevelt’s many causes, interests, and associations, we can look inside her wallet.
Among the many cards and bits of paper, she had a license from the state of New York to carry a pistol, an expired card to the Newspaper Guild’s Press Club in New York City, a Diner’s Club Credit Card, a health insurance card, a “Bell System Credit Card” with instructions on how to make a collect call, a St. Christopher card for the patron saint of travel, and an air travel card.
The contents of her wallet—cards, photographs, bits of poems—at the time of her death in 1962 are now part of the holdings of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. You can see the full contents of her wallet in the book Records of Our National Life, published for the 75th anniversary of the National Archives.
You can read more about Mrs. Roosevelt’s life and accomplishments over at the Our President’s tumblr blog.
