Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of the World

Eleanor Roosevelt is America's first lady of the twentieth century. During a life marked by personal challenges, Eleanor Roosevelt took on a series of progressively more difficult tasks. Her major accomplishment was to make American institutions more responsive to the needs of the poor and dispossessed, and to help create a universal declaration on human rights. She helped to reshape the Democratic Party into an institution more sensitive to the aspirations of women & urban Americans. She represented the humane side of the New Deal & aided minorities in their battles. As a U.S. Delegate to the U.N., she chaired the committee which wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has become an "international Magna Carta for all men everywhere." In the last years of her life, she became America's goodwill ambassador in the third world. Students will enjoy viewing her schoolgirl essay and report card, reading her magazine articles and letters, and learning about her women￢ﾀﾙs rights and civil rights activism in the White House. Students will learn about her relationship with President Roosevelt, her trips abroad during WW II, her leadership at the U.N., and see what she carried in her wallet; everyone will be surprised. This portfolio includes a Study Guide with reproducible student activities and two timelines detailing important events. 6 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * Early Life * Democrat with a Capital "D" * The Great Depression * The War Years * Civil Rights * The United Nations & Human Rights 14 Primary Source Documents: * Eleanor Roosevelt's intriguing wallet contents, poster * "Flowers Discussion," school composition by Eleanor, 1895 * Eleanor's Report Card, Allenswood School, April 1900 * Redbook, article by Eleanor on women, April 1928 * Letters between Eleanor and Molly Dewson, August 1933 * Eleanor Roosevelt's newspaper columns, November 1933 * Letter from Rohima Halloway to Mrs. Roosevelt, January 1934 * Letter: Walter White, NAACP, to Mrs. Roosevelt, November 1934 * Memo: Eleanor to FDR on organizing campaign, July 1936 * Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt from Cecil Peterson and Alice Donnell, July 1942 and March1944 * Eleanor's 1943 Pacific flights; FDR letter to "Bull" Halsey * Letters: Eleanor and President Harry S. Truman, 1950 * Award to Eleanor from the National Religion and Labor group * Letters: Eleanor Roosevelt and Sen. John F. Kennedy, 1960