Caribbean Islands, Florida, Western U.S.(?) & other locations, ca. 1880s; 1903/4; & mid-1950s General Description: 1 letter from Pare Lorentz Associates; 1 85 x 85mm B & W (some sepia toning); 37 85 x 85mm B & W (some sepia toning); 3 85 x 85mm B & W ; 85 x 85 photos with decorative borders (mid 1950s) ; 1 120 x 175 mm sepia photo; 1 90 x 130 sepia toned oval photo; 1 60 x 40 mm photo; 1 210 x 130 sepia toned and mounted photo; 38 295 x 95 panoramic photos 86 Items in Total This Roosevelt archive constitutes three moments in time for the Roosevelt family during the height of their importance in the US political and social landscape, centred around First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. First, we have a private glimpse at Eleanor’s parents. An oval portrait of Elliot Roosevelt (1860-1894), Eleanor’s father, was taken in Abingdon, VA. Likely, this photo was taken in the last year of his life, as he had moved to Abingdon after the death of his wife and son. A smaller portrait, suffering crinkling, depicts Anna Hall Roosevelt (1863-1892), Eleanor’s mother. According to her family, Eleanor kept these photographs of her parents in her bedroom. Next, we have the documentation of Eleanor’s absence as Sara Delano Roosevelt, her soon-to-be-mother-in-law, takes Franklin around the Caribbean in 1903 or 1904, “when she was trying to lure him away from Eleanor,” as notable Roosevelt-documentarian Pare Lorentz put it in his letter to Hyde Park regarding these same photos. Pare’s letter regarding these photos, dated February 22, 1949, is now housed in the FDR Presidential Library & Museum. We’re looking at a set of 75 black and white square and panorama photos, depicting a tour of locations identified in Saint Augustine, Miami, Havana (Cuba), Willemstad (Curaçao), Spanishtown (Jamaica), Nassau (Bahamas), and possibly showing construction of the Panama Canal. The letters between Pare and Hyde Park catalogue some of these same photos that were reproduced for the Library including “bathing suit group on beach,” “pix [sic] of natives, of scenery, and one possible shot of FDR back,”, “outdoor eating shot - looks like SDR,” “numerous naval vessels,” “wonderful bathing suit pic but no indication of any Roosevelt in it - period piece,” and “1 pix [sic] of SDR on hotel porch.” The two letters, dated 2/22/1949 and 11/17/1949, to and from Pare Lorentz and Hyde Park, that are currently housed in the FDR Library and Museum, are followed up within this archive by a correspondence from the Pare Lorentz office signed by Jacqueline Bernard, noting the receipt from Elliot Roosevelt (son of FDR and Eleanor) of 27 or 30 loose pictures and four albums for reproduction by the Roosevelt Library on December 13th, 1949. Thanks to architectural clues, we know largely where these photos were taken. As Pare notes, these pictures are unlabelled, making them rife with opportunity to discover new details about who was on this Caribbean trip and to piece together the journey that FDR and his mother made before his marriage to Eleanor and the reconciliation between mother- and daughter-in-law. The final moment we have within this archive is an intimate glimpse of Eleanor in the 1950s. It is nearly 10 years after her husband’s death and we see Eleanor out west, with a mid-1950s date suggested by the Kodak stereoscope film type. These photos may have been taken during her Autumn trip in 1954 to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, which she writes about in her news column, My Day. These photos, both significant as they are and significant to future understanding of the Roosevelt’s lives, comes through the legacy of Eleanor & FDR’s third child, Elliot, and was deaccessioned through his heirs. Though some of them were reproduced for the FDR Presidential Library, they remain unpublished. Items: 1: Letter dated Dec. 13 1949, thanking Elliot Roosevelt for 30 photos loaned for reproduction in the Roosevelt library. Signed Jacqueline Bernard (Pare Lorentz Associates) 85 x 85mm B & W (some sepia toning) 1: Two women on columned porch, palm trees, flag in background 2: Man on horseback, two dogs. 3: Landscape, mountains, trees, from inside a compound. 4: Landscape, banana trees, thatched huts. 5: La Catedral de la Virgen María de la Conceptión Inmaculada de La Habana (Havana, Cuba) 6: Line of 9+ men in field, last one in pith helmet, rest in kufi-style hats 7: Hotel de Ponce de Leon (St Augustine Florida) [On his way to Cuba, Teddy Roosevelt visited St Augustine on October 21st, 1905, where he stayed at Flagler’s Ponce de Leon Hotel until Sunday, October 22nd . ] 8: 4 men in field of (basalt?) rocks 9: 4 men on harbour tarmac with two-stack ocean liner in background. (First two, rough riders?) 10: Base of Monument to Countess of Elgin and Kincardines by English School, Spanish Town Cathedral 11: Figure of monument to Countess of Elgin and Kincardine 12: Overexposed landscape, mountains from water 13: Front of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral (Pietermaii) (Willemstad, Curacao) 14: City square (Netherlandish flag in background, indicating Curacao) 15: Possibly Fort Amsterdam (Curacoa) 16: Slab of the monument for Col. John Colbeck (Parish of St Dorothy, Jamaica) 17: Royal Poinciana Hotel ( Palm Beach, Florida) 18: Landscape from atop a hill looking into a valley 19: A dirt road lined with palm trees 20: A part of the wall of Castillo San Marcos (St Augustine, Florida) 21: Landscape, mountains in background, a row of trees and maintained field 22: Group of people, 6 women, 2 men, 2 boys. 23: landscape, river running between two hills, with a cave in background. 24: Mountain terrain 25: Mountain terrain 26: Single man standing in centre, sail boats faded in background. 27: Parliament Building (Spanishtown, Jamaica) 28: Single man in center wearing navy uniform, barn (?) background 29: Single man surrounded by tropical landscape 30: Landscape 31: Blurry jungle landscape 32: line of 4 donkeys in front of Botica de “El Aguila” (Monterrey, Mexico?) 33: Person in woman’s dress, sitting with umbrella. 34: group of Black women and children, boy climbing tree. 35: Water flowing through small dam/lock, lined with palm trees 36: Woman in black between two pillars at Castillo San Marcos 37: Boy walking past monument to Simón Bolívar (Caracas, Venezuela) 85 x 85mm B & W (some sepia toning)[No date & includes “Processed by Kodak] 1: Eleanor Roosevelt and man seated in front of a barn, pointing 2: Eleanor Roosevelt stands outside of a jeep, driven by a man, with another woman and man interior. 3: Eleanor Roosevelt stands in the foreground, mountains in the background. B & W Negatives (approx. 65 x 60mm) 1. Two men and a woman in a field 2. Eleanor and man 3. Small sliver of negative 85 x 85 photos with decorative borders (mid 1950s) 1. Eleanor swimming 2. Eleanor and another woman, pool side 3. Eleanor reading 120 x 175 mm sepia photo 1. Eleanor in swim cap with child in pool, another woman in corner. 90 x 130 sepia toned oval photo: 1. Elliot Bulloch Roosevelt portrait verso: G. N. Wertz Photography, Abingdon, Va. Taken during his exile to Abingdon, VA (ca. 1880s) 60 x 40 mm photo: 1. Anna Hall Roosevelt portrait 210 x 130 sepia toned and mounted photo 1. Young Franklin Delano Roosevelt (age 9) with the family’s St Bernard 295 x 95 panoramic photos 1. Harbor scene of Willemstad Curacao 2. Landscape, two roads running parallel to up a mountain 3. Woman in black next to an early car, vast beach, and a pier 4. Harbour with multi-stacked boats and one row boat 5. View over water with three multi-stack boats 6. More of the same harbour with mountains in the background 7. Dam in jungle (possibly Panama Canal?) 8. Harbor with multi-stacked ships 9: Vertically rotated panorama of coconut palm at the Rio Cobre (Spanish Town Jamaica) 10. Landscape of mountains and palms. 11. Two women sitting under a tree, with an expanse of mountains in the background 12. Cloudy day over town with mountains in the background 13. Interior of Morro Castle (Havana Cuba) 14. Exterior of Morro Castle (Havana Cuba) 15. Exterior of Morro Castle looking down (Havana Cuba) 16. Exterior of Fortress Cabaña, three women, three men in front. 17. Harbor with fortress and cuban flag in background [post-1902], man in hat in foreground (not in focus) 18. Thatched houses with four men and one child. 19. Spanish Cathedra (Saint Augustine, Florida) with three women and small dog. Horse and buggy on right, two boys with bicycles. 20. Castillo San Marcos exterior (Saint Augustine Florida) 21. Overexposed group on beach (five men, two women) in bathing suits with two shadows 22. View from water of Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (Havana, Cuba) 23. View from water back into harbor 24. Same group of 6 women, 2 men, and 2 boys as #22 of the 85x85 25. Desert mountain landscape 26. St Anna Bay Willemstad Curaçao 27. People along a rail road, two women, one man in straw hat 28. Two stack ship with (British) White Ensign 29: Outdoor luncheon 30: Wall lined with cannons of La Cabaña Cuba 31: British Colonial Hotel (Nassau, Bahamas) [Flagler] [built in 1901, burnt down in 1922] 32: Hotel Royal Palm (Miami Florida) from water [torn down in 1930 due to hurricane & termites] [Flagler] 33: Palm trees, river, and other wetland vegetation 34: Banana trees and other tropical vegetation 35: Landscape from water, looking at mountain 36: Willemstad harbor from the water 37: Jungle landscape with men on wooden structure on right 38: Landscape with mountain in background