My Day Discovery

Working for the Eleanor Roosevelt center has introduced me to a multitude of interesting stories, people, and places, showing me the impact of history in a wide range of ways. Preparing for the Medal’s event gave me the opportunity to meet amazing women who survived genocide, created social awareness, and implemented the lives and virtues of Eleanor Roosevelt. Different work exposed me to diverse stories of change and labor in American history. History at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center, however, was found mostly while digging in the back closet for me. My early work in the internship involved looking through archives in the back, just to ensure that no historical content was in the back room with the financial storage. Past managers of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center stored a myriad of documents in the back room, and the new staff wanted to ensure that nothing historical had been lost in the shuffle. I was less than excited to spend my days looking through boxes, thinking that history should be more exciting and invigorating than just exploring old financial documents from the 80’s. I looked through about 10 boxes, sifting through old financial records and promotional fliers, and found nothing, which discouraged me greatly. I was disappointed; I thought I would be finding loads of historical information, but here I was looking at audits and fliers for hours a day. Then, in a box full of financial records, I recognized the color of the paper, it looked like an old newspaper article, all yellow with torn edges. I dug a little deeper and pulled it out: yes, it was a newspaper article. Not just any newspaper article, however, it was an original print of Eleanor Roosevelt’s word in her 1940’s column, “my day.” Excited, I examined it, reading her words from the original print of this weekly column that gave a taste of a First Lady’s life in the 1940s. This find invigorated me: I was excited to be the first one to discover this find and looked forward to exploring the history behind this primary document. I found a case to preserve it in and ended up finding about 5 other primary documents in the back closet among the financial records of this center, beginning our project of collecting primary documents to include in a storyboard. The closet held many exciting finds: I found more primary documents, a signed picture of Clint Eastwood, an original copy of a 1970’s movie, and a piece of furniture created at Val-Kill Industries, the industry that Eleanor created at her home. All of this began with sorting through old boxes and dingy books, and opened a world of excitement starting with a simple newspaper column from the 40’s. It was inspiring to read the words of Eleanor from a first edition: the My Day column was written 6 days a week for nearly 30 years and gave the public Eleanor’s opinion on current events, including race, gender, and politics. This column reflected Eleanor’s position in the government. She wasn’t a lofty political figure, but a First Lady for the people, connecting with them and letting them into her life through her words in the My Day column. Discovering her words from when they were originally printed showed me a primary document with so much meaning and worth, changing my outlook on historical work.