Finding Gems at ERVK

Over the past two months at my internship at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, I have done a lot of research on items that we have on site. The main project that I have been working on has been a historical archive project. Although ERVK is a non-profit organization focused on girls leadership and education about creating a better world, we still house a lot of historical objects. These range from photographs to letters to books that have all been donated to the center by a variety of people over the years. Most recently I have been working on going through our vast collection of books. We have books that were written by Eleanor Roosevelt, books about Eleanor Roosevelt, books about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Roosevelt family in general, and others more relevant to what the center does such as books about women’s studies, leadership and human rights. We have also acquired a lot of books that are first edition collections and books signed by the authors and others.
While doing my research and going through the bookshelves, I found three books which turned out to be Roosevelt’s public papers as governor from 1929 to 1931. The books have Henry Morgenthau’s name inscribed on the front and on the inside cover there is a dedication signed by FDR. After doing further research I found out that Roosevelt had special editions of these books bound and inscribed as gifts to people close to him. Then I did some research on the relationship between Roosevelt and Morgenthau. Then I had to do research on whether or not the books were of any monetary value. It turns out that the same books with an inscription, dedication and signature are selling for over $30,000. Before becoming involved in politics, Morgenthau lived in the Hudson Valley near the Roosevelts and they became friends in 1913. Morgenthau worked for Roosevelt throughout his political career and probably deemed him to be a trusted friend and important political ally. Before Morgenthau entered federal politics, he started off on the state level. In 1929 he was appointed by Roosevelt as chair of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee and to the state Conservation Commission. Morgenthau was the Secretary of the Treasury during the Roosevelt administration. He was one of the most important agents in creating and financing the New Deal during the Great Depression. Morgenthau is a pretty prominent figure in American politics during WWII. As he was the only person in Roosevelt’s cabinet who was Jewish, he pushed Roosevelt to do more for refugees during the war.
After finding these three books, I have found that we own a lot of Morgenthau’s books from his personal collection. These books often have dedications on the cover pages from authors and friends gifting him the books. We also have a lot of collections of poetry and collections that consist of dozens of volumes such as “The Great Statesmen” which have Morgenthau’s signatures and his personal stamps. Although I spend a lot of my time at my internship just cataloging these books on Excel spreadsheets, there is a lot of outside research involved. I do a lot of basic searches on the internet to find out who owns the book or who has signed it and I do signature identifications.