This room and the adjoining two bedrooms and small kitchen was originally designed to serve as an apartment for Eleanor's secretary, Malvina "Tommy" Thompson. Eleanor wrote about these spaces in her autobiogrpahy This I Remember—"Part of the shop we made into an apartment for my secretary, Malvina Thompson, and I frequently went there to work quietly with her." Eleanor's friend and biographer Joseph Lash recalled, "Tommy, who had become much more than Eleanor's secretary, had her own apartment in the cottage....It had two bedrooms and a screened porch where, on genial summer days, breakfast and lunch were served. A living room served as Tommy's office and a kitchen served as her bar, usually presided over by Henry Osthagen, a gruff-voiced employee of the Treasury Department who had been gassed in the war and who became Tommy's companion after she and her husband separated." Furnishings of Note
D-Day Prayer by Franklin D. RooseveltA special printing of FDR's celebrated radio address to the American people on June 6, 1944, after the announcement of the long-awaited joint Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy. His long, highly eloquent prayer begins "Almighty God: our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. With thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy...." One of the best known message of the President during World War II. This is Eleanor Roosevelt's copy. 
View of Head Harbour, Wilson’s Beach, Campobello.This painting representing an old house and dock on Campobello Island was painted by Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962). The painting was prominently placed over the fireplace in office at Val-Kill. Ludwig Bemelmans was born on April 27, 1898 and died on October 1, 1962. He was an essayist, humorist, novelist, artist and an author of books for children. He was born in Austria and immigrated to the United States in 1914. In 1939, he created and published the first book of his popular Madeline series. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
Last updated: June 2, 2023