Prologue Room

Prologue

Photo: NPS / Kelsey Graczyk

Quick Facts

Amenities

4 listed

Audio Description, Braille, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit

Franklin Roosevelt tried to keep his use of a wheelchair from the public. Disability rights advocates, including the National Organization on Disability, successfully lobbied to add this sculpture, depicting FDR in his wheelchair, in 2001. The new statue depicted FDR as his family and close associates saw him.

A Carefully Crafted Image

The original 1997 memorial barely hinted at Roosevelt's paralyzed leg, much as FDR had during his presidency. Roosevelt's battle with polio was not a secret, however, the president worried that if people knew he was unable to walk, his opponents could portray him as too weak for office. Years before live video, the press agreed not to report on FDR using a wheelchair or aides carrying the president. 

"Franklin's illness... gave him strength and courage he had not had before. He had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons- infinite patience and never ending persistence." - Eleanor Roosevelt (this quote appears on the wall of the Prologue Room in Braille symbols, but at a size too large to be read by those who can read Braille.)

The hand sketches appear on the back of the FDR statue in the Prologue Room. FDR believed a standard 1920s wheelchair was too bulky, so he designed his own. He oversaw the construction of his wheelchair, created by adding wheels to a kitchen chair.