Eleanor Roosevelt, Public Servant and Educator
The Accomplishments of a Remarkable Woman
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was truly ahead of her time. First, although she was born into wealth and privilege, Eleanor was made aware of the suffering of the less fortunate and devoted her life to helping them. Secondly, she was a fierce advocate of women's rights and taught at a school where female students were exposed to the real world. These are just two of the reasons Eleanor Roosevelt was a remarkable woman.
Serving Others: A Lifelong Passion
When she was a little girl, Eleanor's father, Elliott, who died from alcoholism when his daughter was a child, would take her with him to Thanksgiving dinners at places called Newsboy Clubhouses, which were sponsored by the Children's Aid Society, a program started by Eleanor's grandfather. This program helped street urchins. (Elliott was the younger brother of twenty-sixth president Theodore Roosevelt.) Eleanor's maternal grandmother encouraged her to visit handicapped children at the Orthopedic Hospital in New York City. This hospital was also one of her paternal grandfather's charities. Eleanor would accompany her mother's side of the family, the Halls, on trips to sing for those living at the Bowery Mission. The family would also decorate children's Christmas trees in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, one of the worst in New York City. Eleanor, who grew up in an otherwise sheltered world, later said that these experiences made her "conscious of the fact that there were people around me who suffered in one way or another."
Academia Meets the Real World
As a young woman, Eleanor taught at a settlement house that had been established in 1889. This school operated according to a unique concept: It was a "college settlement" in which educated young women lived among the "working people" of New York City. This concept originated in England. There, institutions similar to the settlement house where Eleanor taught had been established in the slums of East London. At the time Eleanor began teaching at the American settlement house, more than sixty such schools were located on Manhattan's Lower East Side. There were also about twenty similar facilities in Brooklyn. Eleanor's volunteer partner, Jean Reid, traveled downtown in her own carriage. The down-to-earth future First Lady, however, took a streetcar through the Bowery slums and walked the crime-ridden streets to get to her school. Eleanor admitted that this was often a "terrifying experience," but she also found it fascinating. She was especially interested in seeing the children interact with one another.
Source:
Harris, Bill. The First Ladies Fact Book, p. 480; 482. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2005.
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