Photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt Standing Outside Farmington Country Club, Charlottsville, Virginia, July 4, 1936
(S.l.): (S.n.), 1936. First generation photographic print. Black and white photograph. Framed to 17 1/2" x 19 3/4", sight 10" x 13 14" A few scuffs to frame, age toning and a mild stain to mat. Photograph is clean and sharp. Fine condition.
President Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down by polio in 1921 but went to great lengths to conceal the extent of his disability throughout his subsequent political career. Few Americans knew that the man they elected President in 1932 was a paraplegic. This remarkable photograph is a great example of the maintenance of that well-orchestrated illusion as he ramps up his first Presidential reelection campaign in 1936.
Photographs of FDR standing are uncommon. The feat required an aide to lock at the knees the steel braces that extended from FDR's hips to his ankles, and then pull him stiffly into an upright position. Through great determination and effort, FDR had taught himself to take a few steps while supported in this position by shifting his torso to shuffle his legs forward. For this "two-point walk", he would grip the arm of a strong person with his left hand and brace himself with a cane in his right.
Here we see FDR standing at full height, gazing confidently off into the distance as if he's ready to walk there. He and his six companions are leaving the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia for Monticello, where FDR would deliver a patriotic speech from Jefferson's front porch for the Fourth of July. He had spoken the day before at the dedication and official opening of Shenandoah National Park.
The dignitaries in the foreground of this photograph are, from left to right: R. Walton Moore, Assistant Secretary of State; George C. Peery, Governor of Virginia; Carter Glass, Senator from Virginia; President Roosevelt; Col. Edwin "Pa" Watson, White House Appointments Secretary; James Farley, Postmaster General; and Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior.
"Pa" Watson (to FDR's left) not only managed the President's calendar but also carefully managed his image as it related to his disability by strictly controlling his arrivals and departures from events. Watson was one of two people who enabled FDR to stand and walk on the occasions when he did (the other was James Roosevelt, the President's son).
Franklin D. Roosevelt remains the only physically disabled person elected to the Presidency and this amazing photograph is a tangible artifact of what he believed was necessary to accomplish that in the early 20th century.
Item #1060
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