Description:

Roosevelt Franklin



Franklin D. Roosevelt ALS to Warm Springs Physical Therapist Helena Mahoney

 

Superb content relating to the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation!

 

In a letter addressed to the resort's chief physical therapist Helena Mahoney, FDR mentions its director Dr. LeRoy Hubbard, incoming patients, and partnering physical therapy school Peabody College! The partly paralyzed Roosevelt also employs a strange use of metaphor when he hopes that the winter weather "has its back broken."

 

2pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by future 32nd U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) as "F.D.R." on the bottom left corner of the second page. Written in Hyde Park, New York, undated, but probably circa 1926-1928. On watermarked cream stationery bearing "Franklin D. Roosevelt / Vice President / Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland / 55 Liberty Street / New York City" letterhead at top. Expected light toning and paper folds, else near fine. 7.125" x 10.5".

 

In full:

 

"Hyde Park

 

Dear Miss Mahoney -

 

It is good to get your letter, + the Christmas + New Year's parties must have been a grand success - + I'm so glad that everyone was so happy -

 

This cold spell must have been very trying + I only hope its back is broken now + that we shan't have another one this winter. The Doctor writes you will be back to over 20 patients before the end of the month + I suppose you will get Miss Lauer back shortly. Are you trying exercises or playing games in the Pavilion these cold or wet days?

 

Missy & her Aunt Nellie [?] leave the 16th for Warm Springs & James & I come down the 27th. I take it from Dr. Hubbard's letter that you are not going to Peabody College -

 

All well here - this is my last weekend at Hyde Park will be in N.Y. till I go -

 

Always sincerely

 

F.D.R.''

 

In 1921, Roosevelt had become Vice President of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, an insurance company specializing in bonding and contract laws, and served as the residential director of its New York offices. It was during his tenure there, in August 1921, that FDR first showed signs of permanent paralysis associated with polio. Roosevelt used his social and political connections to bolster the company's business until his election as New York governor in 1928.

 

Roosevelt frequently visited Warm Springs, the site of a natural hot spring in western central Georgia, in the years following his illness. He sought out its hot (88° F) and mineral-rich waters almost every year between 1924-1945. In 1926, FDR purchased the springs, land, and buildings at Warm Springs and collaborated with friends to establish the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation (now the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation) the following year. The mission of the Foundation was to provide low-cost treatment to polio patients.

 

FDR contracted Dr. LeRoy Hubbard (ca. 1857-1938), an orthopedic surgeon from the New York State Department of Health and a swimming instructor, to conduct a six-month study of the beneficial effects of hydrotherapy. Dr. Hubbard was appointed head of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in 1926, and worked there well into the 1930s.

 

FDR's correspondent was Helena Mahoney, the principal physical therapist at the institute. In this role, Mahoney worked with patients in the pool, supervised their exercises and games, and monitored patients' general health. Other physical therapist trainees, called "physios," were recruited from Nashville, Tennessee's Peabody College for Women. It's likely that the Miss Lauer mentioned in Roosevelt's letter was also a physical therapist and a graduate of the school.

 

An outstanding letter about FDR's beloved Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, dating from its first experimental years!

 



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