Eleanor Roosevelt arrived at Westfield’s New York Central train station on the morning of August 21, 1937. She was accompanied by her secretary, Malvina Scheider, and Marion Dickerman, a Westfield native, friend and business colleague. It would be Eleanor’s eighth and final visit to Western New York’s famous Chautauqua Institution.

Eleanor’s many visits to the Chautauqua Institution have generally been forgotten under the dust covers of time. However, her significance to the area is often remembered by the members of the Chautauqua Women’s Club—especially when they speak of the club’s private White House reception on January 25, 1935, which 903 members attended. During the 2014 Chautauqua season, the past bumped into the present when two events coincided: the 135th Anniversary of the Chautauqua Women’s Club and the preview of Ken Burns’ PBS film, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. As it turns out, all three of history’s Roosevelts spoke in the Institution’s historic amphitheater. Theodore spoke in 1899 and 1905, while fifth cousin Franklin made appearances in 1919, 1929 and 1936. Eleanor, however, came eight times and was the only member of the trio who visited for personal reasons – her friendship with Anna H.J. Pennybacker.

Eleanor’s many visits to the Chautauqua Institution have generally been forgotten under the dust covers of time. However, her significance to the area is often remembered by the members of the Chautauqua Women’s Club—especially when they speak of the club’s private White House reception on January 25, 1935, which 903 members attended. During the 2014 Chautauqua season, the past bumped into the present when two events coincided: the 135th Anniversary of the Chautauqua Women’s Club and the preview of Ken Burns’ PBS film, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. As it turns out, all three of history’s Roosevelts spoke in the Institution’s historic amphitheater. Theodore spoke in 1899 and 1905, while fifth cousin Franklin made appearances in 1919, 1929 and 1936. Eleanor, however, came eight times and was the only member of the trio who visited for personal reasons – her friendship with Anna H.J. Pennybacker.

The narrative of Eleanor Roosevelt‘s Chautauqua visits is entwined with the history of the Chautauqua Women’s Club, and especially with the club presidency of Anna H.J. Pennybacker, from 1919-1938. Those 19 years were arguably the club’s high-water mark. The Chautauquan Daily’s reporting of Eleanor Roosevelt’s eight visits illuminates the decade-long relationship between the First Lady, Pennybacker and the Institution. While the history of the Chautauqua Women’s Club cannot be discussed without reference to Pennybacker, her influence and prominence at Chautauqua cannot be discussed without reference to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt first met Anna Pennybacker in 1924 at the Democratic National Convention and considered her “a mentor,” while one of the First Lady’s biographers, Blanche Wiesen Cook, has described her as a “Texas Cyclone.” Pennybacker had been the leader of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and the director of the Chautauqua Club. And she would work closely with Eleanor and Carrie Chapman Catt on World Court efforts as a peace activist.

Eleanor and Anna’s friendship was a relationship of peers – both were comfortable in the halls of national leadership, and both understood and accepted that personal friendship can, and frequently did, include mutual political benefit. In fact, it could be argued that their shared political interests were the basis of their personal friendship. In her 2010 biography of Anna, Kelley Marie King described the symbiotic nature of their friendship, stating that through their relationship, Pennybacker was able to provide Eleanor and her husband with important contacts, connections and information that they used for Franklin’s political career. On the other hand, Pennybacker’s connection with the Roosevelts helped her advance her work with Chautauqua, the World Court and the League of Nations.

As interesting as their relationship was, it should not overshadow the portrait of Eleanor as reported by The Chautauquan Daily between 1927-1937. The Daily has it all: Eleanor’s physical appearance, her personal life, her character and her rise to prominence as a political spokeswoman. The Daily chronicles Eleanor from Vice Chairman of the Women’s Division of the Democratic State Committee in 1927 to wife of the Governor of New York in 1930 and eventually the wife of the President of the United States in 1933. The newspaper’s archives offer the reader the sense of seeing Eleanor as she was seen at the time, literally. These were pre-video and Internet years. The public relied on newspapers to provide physical descriptions and The Daily was no exception. One of the best of them was Elizabeth Hall’s “Ground Wire” column on July 26, 1933. The column described Mrs. Roosevelt’s arrival at the Athenaeum Hotel. The writing perfectly captures her appearance and character. “Immediately the two ranking bellboys of the Hotel rushed forward to open doors and superintended by Mrs. Roosevelt to unload the rumble seat…,” Hall wrote. “Mrs. Roosevelt wore a light blue crepe dress, dark blue raincoat, white stockings, and white band around her hair. Walking through the lobby she carried two small bags, from which projected four white knitting needles and under her arm was a large book – The Home Book of Verse by Burton E. Stevenson.” The “Ground Wire” column also introduced Leona Hickok, Eleanor’s friend – and perhaps more – who accompanied her. Hickock had been taking her vacation with Eleanor as part of her three week tour of the Northeast.

It is, however, Mrs. Roosevelt’s six speeches and one radio broadcast that are of primary interest for Chautauquans because the audiences who heard her were interested in her political convictions. The chance to share her ideas – especially concerning women’s rights and the importance of active citizenship – was attractive. The fact that it helped her friend and mentor, Anna Pennybacker’s, position as an Institution power was a bonus. On July 25, 1933, Roosevelt gave what may be considered her most famous and popular Chautauqua speech, “The New Responsibilities of Women,” and many Chautauqua residents attended the gala reception that followed. The next day, The Chautauquan Daily headline trumpeted, “Mrs. Roosevelt Speaks to 6000,” and included the complete address, as recorded by stenographers. The July 26, 1933 Jamestown Post’s tier of headlines would report: “Largest audience of the present Chautauqua Season greets wife of President” and “Speaker stresses in Amphitheatre address Women’s Large Part in New Social System.” The newspaper reported that Pennybacker complimented Roosevelt on her speech and said that the First Lady’s “graciousness to each and every one” excited many women throughout the world.

The July 25 address was carried by radio across the United States and focused on the expanding role of women in a changing society. “I think the real reason that we can say that women have a responsibility today is because they may have the opportunity of directing some of the change in the next few years,” Eleanor Roosevelt stated during the radio broadcast. A portion of the broadcast – which may still resonate with contemporary readers – came near the conclusion. It echoes Eleanor’s constant refrain that cooperation between and among people is essential to progress. “I believe that the time has come when we as women must realize that one of the great objects which we have to achieve is to make men understand that we must work with them; that they must work with us; that this is a cooperative world; that we have interests that are dearer to us perhaps, but they will not be achieved unless we work together,” Roosevelt opined. “And one of the objectives of the new organizations of women should, I think be to draw closer to the men’s organizations and work closer with them until our interests merge.”

           

While the topics of Eleanor’s Chautauqua presentations generally reflected her lifelong principles, the July 7, 1930 presentation, “Advantages and Disadvantages of the Modern Home,” was unexpected because her interest in the changing reality of family life was not often noted. Some of her concern focused on the separation of parents from their children, caused by men working away from the family. Though no Luddite, Eleanor offered a prescient take on the negative effects new technology was having on interpersonal relationships—in this instance, the automobile. She argued that cars enabled children to escape the home and their relationships with their parents. “Everything is moving faster because everything is mechanical,” she said.

She returned to Chautauqua on July 21, 1930 to broadcast “What is the Matter with American Family Life?” This address amplified her earlier speech that month and offered a definition of parenting, which deserves consideration today, not only for children but also for adults. “Older people must not try to make the younger generation do things the way we did them or see things the way we see them,” she suggested, “but we must try to give them an ideal and a conception of the type of spirit one must have to live a useful life.”

Many Chautauquans of the time – and even today – look back fondly at the many visits of the First Lady and her loving character. Institution president, Arthur E. Bestor, referred to Eleanor’s broadcast in his 1930 report, saying that it “received wide editorial comment throughout the country.” Mary Frances Bestor Cram’s memory of Eleanor’s visit to her home captures her modesty. Cram remembers Eleanor offering to assist the maids when preparing for a luncheon that she would later be attending at the Bestor home.

There is something else about Eleanor that The Chautauquan Daily reports inadvertently capture. “Mrs. Roosevelt, traveling in the informal manner which has characterized her public life, arrived at 5:15 pm yesterday afternoon,” The Daily reported of her visit on July 26, 1933, “driving her own personal automobile and accompanied by Miss Leona Hickok, and followed by a personal secret service escort in another automobile.” The paper’s descriptions of Eleanor arriving behind the wheel of her own car contrasts her freedom of movement with the impenetrable gauze of security that wraps contemporary political leaders. That contrast raises a sobering question: Has the nation lost something in the intervening years, as illustrated by the difference in security around national figures?

Eleanor’s visits to Chautauqua may represent but a footnote in the life of a giant who lived with giants during gigantic events. But The Daily’s narrative of her visits allows the reader to meet and experience Eleanor’s presence on a smaller stage. In many ways this complex, admirable woman – who, though soon to be wife of the President of the United States, would help maids with whipping cream – appears more real in these yellowed pages than the woman in the news film reel.

Summary of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Chautauqua Visits

• Monday, August 1, 1927, 3:45p.m. Eleanor was introduced as Vice Chairman of the Women’s Division of the Democratic State Committee and a leader in public affairs to the Chautauqua Women’s Club, where she gave an address, entitled “The Civic Responsibilities of Women.” A reception followed on the Clubhouse lawn, with a YWCA banquet at 6:30 p.m.
• Sunday, July 13, 1929. Eleanor visited with her husband, New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who gave a 2:00p.m. address at the Chautauqua Amphitheater. At the 3:00p.m Chautauqua Women’s Club reception at the Athenaeum Hotel, Eleanor received a Club Life membership.
• Monday, July 7, 1930, 2:30p.m. Eleanor delivers an address at the Hall of Philosophy, entitled “Advantages and Disadvantages of the Modern Home.”
• Monday, July 21, 1930. Eleanor broadcasts her radio address from the Chautauqua Institution, “What is the Matter with American Family Life?”
• Thursday, July 7, 1932. 2:15p.m. Eleanor delivers and address in the Amphitheater, entitled “Spiritual Values of the Depression.” The July 8, 1932 Daily headline read, “2000 Hear Mrs. Roosevelt.” The speech was broadcast by NBC.
• Tuesday, July 25, 1933. 8:15p.m. Eleanor delivers an address in the Amphitheater, entitled “The New Responsibilities of Women.” Her speech was part of the Council of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women Conference.
• Friday, August 23, 1935. 2:30p.m. Eleanor delivers an address in the Amphitheater, entitled “Crippled Children.”
• Saturday, August 21, 1937. 2:30p.m. Eleanor delivers an address in the Amphitheater, entitled “A Typical Day at the White House.” A quote from the speech in the August 23, 1937 Daily is an arresting description of Eleanor’s opinion of the intellectual requirements of a U.S. president: “A bewildering variety of subjects are brought to the President for discussion in his daily series of fifteen minute appointments requiring a remarkable memory, powerful concentration and a breadth of historical knowledge to enable him to take in all matters intelligently and judge the legitimacy of interest represented.”

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