Eleanor Roosevelt Archive
An up-close look at mementos collected by Mrs. Mabel W. Webster, Eleanor Roosevelt's personal maid during her time as First Lady.
GUEST: I've brought historic documents that belonged to my cousin. She was Mrs. Roosevelt's personal maid. When she passed, she left all of these documents to me. I visit the White House about three times when President Roosevelt was in office. I sat and looked at the president getting his picture painted, and it was really something to see.
APPRAISER: It is really quite an amazing archive. A rough estimate is that it comprises about 100 pieces. Let me start with the one right to your side, which is the obituary. That is pretty much the background information that keeps the archive together.
GUEST: Exactly.
APPRAISER: And you get various other pieces, like a lot of greeting cards.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Mrs. Roosevelt's calling card.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: As well as a large group of letters.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: The correspondence, naturally, started after your cousin left the White House.
GUEST: Exactly.
APPRAISER: The individual items...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: With the exception pretty much of one, are not worth that much.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: What is of really interesting value is the photograph in the center.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: That shows Franklin D. Roosevelt with Eleanor, Christmas 1941.
GUEST: Right, yes.
APPRAISER: That's a very striking image. She is knitting, he is reading, and they're just presenting a home life to America.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And the wonderful thing is that the photograph is signed by both.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: So this photo by itself, at auction, would probably sell for about $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The individual items, like, say, the letters...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: You have a total of 30, that probably would fetch around $800.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The smaller pieces are really not that significant.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But a conservative auction estimate for the entire archive would be around $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST: Oh, my-- wonderful. Yeah.
At ROADSHOW's 2006 production event in Philadelphia, Juanita Jackson, the owner of an Eleanor Roosevelt archive met with appraiser Ian Ehling to discuss the family significance of the group. The archive had originally belonged to Juanita's cousin, Mrs. Mabel W. Webster, who was Eleanor Roosevelt's personal maid during her time as First Lady.
These documents offer an unusual, often personal, glimpse at some remarkable moments and figures in American history.
Juanita said that she was thrilled to have the chance to visit the White House several times with Mabel during the F.D.R. years. She got to meet Mrs. Roosevelt, whom she describes as having been a "very sweet, down-to-earth lady." Ehling said that Juanita's complete archive, which he called "a treasure," would be worth between $8,000 and $12,000 at auction.
At the Philadelphia ROADSHOW event in 2006, appraiser Ian Ehling said that this Eleanor Roosevelt archive would be worth between $8,000 and $12,000 at auction.
Eleanor Roosevelt, ca. 1940 – In this autographed photo dating from around 1940, the First Lady, wearing an evening gown, sits at a writing desk beside a framed photo of her husband.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), wife of 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a lifelong advocate for progressive causes who became one of the most influential and beloved First Ladies in American history. Mrs. Roosevelt's long tenure in the White House lasted from 1933 until her husband's death in 1945 at the start of his fourth term, and during that time, in addition to her duties as hostess-in-chief, she took an active role in politics, wielding her own influence as well as counseling F.D.R. on a broad range of civil and human rights issues. She wrote and lectured prolifically, traveled widely, and was appointed by Presidents Truman and Kennedy to official posts at the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.
Mabel W. Webster served as the First Lady's personal maid during her time in the White House, developing a close friendship with Mrs. Roosevelt that continued in later years. These documents, which comprise part of an archive of correspondence and other mementos collected by Mrs. Webster until her death in 1969, offer an unusual, often personal, glimpse at some remarkable moments and figures in American history.
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