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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 12/12/1938

WASHINGTON, Sunday—I must go back to tell you something of what has been going on the last few days, for they have indeed been typically busy days of the Washington season.Friday night I presided at the dinner of the American Public Welfare Association. The last time I had been with them was in Montreal three years ago. This di

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 12/10/1943

WASHINGTON, Thursday—The other day Dr. Wu Yi-Fang1 lunched with me and brought me a little piece of embroidery from the students at the women's college, of which she is president. It is the Ginling College, in Chentu. In China there are only two women's colleges, but a great number of co-educational universities have sprung up during the war, because of

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 11/7/1936

WASHINGTON, Friday—Yesterday was such a glorious day and we dawdled a good deal on the way down, and did not reach the White House until eight-thirty p.m. We dined and I sat down at my desk to straighten out a few things. I read some of the telegrams and letters which had come in since the election, and su

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 1/4/1937

WASHINGTON, Sunday—I said goodbye to Franklin, Junior1 on Friday afternoon and took the five o'clock train to New York, expecting to have a chance to see a friend that evening. I went from the station straight to her apartment and rang the bell. After a long time the door was opened and I discovered that she expected me at fi

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 1/22/1937

WASHINGTON, Thursday—Like any other housewife, after a busy day, I have been taking stock of yesterday's activities! I wrote yesterday's column just before I went out to the Parade. Luckily this parade was primarily a military parade though the Governors themselves in their cars, the C.C.C. boys and the National Youth Administration with its floats reminded us of

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 1/20/1945

WASHINGTON, Friday—I arrived back in Washington yesterday morning and plunged into a vortex of inauguration preparations. I went to meet some grandchildren I had not seen for a long time, but their train was late and so I went back to the White House to talk with Mrs. Nesbitt,1 the housekeeper, and to change my morning appointments in order to

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Getting It Right

On March 4, 1809, at Washington’s first inaugural ball, one keen local observer recorded that the new first lady, Dolley Payne Todd Madison, who arrived draped in a low-cut, buff velvet gown with a long train, “answered all my ideas of royalty.”1 And in truth she did have a uniquely American interpretation of regality that would keep her center stage for the ei