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No ordinary museum

An unrivaled display, in an unexpected place, born = of a=20 man's interest in collecting all things FDR

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff=20 | March 18,=20 2007

WORCESTER -- Some museums make you = feel as if=20 you're reading an encyclopedia -- authoritative and = thorough,=20 sometimes dry. But at a peculiarly located museum here = dedicated to the life, death, and legacy of Franklin = D.=20 Roosevelt (1882-1945), you also feel as though you are = taking=20 a peek into someone's diary. You walk away with some = intimate=20 knowledge, but at times you also feel that you are = looking at=20 something that is perhaps too personal for your = eyes.

There is the watch the 32nd president might have = been=20 wearing when he died; what is believed to be his last=20 signature; Eleanor Roosevelt's charge card at = Bloomingdale's.=20 Sitting in a glass case is the president's monthly = paycheck=20 from Oct. 30, 1943, for $5,020.80, addressed to The = White=20 House, Washington, and with his endorsement on the = back.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center = Museum ,=20 contained on the second floor of the elegant Union = Station in=20 downtown Worcester, is the largest private collection = of FDR=20 material in the world. The collection belongs to = Joseph J.=20 Plaud , 41, a clinical psychologist who amassed FDR = material=20 like most boys once collected baseball cards. Plaud = just never=20 stopped.

The museum is filled with just about everything you = can=20 imagine with FDR's image. Socks, ties, beer steins, = coffee=20 mugs, clocks, and plenty of campaign buttons ("I Want=20 Roosevelt Again," "We Need You," "The People's = Friend," and=20 "Re-Elect Roosevelt And Be Secure"). There are also = plenty of=20 dimes, a coin that now has Roosevelt's face on it in = part to=20 commemorate his role in founding the March of Dimes = campaign=20 to fight polio.

In one display are items from FDR's White House = desk, laid=20 out as he may have had them. There's the pen he used = to sign=20 New Deal legislation. His eyeglasses. An ashtray made = out of=20 the flooring from previous Cabinet rooms.

There are also signatures of nearly all members of = the=20 House, Senate, Cabinet, and Supreme Court -- from Huey = Long to=20 Louis Brandeis -- that Roosevelt collected in 1936 . = (He later=20 added to the top of the list "Franklin D. Roosevelt = for=20 President Club ," and sold it as a flier for 25 cents = to raise=20 money for his campaign, a maneuver that would probably = draw=20 plenty of outcries today.)

There is the two-sentence telegram President Hoover = sent to=20 President-elect Roosevelt after an assassination = attempt less=20 than three weeks before his inauguration. "Together = with every=20 citizen I rejoice that you have not been injured," = wrote=20 Hoover, who was not friendly with Roosevelt. He then = asked=20 about his friend, Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who = was shot=20 by the assassin and three weeks later died from his=20 injuries.

Plaud acquired his first FDR memento as a teenager = in the=20 late 1970s when he was browsing in Boston's Brattle = Book Shop=20 and found an autographed photo of Eleanor Roosevelt = and her=20 third son, Franklin Jr. Plaud paid about $50 for it, = and since=20 then has amassed a collection through estate sales, = gifts, and=20 auctions.

"Why? That's the question," says Plaud, who dresses = nattily=20 in bow ties, talks with his hands, and wears a wide = grin. "Why=20 not? To paraphrase RFK."

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library and Museum, = the first=20 of the presidential libraries, is in Hyde Park, N.Y., = and=20 those who come to the museum in Worcester always have = the same=20 question: Why here? The answer, Plaud says, is largely = because=20 he is here. But he is also quick to detail Roosevelt's = ties to=20 the area. He went to boarding school at Groton before = going to=20 Harvard College, where he was president of the Crimson = student=20 newspaper. (Roosevelt never made it into the = Porcellian, the=20 school's most exclusive club, a rejection that he = later called=20 "the greatest disappointment of my life.")

The president's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt , had = ties to=20 Fairhaven. FDR also passed through Union Station many = times,=20 including for a brief speech in the final days of his = 1944=20 campaign, as he was on his way to Fenway Park for his = final=20 campaign speech .

The museum opened in July 2004, following = renovations at=20 Union Station. Since then it has expanded several = times and=20 now occupies a series of rooms. One is dedicated to = Works=20 Projects Administration artists who depicted New = England=20 scenes -- farms, foliage, and piers, as well as the = Charles=20 River, Hatch Shell, and the Church of Christ, = Scientist's=20 mother church . In the corner of one of the rooms are = two=20 chairs, an electric fireplace, and a vintage-looking = CD player=20 playing FDR's "fireside chats."

Roosevelt got along well with the press. They = avoided=20 writing about his battle with polio. He held press = conferences=20 twice a week and the national newcasts all broadcast = his=20 famous "fireside chats." Five newsmen who covered the = White=20 House also gave Roosevelt a wristwatch from Tiffany = & Co.=20 with an inscription on the back that said, "Franklin = Delano=20 Roosevelt with Loyalty, Respect and Affection." The = president=20 wore the watch at the Yalta Conference in February = 1945, when=20 he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill = and=20 Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to confer on the Allied = strategy=20 as World War II wound down. He was also thought to be = wearing=20 it when he died at Warm Springs, Ga., on April 12, = 1945.

There are the secret handprints used by a palm = reader to do=20 a character sketch of Roosevelt when he was at the = height of=20 his presidency, with the Depression seeming to be = subsiding=20 and World War II on the horizon. There is also = correspondence=20 from the White House to do damage control and prevent = anyone=20 from learning about the palm readings before his = death.

"His palm has a resilience that shows his = versatility and=20 ability to conform to the requirements of = circumstances,=20 environment and people," the palm reader, Nellie = Simmons=20 Meier, wrote in her character sketch. She also said = that the=20 president had a "great love of the sea," a "love of = power,"=20 and "passive courage, self control and resignation in=20 accepting physical limitations."

Throughout the museum are Roosevelt's letters. And = staring=20 at all these documents, applications, and personal = notes, one=20 can't help but focus on his signature, from the = flowery=20 penmanship that he signed in a Groton textbook when he = was 17=20 to the chicken scratch of his final signature. The = only time=20 he writes his full name is in his 1919 application to = "Who's=20 Who in America." Even his wedding certificate has only = his=20 middle initial.

Around 1939, the loop in the R in Roosevelt stops. = He signs=20 Franklin D. Roosevelt for formal letters and = documents, and=20 FDR is reserved for close associates.

His last signature is on a small envelope and is = barely=20 legible. The D and R run together, and he appears to = make a=20 mistake, forgetting the L in Roosevelt and writing = over to=20 correct it.

Plaud believes that this was one of the last times=20 Roosevelt signed his name before he died.

One of the most intriguing items is a group of = three=20 watercolor paintings that were created over the last = three=20 days of Roosevelt's life. They were the drafts that = Elizabeth=20 Shoumatoff was using for what became her famous = "Unfinished=20 Portrait," which she was painting when Roosevelt = slumped over=20 and died. Years later, at the request of President = Johnson,=20 she completed the portrait.

In one corner of the museum is a speech Roosevelt = had=20 prepared for a Jefferson Day dinner on the day after = his=20 death. In it, the ailing president wrote, " The only = limit to=20 our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of = today. Let=20 us move forward with strong and active faith."

Matt Viser can be reached at = maviser@globe.com.=20 3D""=20

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