Connecting with
FDR
By Chris Bergeron / Daily
News Staff
Thursday, August 4,
2005
During hard
times and war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's humane leadership inspired
Carmella Perry, a Worcester housewife, who years later told her grandson
stories of "America's greatest president."
She
remembered FDR's Fireside Chats and the New Deal heartening Americans
throughout the Depression. A first-generation American of Italian descent,
she told her grandson of the four-term president who led the United States
in a world war to save democracy.
"My
interest in FDR began with my grandmother," recalled Joseph J. Plaud, now
a 40-year-old forensic psychologist living in Whitinsville. "My
grandmother loved FDR because she felt he had done the most for the
working people of this country."
Excited
by his grandmother's memories, young Joseph began collecting mementos of
Roosevelt's life at an age most kids spend their allowance on baseball
cards.
He
bought a signed photo of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her son Franklin
Jr. in "the sixth or seventh grade." "I felt a personal connection,"
explained Plaud. "That started me collecting."
In
time, his admiration for our 32nd president grew into one of the most
extensive private collections of primary documents, artifacts and historic
ephemera related to the life and legacy of FDR and his wife.
In
2002, Plaud established the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage
Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to examining FDR's place in the
20th century.
Since
July 2004, the organization has operated the Franklin D. Roosevelt
American Heritage Center Museum in Worcester's renovated Union Station,
where FDR made his one of his last public appearances. It also shows a
Special FDR Collection in Crane Public Library in Quincy.
With
an estimated 50,000 objects, Plaud's collection illuminates the legacy of
the man he believes shaped the contours of the American Century.
Exploring
the second floor museum provides an intimate encounter with great and
ordinary moments of Roosevelt's private and public life.
Visitors
will see a telegram from Republican candidate Alf Landon conceding the
1936 election that earned Roosevelt his second term. "The nation has
spoken. Every American will accept the verdict and work for the common
cause of the good of our country," he wired FDR. "That is the spirit of
democracy."
There
is the Panama hat FDR wore to the 1943 Teheran Conference and the Tiffany
wristwatch he wore at Yalta two years later when he parlayed with Winston
Churchill and Joseph Stalin.
There
are Franklin and Eleanor puppets, clocks and salt-and-pepper shakers and
banners from the Civilian Conservation Corps that FDR started to keep
Americans working in the midst of the Depression.
From
Plaud's eclectic collection, the museum is presently displaying a draft of
Roosevelt's seminal speech blasting Holding Companies, an autographed
baseball, letters in FDR's handwriting and his $5,020.80 paycheck for
October 1943 at the height of World War II.
The
most striking artifacts on display are a signed series of the president's
and first lady's handprints by a controversial psalmist who believed she
could read their character from the inked impressions of their hands.
Elegantly
dressed and articulate, Plaud said his maternal grandmother's respect for
FDR initially fueled his interest. "I grew up when Richard Nixon was
president. My grandmother regarded FDR as a man of high standards yet she
spoke of him like he was her best friend. I felt a personal connection
that made a deep impression," he said.
Plaud
began acquiring FDR memorabilia in the pre-eBay era when friendships with
other collectors pointed to treasures that suited his budget. "I just kept
quietly collecting without any goal or aim," he said.
Growing
up in Worcester and Shrewsbury, Plaud graduated in 1987 from Clark
University where he majored in psychology and history. His history studies
focused, naturally, on the Great Depression which gripped the United
States from 1929 until the onset of World War II.
A
devoted historian, Plaud praises FDR for groundbreaking legislation that
broke the Depression's stranglehold on the nation.
After
earning his doctorate, Plaud spent several years teaching psychology at
the University of North Dakota before returning east in 1997.
After
25 years his FDR collection grew so extensive other collectors kept asking
about his plans for it. Sitting next to a glass desktop from FDR's Oval
Office, Plaud said, "It made me think. Friends told me I had the largest
collection of FDR memorabilia in private hands. What was I going to do
with it?"
Thankfully
he decided not to sell his collection for "a nice villa in southern
France." He also rejected the idea of breaking it up by auctioning it off
to a private collector or institutions that might limit access to scholars
or ordinary folks.
"I
wanted the public to benefit," said Plaud.
For
him, establishing the nonprofit FDR American Heritage Center and library
in Worcester made perfect sense, considering Roosevelt's historic
connection to the city where he campaigned in November 1944, five months
before his death.
That
decision coincided with an infusion of $31 million in state and federal
funds to renovate Union Station. He credited Worcester officials,
including Mayor Timothy Murray and Assistant City Manager Julie Jacobson,
Congressman James McGovern and state Senator Edward Augustus for
spearheading efforts to restore the 94-year-old building to its former
architectural glory.
Plaud
cited several major goals for the FDR center and museum. He serves as the
organization's president.
First,
he hopes they provide a personal connection to FDR and his legacy. "This
is tangible," he said, motioning to the display cabinets. "The museum
keeps a large diverse collection together so people can see with their own
eyes and interact personally with objects about a man I admire."
Secondly,
he and others are working "very actively" on developing a curriculum for
public and private schools about the enduring impact of FDR and the New
Deal. "We want to be an educational outreach resource for Worcester
schools and then branch out," he said.
Plaud's
collection and the museum feature objects from every phase of FDR's life
as a child of privilege, state senator, assistant secretary of the Navy,
governor of New York, president and family man. "America came of age in
the era of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR is the gateway to America emerging as a
superpower after World War II. He sets the stage for the America we live
in today," he said.
For
14-year-old visitor Tyler Muench, the museum casts light on "a very good
president and a wonderful man."
Vacationing
with family, the sophomore from Florida said he was "impressed by
Roosevelt's courage and leadership."
The
museum features "about one-tenth of 1 percent" of Plaud's entire FDR
collection while the bulk of his acquisitions remain in a
climate-controlled undisclosed location.
With
thinly disguised annoyance, Plaud observed a recent Discovery Channel poll
of Great Americans that only named FDR in 10th place immediately preceded
by Bill Clinton, Elvis Presley and Oprah Winfrey.
"We
need to teach history better," he said. "The monumental nature of
Roosevelt's achievements can't be underestimated."
ESSENTIALS
The
Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum is located in Union
Station, 2 Washington Square, Worcester.
It is
open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is free and fully
handicap accessible.
For more
information about the FDR Heritage Center and museum, call 508-770-1515 or
visit the Web site www.fdrheritage.org. The organization can be reached by
e-mail at info@fdrheritage.org.
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Joseph
Plaud shared his personal collection of memorabilia of Franklin D.
Roosevelt with the public. (Contributed
photo) |
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