Christopher Brick
Editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
George Washington University
"Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and wife of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, wrote countless letters and gave thousands of speeches during
her life (1884-1962). She hosted radio and television shows that galvanized
public discussion during the Great Depression and World War II, and helped
Americans understand complex issues like nuclear policy. We have 401 of her audio
and moving image recordings.
Before this project, the only way to find out what
she said on her shows was to listen to each of the hundreds of recordings
individually. I applied for an NEH grant to support the transcription of these
recordings so that everyone from historians to schoolchildren can more easily
access her insights, through primary materials and lesson plans.
It took undergraduate
and graduate students thousands of hours to carefully transcribe and proofread each
recording before we could make the information available to the public in print
and digital form. Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy is part of our
American story, and these items are a vulnerable piece of American heritage. Even
if some day these recordings disappear, these transcripts never will."
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