Private collector's FDR enthusiasm makes for unique = museum

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IF YOU GO ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt American = Heritage=20 Center: Union Station, 2 Washington = Square,=20 second floor, Worcester, Mass.; http://www.fdrheritage.org/=20 or 508-770-1515. Open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 = a.m.-4 p.m.=20 Free admission.=20

Other FDR sites:=20

Franklin D. Roosevelt = estate, Hyde=20 Park, N.Y.; www.nps.gov/hofr/ or=20 800-337-8474 or 845-229-9115. Grounds include=20 Springwood, which was FDR's birthplace and = family home,=20 and the Presidential Library and Museum. Eleanor = Roosevelt's cottage, Val-Kill, is also in Hyde = Park.=20

Roosevelt Campobello International=20 Park, Campobello Island, New Brunswick, = Canada=20 (across the FDR Memorial Bridge from Lubec, = Maine); http://www.fdr.net/ or=20 506-752-2922. Grounds include FDR's summer home, = which=20 is open to tours.=20

The Little White House Historic Site = and F.D.=20 Roosevelt State Park, Warm Springs, = Ga., http://www.fdr-littlewhiteh= ouse.org/=20 or = 706-655-5870.

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Private collector's FDR = enthusiasm makes=20 for unique = museum

Updated = 1/18/2007 7:08 AM = ET

E-mail=20 | Save=20 | Print=20 |

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By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press

WORCESTER, Mass. =97 Mention FDR, and = most people=20 talk about the Great Depression, the New Deal and fireside = chats.

But when Joseph Plaud talks about the = longest-serving=20 president, he comes up with enough material to fill a museum. = Which is=20 exactly what he's done.

Scores of handwritten letters, personal = belongings=20 and even hand prints that were analyzed by a "palmist" are = displayed in=20 Plaud's Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center & = Museum,=20 located in a seemingly unlikely spot: Worcester's Union = Station.

Plaud was in junior high school living in = nearby=20 Shrewsbury when his collection began with a picture he bought of = Eleanor=20 Roosevelt and FDR Jr. for about $50. He found it in a Boston = bookstore,=20 and picked it up after being inspired by his grandmother's = countless tales=20 about the 32nd president.

"She was a young woman during the = Depression, and she=20 talked about him like he was a close personal friend of hers," = said Plaud,=20 a 41-year-old forensic clinical psychologist who wears bow ties, = French=20 cuffs and suspenders.

Plaud owns thousands of FDR-related pieces, = spanning=20 Roosevelt's public service from his time as a New York senator = through 12=20 years in the White House that reshaped the country with programs = of the=20 New Deal.

"It's a remarkable achievement," Jim = Roosevelt, one=20 of FDR's 26 surviving grandchildren, said of Plaud's collection.=20 Roosevelt, who lives in Cambridge and is president of Tufts Health = Plan,=20 says he's visited the museum several times.

"He's taken an extraordinary collection of = real,=20 tangible history and placed it in a very accessible and attractive = place,"=20 he said.

Among the most impressive pieces are = documents of=20 signatures from the nine Supreme Court justices and most of the = U.S.=20 representatives and senators sitting in Congress during FDR's 1936 = re-election bid. The autographs were reprinted by the president's = campaign=20 in a flier that billed the signatories as members of the "Franklin = D.=20 Roosevelt for President Club."

There's also a handwritten letter that = Roosevelt sent=20 to Jouett Shouse, chairman of the Democratic National Executive = Committee=20 and the leader of the "Stop Roosevelt" group that failed in its = mission at=20 the 1932 nominating convention.

"I am not one to hold any rancor towards = the give and=20 take of battle during the pre-nomination campaign, and as you = know, I was=20 wholly ready to support and work for the nominees and the party if = someone=20 other than myself had been chosen," Roosevelt wrote.

There are a number of other, better-known = sites=20 related to FDR around the country, including his home in Hyde = Park, N.Y.;=20 his summer home on Campobello Island, in New Brunswick, Canada, = just=20 across the FDR Memorial Bridge from Lubec, Maine; and the "Little = White=20 House" in Warm Springs, Ga., where FDR sought relief for his polio = by=20 swimming in the warm local spring waters.

"Every person who walks through the door = asks why the=20 museum is here," says its director and sole employee, Cyrus = Lipsitt.

And they're all given the same quick = history lesson=20 about the New York native's ties to Massachusetts. Roosevelt = attended=20 boarding school in Groton before going to Harvard and made several = train=20 stops at Union Station. But that history almost seems like more of = a=20 fortunate coincidence for Plaud.

Until 2004, the documents, pictures, books = and=20 knickknacks that Plaud alternatively categorizes as "ephemera" and = "stuff"=20 were hanging on walls and filling bookshelves and safes in his = home in=20 nearby Whitinsville.

"This is my home," he said. "And this is my = stuff.=20 This is where I want people to be able to see it."

With the collection outgrowing its domestic = space,=20 Plaud established the non-profit heritage center in 2002. Two = years later,=20 he opened the museum on the second floor of Worcester's = refurbished Union=20 Station.

The collection includes many items that = offer unusual=20 insights into FDR's public and private life, such as the letter = Roosevelt=20 sent in 1927 to a man who was seeking treatment for his nephew = stricken=20 with polio. Roosevelt had been diagnosed with the disease six = years=20 earlier, just after his 1920 vice presidential loss.

"A year ago I had great difficulty in = walking with=20 braces and crutches but now get around with a good deal of ease = with one=20 brace, one crutch and one cane," he wrote in the year before he = was=20 elected governor of New York.

That letter gives a more honest accounting = than one=20 sent by a Roosevelt political adviser in 1921 to allay any fears = that=20 polio might be an obstacle to FDR's political rise. The letter = downplayed=20 the illness as a "very mild" case that would have "no permanent=20 effects."

But the pictures showing FDR wearing leg = braces and=20 one of the canes he used prove otherwise.

Along with displays of FDR's statesmanship, = Plaud's=20 exhibit includes a set of hand prints that a so-called palmist = used for a=20 character sketch of the president. The work done by Nellie Simmons = Meier=20 came at the request of Eleanor Roosevelt, who realized that any = leak of=20 the arrangement could cause her husband significant = embarrassment.

In a series of letters exchanged between = Eleanor=20 Roosevelt and Meier, the palmist assures the first lady that she = wouldn't=20 publish her findings while FDR was in office.

Meier honored her word, but put her = findings in an=20 essay that is part of Plaud's collection.

She concluded that Roosevelt was a "mental = explorer=20 with the inquiring mind of a research worker interested in = experimenting=20 in varied laboratories of unlimited possibilities."

Posted = 1/16/2007 4:27=20 PM ET
Updated = 1/18/2007=20 7:08 AM ET	E-mail=20 \| Save=20 \| Print=20 \|


Enlarge	By = Chitose Suzuki,=20 AP

Look into=20 the past: Cyrus Lipsitt, director of Franklin D. = Roosevelt=20 American Heritage Center Museum, right, poses with a = carved=20 wooden statue of the former=20 = president.


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