Entrance Hall

The Entrance Hall at Springwood. NPS Photo.

Family heirlooms, artworks, and naval prints personally selected by FDR for this room represent the president’s family heritage, his youth, collecting interests, and his early career in politics. The hall is dominated by a life-size bronze portrait of FDR commemorating his election to the New York State Senate in 1911. The room maintains an autobiographical sensibility, displaying collections of birds FDR gathered and mounted as a young boy, furnishings acquired by his parents on their honeymoon in Europe, a selection of favorite prints and paintings from his naval collection, and a group of 18th-century editorial cartoons illustrating United States political history.

 

---

Furnishings of Note

 

Franklin's Collection of Birds

At age eleven, Franklin began collecting birds. At first, he skinned them himself and did his best to mount the first few, but soon after sent his trophies to professional taxidermists in New York and Poughkeepsie. He kept meticulous notes in a journal, documenting his kills and the identificaiton of over 300 species native to Dutchess County. Proud of her son's industry, Sara had the glass-fronted case built in the entrance hall to display them.

 

Kast

Large cupboards such as this, known as a kast (or kas), represented an important form of furniture in the Netherlands during the early seventeenth century. Prior to built-in closets or chest of drawers, kasten provided storage for costly textiles and other valuable household goods in homes of the wealthy burgher class. A kast might be bought on the occasion of a wedding and was likely used to store linen and clothing—costly articles that often formed part of a bride’s trousseau.

Learn More

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

This charming bronze portrait of Franklin Roosevelt at age twenty-nine was sculpted by Paul Troubetzkoy (1866-1936), renowned portraitist who captured the elegant world of international society at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Troubetzkoy modelled with fluidity, enabling him to create intimate portraits that capture the impression of a moment, depicting his subjects at ease, with an air of informality. This portrait, commissioned by Franklin’s godmother Nellie Blodgett, commemorates his entry into politics in 1911 as a New York State senator. Sara Roosevelt kept this portrait in her New York City townhouse. It was later brought to Hyde Park and placed in the Entrance Hall.