The Museum Collection

Springwood, FDR's home at Hyde Park was her mother-in-law, Sara's domain. When Val-Kill Industries closed in 1937, Mrs. Roosevelt converted the shop building into a rambling 20-room cottage of her own. Val-Kill became a place where, as she once said, she could 'find herself and grow.' It was removed from the "Big House" and nestled in a wooded part of the family estate and served as the Roosevelt family retreat for picnics and entertaining.

Mrs. Roosevelt furnished the place modestly with many Val-Kill Industries pieces and comfortable sofas and chairs. The cottage was cluttered, in typical Roosevelt fashion, with family heirlooms, silver and paintings, photographs of family and friends, and gifts she had received throughout her life.

Here she hosted world leaders including Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Democratic presidential candidate John Kennedy came to Val-Kill to enlist her support. Students, political activists, and human rights advocacy groups, such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) youth came to Val-Kill to discuss issues of mutual concern.

Each summer, Mrs. Roosevelt hosted a picnic for boys from Wiltwyck School, an institution that was the first interracial residential treatment center for troubled boys from New York City. Picnics traditionally meant hot dogs and stories read aloud by the hostess. Guests filled the house. Val-Kill was the place where Eleanor Roosevelt lived on her own terms and practiced her uniquely personal form of diplomacy.