Disability History

This series examines some of the many ways that disability intersected with and informed people’s experiences on the World War II home front.

Madison Grant was a key figure in the history of the National Park Service. He supported environmental conservation and worked to protect plant and animal species like redwood trees and the American bison. But he is also remembered for his support of eugenics. His 1916 book The Passing of the Great Race spread racist ideas that Grant claimed were scientific. Policymakers used Grant's ideas to restrict immigration and to control people's ability to have children.

Irineo worked with Roosevelt for twelve years as steward or valet from 1933 to 1945, attending to the president’s needs onboard the Sequoia and Potomac, the camp at Shangri-La, the White House, and at Hyde Park. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 1955 after 30 years of service under four presidents. Read more...

People page for disability rights activist Judy Heumann

Edward (Ed) Verne Roberts is considered the father of the independent living movement. As a hero in the United States’ disability rights movement, Roberts paved the way for people with physical disabilities to access higher education.

Arthur Prettyman served as FDR's valet from 1939-1945. After 21 years of service in the U.S. Navy, Prettyman was recalled from retirement to take the position of valet. He traveled with the president to Casablanca and Tehran, and met Chiang Kai-shek, Churchill, and Stalin, among other world leaders. Prettyman was with FDR when he died at Warm Springs. Read more...

Cesar Carrera left Puerto Rico for the continental United States in 1925 and a decade later was living in Washington, DC. By 1940, he was a houseman at the White House. In 1941 he was reassigned as valet to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Read more...

George Fields was working as a butler at the White House when about 1938 he was advanced to President Roosevelt’s valet. He appears on the 1940 census as one of four servants living in the White House. His decision to join the Navy came while accompanying FDR on an inspection tour of the U.S. Naval Training Station at Great Lakes, Illinois in 1942. Read more...

Irvin McDuffie was FDR's valet from 1927 to 1939. He met FDR at Warm Springs for an interview on May 1, 1927. McDuffie served FDR for two terms as governor of New York and two terms as president of the United States. In 1939, McDuffie left the White House for employment at the U.S. Treasury Department. Read more...

Leroy Jones was valet to Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1922-1927. He accompanied FDR on a series of winter houseboat cruises in the Florida Keys, was with FDR at Horseneck Beach, Massachusetts in the summer of 1923, and he was with FDR when he made his first visit to Warm Springs in October 1924. Read more...