The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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NEW YORK, Sunday—There are times when I regret not being able to write you on Saturdays because, now and then, there is much more than happens in two days than I can possibly tell you.

Yesterday morning I went out to the World's Fair to open the World of Fashion Building. Mr. Irvin Scott has been most successful architecturally and the color scheme inside and exhibitions are charming.

After leaving the Fashion Building, I went over to the opening of the American Common. The most moving part of the ceremony was a procession of little girls of all the nationalities which make up our great country, who placed flowers in a little Indian girl's basket, acknowledging thereby the fact that she was the one whose race originally owned this country. The costumes of all the different nationalities made a brilliant picture and I wish I could have remained to see the folk dances which were given.

From the Fair I went to the Persian Art Exhibit at 51st Street and Fifth Ave. It is impossible to describe to you what it is like. If you have not seen it, I can only urge you to go at once. Everything is so beautiful that you can spend hours in any one of the rooms. The important thing is the realization that here is an art which has survived through 6,000 years of invasion, war, tyranny, prosperity and power. Here is the real proof that the spirit as expressed through the arts transcends all material things. These priceless treasures from the Iranian civilization are gathered from collections all over this country and may never again be seen by the public, so do not miss this opportunity.

I tore myself away from this exhibition to go to a tea given in order to tell a group of people about the work done to help boys when they come out of our New York State reformatories to find a job and get a new start in life. I hope this work can grow for many, many boys could be helped if there was an interest on the part of the public which would make expansion possible.

And now I come to an evening which was an experience I shall never forget. Robert Sherwood has written a remarkable play in: "There Shall be No Night." Of course, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne give a performance so perfect that I felt I was living in this portrayal on the stage. The rest of the cast is so good that we finished the evening feeling that we had actually been through every experience in that Finnish family's existence, which tragically enough, is now part of the life of so many other people. May God grant that if such dark hours should ever come to us, we may acquit ourselves as well!

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 3, 1940

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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