The American Rosie the Riveter Association was founded December 7, 1998, in Warm Springs, Georgia. Our Honorary Headquarters are at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Little White House and Museum in Warm Springs.
The new Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Museum chronicles Roosevelt’s life, his role in America’s recovery from the Great Depression, his leadership during World War II and his personal struggle with polio. Key exhibits include his hand-controlled 1938 Ford convertible, “Fireside Chats” playing on a 1930s radio, FDR’s stagecoach used during parades, a film narrated by Walter Cronkite, and the naturally warm spring water that first brought Roosevelt to Georgia. Visitors can tour FDR’s charming cottage, the guest house and servants’ quarters left much as they were the day he suffered a stroke while posing for the “Unfinished Portrait” now displayed in the museum. Just one mile from the museum is the historic pools complex where Roosevelt and other polio patients swam for therapy.
Exiting the Museum, visitors walk towards the Memorial Fountain, and Walk of the State Stones and Flags and to the large wooden “Bumpgate”, flanked by a Secret Service and a US Marine post. This is the entrance into the historic grounds of the Little White House. Beyond the Bumpgate is where time stops. Everything within this area is as it was on the day FDR died. The two buildings just inside are the Servant’s quarters and the Guest House, both with original furnishings and taped messages.
Beyond the Guest House and Servants Quarters is the charming and simple home FDR built for himself here in Warm Springs, Georgia. It is compact, practical, and suited FDR perfectly. He used a small wheel chair to move from room to room. Comfort and simplicity are the key elements in the design and furnishings. The contents of the house are essentially as they were left on the afternoon that FDR died here. In the center of the courtyard is a 48-star American flag like the one flown over the Little White House in 1945.
The unfinished portrait by Mme. Elizabeth Shoumatoff is on display in the Legacy Building. Not a brush stroke has been added since President Roosevelt collapsed in front of her on April 12,1945.
Another site associated with the Little White House is the historic treatment pools and Edsel Ford Pavilion. Constructed and dedicated in 1928, the pools were used for therapy until 1942 when an indoor pool was built on the Foundation grounds. The historic pools are no longer filled. However, one can still feel the
88-degree water at the base of a ramp in the pools. A museum at the pools complex documents the history of the area from the time before European settlement through present day. Written information and recorded messages are available throughout the site to inform the public of the rich history at the Little White House. There are also rangers stationed at different areas to answer your questions.
(Photo: Jim Cole, AP, USA TODAY NETWORK)
She made history!
Mary Doyle Keefe was the model for Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of Rosie the Riveter. The image was on the front cover of “The Saturday Evening Post” in May 1943. Click here to read the whole story.