PHOTO: Signed photograph of official portrait as First Lady.
Roosevelt, Eleanor. Signed Photograph. [NP], [ND, but ca. 1945].
Black and white photograph, 8 x 10-1/8”; formal portrait of Mrs. Roosevelt by the famed photographer Bachrach with his stamp at the lower right corner; evidence of mounting at reverse, else fine. Housed in a custom-made cloth portfolio case.
Mrs. Roosevelt’s official portrait as First Lady, inscribed, For the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt / with best wishes for good luck / + Godspeed. / Eleanor Roosevelt.
Mrs. Roosevelt is posed in an evening gown seated at her desk in the White House. She leans one arm lightly on the desk, before a portrait of her husband; above the desk can be seen the lower edge of painting with the label, “James Monroe of Virginia.” The inscription has been written at the upper right hand of the photograph, where the image shows sheer curtains shading a bright window; thus, while the inscription has excellent contrast, it does not mar the essential focus of the photograph.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. A large aircraft carrier launched later that month as the Coral Sea was renamed the “U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt” in May 1945. The carrier recorded two historic events: the first takeoff of a jet fighter from an aircraft carrier and the first naval ship to transport nuclear weapons to sea. Thirty years later the Franklin D. Roosevelt made one deployment to Vietnam and was subsequently decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1977. When Mrs. Roosevelt inscribed this handsome photograph to the carrier is unclear, but its White House backdrop would suggest not too long after the carrier had acquired its new name.
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