FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Rare 1929 letter, signed by FDR, to his law partner Basil O'Connor about the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a polio treatment facility founded by FDR and O'Connor
Typed letter signed: "FDR", with handwritten corrections in unknown hand in black ink, 2 pages, 8x10½, on Roosevelt's State of New York Executive Chamber letterhead, 1929 September 3. Addressed to D. Basil O'Connor, Esq., 120 Broadway, New York City, New York. This letter to O'Connor is about a fundraising drive by Forbes Amory and John Gage for the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, renamed Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation after FDR's death. Gage and Amory were able to raise $67,037.50 in cash as well as other pledges and "promises" from donors. Roosevelt, who served as Governor of New York from 1929 to 1933, and O'Connor - known as Doc because of his involvement with polio and health philanthropy - a were law partners from January 1, 1925 until March 3, 1933, the day before FDR's inauguration as President. Roosevelt first visited Warm Springs, Georgia's naturally heated mineral springs as treatment for his polio related paralysis in 1924 and bought the resort two years later. The two founded the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a hospital for polio patients, in 1927. Today, it is the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, a comprehensive medical and vocational rehabilitation facility, providing services for people with many different types of disabilities. Roosevelt (1882-1945) was the 32nd President of the U.S., served as President longer than any other man (1933-1945). Roosevelt, who was elected to an unprecedented four terms as President and served for 12 years before dying in office in 1945, led the nation through two of its greatest crises, the Great Depression and WWII. He had previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920), a post once held by his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, and as a New York State Senator (1911-1913), and had been a candidate for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination in 1920. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Two binder holes on left. Folded twice horizontally and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.