Descriptions of Delano Collections at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has been collecting documents, photographs, manuscripts, and artifacts relating to the Delanos since it opened in 1941. Thanks to the generosity of individual Delano family members, our Delano collection documents the personal lives, businesses, careers, and accomplishments of that distinguished family from its earliest days in America through the twentieth century.

The Delano Family Papers comprise over 55,000 individual pages of business and personal correspondence, financial and legal papers, diaries, scrapbooks, letter-books, and newspaper clippings of Warren Delano II., Franklin Hughes Delano, for whom FDR was named, and Warren Delano III. It includes Delano family correspondence, deeds, wills, genealogical materials, and scrapbooks. A story written by Elizabeth Babcock for the entertainment of the Delano family and others on the 1862 voyage of the clipper ship "Surprise" is a part of that collection. Personal and business correspondence from the Delano and Astor families regarding mining, railroad, and shipping interests, the Delano family estates of Steen Valetje and Algonac, and correspondence relating to the Fitch, Carey, Forbes, Hitch, Lyman, Grant, Robbins, Roosevelt, Terry, Ward, Hollingsworth, Weekes, and Aspinwall families is also a part of that collection.

Other major family-related manuscripts and documents include the papers of Frederic A. Delano, brother of Sara Delano Roosevelt and uncle to Franklin Roosevelt, and successful businessman and government official; the collections of the President's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, that is comprised of correspondence, legal papers, inventories, scrapbooks, and her "household/recipe" book; and correspondence dated between 1760 and 1864 from the home of Captain Warren Delano, Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The fascinating journal of Catherine Robbins Lyman Delano that recounts her voyage to China with her seven children in 1862 is an extraordinary tale of personal strength, courage, and optimism.

Delano family photograph albums, including those of Warren Delano II., Sara Delano Roosevelt, and Anna Delano Hitch, provide over a century of portraits and snapshots of that prominent American family at work and play. The hundreds of Delano photos in our collection feature a number of photos of Catherine and Warren Delano at different ages, images of exotic places visited by various members of the family, and an early photograph of the 17th century oil portrait of Mrs. Phillippe de Lannoy, wife of the first Delano in America. The Library recently acquired an elegantly-decorated presentation album created by the children of Warren and Catherine Delano in celebration of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1893.

The museum collection holds nearly a hundred objects donated by and related to the Delano family. These historical objects vary from works of art to ship models to Chinese decorative art objects, furniture, dinnerware, scrapbooks, and sketchbooks. Among these many fascinating documents of history are a bronze bust of Warren Delano II.; marble busts of Franklin Hughes Delano, Laura Astor Delano, and Warren Delano III.; and a white dinner plate bearing the Delano family coat-of-arms that was a part of the dinner service regularly used at Algonac. A scrapbook kept by Phillippe de Lannoy Delano, uncle of FDR, includes many small original works of art including scenes from Chinese life. A wooden box holds samples of Japanese wallpaper samples considered at one time for use at Algonac. Our art collection includes two oil paintings of the de Lannoy Castle of Clervaux in Luxembourg, portraits of Sarah Alvey Delano and Catherine Robbins Lyman Delano by William West, portraits of Franklin and Laura Astor Delano by Eastman Johnson, and portraits of Warren Delano II., Laura Franklin Delano, Louise Delano, Judge Joseph Lyman, Frederic A. Delano, Captain Warren Delano I., and Marie (Mrs. Phillippe) de Lannoy. The West portrait of Catherine Delano is the beautiful painting that so many Delano family members recently assisted us in purchasing. Several paintings of Algonac, one of the Delano home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and other artworks that once decorated a number of Delano homes are also preserved at the Library.

Personal items include exquisite silk fans that belonged to Catherine Delano and Sarah Alvey Delano, an early 19th century tortoise shell pocketbook owned by Sarah Alvey Delano and later given to Sara Delano Roosevelt, and a black broadcloth cape fashioned by a London tailor for Warren Delano I.

Hand stitched samplers were a way for young ladies of the 18th and 19th century to practice their needlework skills and often, the sampler memorialized members of the family. One sampler by Jane Delano, completed about 1800, lists ten other Delano family members and their birth dates. Another sampler displays the alphabet in both upper and lower case letters and the words "Wrought by Sarah Alvey Delano in the thirteenth year of her age, Fairhaven (Mass.) May (1835.)

Other artifacts of particular interest are a ship model made by Captain Isaac Delano in 1827, silver mate cups and a silver sipper from the Chilean branch of the Delano family, a gold and silver cup given to FDR at his birth by his uncle Warren Delano, and an elaborately-carved teakwood chest brought from China by Warren Delano II. A Russell and Company canvas bag used to hold mail or money reflects Delano family involvement in the China trade. An Adams-style desk given to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt as a wedding gift by Mr. and Mrs. F.A. Delano is a beautiful combination of rich veneers, marquetry, and brass work. We feature a hobby horse given to Franklin Roosevelt by his Delano grandparents in our exhibit on FDR's early life.

Through the Delano manuscripts, documents, photographs, and artifacts in our collections, the staff of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum is able to preserve and interpret the history of a family whose contributions to this nation have spanned four centuries. We continue to actively collect Delano materials and make a promise to every donor to give their gift the very best of care and professional attention. If you are interested in donating objects or art from your family to the FDR Library and Museum, please contact Mark Hunt, Deputy Director, 845-486-7746, or e-mail him at mark.hunt@nara.gov. To offer papers or photographs, call Ray Teichman, 845-486-7760 or e-mail at raymond.teichman@nara.gov.