Very Uncommon Signed Photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt and His First Cabinet

This was the team that confronted and pushed back the Depression

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One of only four we could find having reached the market since the 1980s

The depression had devastated the nation. Unemployment was at 25%, and 1/3 of all employed persons were downgraded to working part-time on much smaller paychecks. In the aggregate, almost 50% of the nation’s human work-power was going unused....

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Very Uncommon Signed Photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt and His First Cabinet

This was the team that confronted and pushed back the Depression

One of only four we could find having reached the market since the 1980s

The depression had devastated the nation. Unemployment was at 25%, and 1/3 of all employed persons were downgraded to working part-time on much smaller paychecks. In the aggregate, almost 50% of the nation’s human work-power was going unused. Manufacturing dropped by a third. Thousands of banks closed, and depositors lost their savings as at that time there was no federal deposit insurance; other Americans had little or no access to their own bank accounts. Farm income had fallen by over 50%, and 20% of farms had been foreclosed. There was no public unemployment insurance and no Social Security, but there was widespread despair.

On March 5, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office as President and spoke of his plans to fight the depression, stating that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Americans of all political persuasions were demanding immediate action and Roosevelt responded with a remarkable series of new programs called the New Deal in the first year of his administration. Among the important programs that were instituted were the bank holiday and Federal Deposit Insurance, the Civilian Conservation Corps, repeal of prohibition, the Agricultural Adjustment Act and Home Owners Refinancing Act which enabled people to refinance home mortgage debts, the National Industrial Recovery Act, which established the National Recovery Adminis­tration and the Public Works Administration, the National Labor Board, and the Civil Works Administration, an emergency relief pro­gram to employ four million jobless.

Assisting FDR in these gargantuan tasks was his famed first Cabinet, which consisted of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (who became the first woman in a presidential cabinet), Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin, Secretary of Agriculture (and future vice president) Henry Wallace, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Secretary of War George Dern, Attorney General Homer Cummings, Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson, Secretary of Commerce Daniel Roper, and FDR’s friend James Farley as Postmaster General. Woodin resigned on December 31, 1933 due to ill health and died five months later.

We are pleased to offer an oversize sepia photograph of FDR in the Cabinet Room with his entire Cabinet, signed by each and every one of them. It is very uncommon, and is only our second ever signed photograph of Roosevelt’s First Cabinet in all our years in the field. The photograph was produced by the noted Harris and Ewing Studio in Washington.

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