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Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945
Taking office in 1933, against the bleak backdrop of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt responded quickly to this economic disaster with a host of regulatory and welfare measures that redefined the government's role in American life. Among conservatives, the new federal involvement in matters traditionally left to the private sector was a betrayal of America's ideals. But in other quarters, Roosevelt's activism inspired an unwavering popularity that led to his election to an unprecedented four terms.
Roosevelt sat for this formal portrait less than three months after his inauguration as the nation's thirty-second president. When the photograph was later published by Vanity Fair to mark FDR's first anniversary in office, it was accompanied by a page of headlines from the New York Times that charted "the amazing progress of the New Deal"-from Roosevelt's efforts to end the national banking crisis to the repeal of Prohibition.
Edward Steichen, 1933 |