Warm Springs 2

On the road:  The visitor center at The Little White House includes a small but handsomely executed museum of Roosevelt artifacts.  Most of these items appear to have belonged to, and were used by, the President.  After paying the entrance fee ($10 for adults, $8.50 for over-age adults, plus tax) you walk through a short corridor and find yourself awash is Rooseveltiana.

Among the most striking are two automobiles: a Willys and a Ford.  Both are beauties, and (unlike my Scion) appear not to have had much use.  In short, they are in nearly mint condition.  The Ford was outfitted with hand controls so that FDR could drive himself around Warm Springs.  Paralyzed from the waist down, and a prisoner of his high office, running around on the red clay roads of west central Georgia must have given FDR a taste of freedom.  And his driving must have given the Secret Service a few sleepless nights.

Note the license plate.  He got a new one every year, made especially for him by inmates of the Georgia prison system.

FDR's 1940 Willys Roadster...

...and some details about the vehicle.

Here is the President's 1938 Ford convertible.  The car was
kept in the garage below the Servants' Quarters.  FDR loved
to drive it around, sometimes giving impromptu press conferences
to reporters who would flock to the car.

Another conveyance was FDR's stagecoach.  Roosevelt bought considerable property in Warm Springs, including a down-on-its-luck resort hotel.  The stagecoach came with the resort property — something "for the man who has everything."

The "Tally-Ho", lovingly restored...

...and some information on the stagecoach.

Roosevelt obviously bought most of the things used at The Little White House, but other items arrived unannounced, as gifts from an adoring public.  For example, knowing that the President had difficulty walking, scores of people sent him canes, many handsomely carved.  Other artifacts in the museum attest to Warm Springs' role as a vacation spot for FDR, who clearly liked a blend of the formal and the informal.

The cane collection includes about 100 sticks.
I suspect there are more canes in storage.

This one includes FDR's likeness.

This is the breakfast china FDR used.  It appears he
enjoyed eating breakfast in bed!

He also enjoyed the porch on the back of the White House.
The museum preserves the porch furniture he used,
along with a set of informal white luncheon china.

FDR was an avid stamp collector.  A man needs a hobby!

Some artifacts relate to FDR's service as a wartime President.  One is a statue of a young man who defied the Nazis as they prepared to execute him.  Another is a naval cape similar to the one Roosevelt liked to wear at sea and for important conferences such as Yalta.

The statue...

...and its explanation.

A naval cape.

Churchill, FDR, and Stalin at Yalta.

Next time, some information about FDR's legacy in Warm Springs. •••