FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression

Exhibition Highlights

Franklin D. Roosevelt looking at a stamp through a magnifying glass
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum, Hyde Park, New York

“I owe my life to my hobbies—especially stamp collecting.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

wooden box used to house a stamp collection

FDR’s stamp tools, including magnifier, perforation gauge, watermark detector, and box for albums on loan from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

3-cent Mothers of America stamp Original Uncut Press Sheet

Fifteen of the twenty uncut and ungummed press sheets of postage stamps purchased by PMG James A. Farley and autographed to give as political favors, which led to a scandal and the special printing known as “Farley’s Follies”.

original stamp design sketch by FDR

Six original sketches by FDR for stamp designs, shown on a rotating basis due to the paper’s fragility.

Envelope postmarked "December 7, 1941," Honolulu, 8 a.m., the moment the Japanese air raid targeted Pearl Harbor

Envelope postmarked “Honolulu, December 7, 1941” at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.