It’s National Coffee Day!

Remember sharing a pot of coffee with your coworkers? Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney wrote this memo to Staff Secretary Jim Connor in October 1975, wanting to know why the bill for Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld’s office had been over $100 the previous month. Connor’s handwritten note succinctly sums up why it was so high: “They are drinking too much coffee and have too many people drinking it!”

The White House Mess records showed that the bill covered 200 pots of coffee, meaning that the nine staff members and their guests had consumed about 50 pots per week in September.

Image:  Memorandum from Dick Cheney to Jim Connor Regarding the Coffee Bill for White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld’s Office, 10/20/1975 (National Archives Identifier 16637889)

Anyone for Tennis?

For the next two weeks, the FDR Library will be celebrating tennis history in honor of the President’s first cousins, Ellen and Grace Roosevelt, pictured here (Ellen, left, and Grace, right).

Ellen won the 1890 singles title and shared the doubles championship that year with her sister Grace. Ellen paired with Clarence Hobart in 1893 to take the mixed doubles title. Hobart found romance with another mixed doubles partner and won the championship with his wife Augusta Schultz in 1905.

Ellen and her sister Grace were fierce competitors, belying the notion that early women’s tennis was merely a genteel past-time for elegant ladies. They actively competed in championships both at tennis clubs in the Hudson Valley (where they resided not far from Springwood, FDR’s birthplace and home) and in tennis centers like Newport and Narragansett, Rhode Island (photo: at play in Narragansett, Rhode Island).

Photos of Ellen and Grace donated by their family after Ellen’s death in 1954 document the early history of the game in the United States. These images include Ellen and Grace in formal portraits as well as in match play. Some images may have been taken by Ellen or Grace or by their father John Aspinwall Roosevelt, FDR’s uncle.

Many have never been seen by a wide audience and may be the only photos of early US championship tennis.

The men’s match shown in this photograph is one of several in our collection documenting the 1887 men’s championships between Richard D. Sears and Henry Slocum on August 30, 1887 at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. These may be the only extant photographs of the match in play. Sears defeated Slocum in straight sets (6-1, 6-3, 6-2). Sears won the first seven US National Championships, all contested on grass, in Newport.

Remembering John Paul Stevens, 1920-2019

We are sad to mark the passing of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens earlier this week at age 99. He was the third longest serving justice at the time of his retirement in June 2010, just under 35 years after President Ford appointed him to the Supreme Court.

Born in Chicago, Stevens graduated from the University of Chicago in 1941. He served in the Navy during World War II as an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater. After the war he attended Northwestern University School of Law and graduated first in his class. Stevens then served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge before entering private practice. He worked for law firms in the Chicago area, including one he helped form, for many years, dealing mostly with litigation and antitrust law. Additionally, he taught law classes part time and gained experience serving as counsel on Federal committees.

Stevens became a United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in October 1970. He served in that capacity until November 1975 when President Ford nominated him to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice William O. Douglass. “Judge Stevens is held in the highest esteem by his colleagues in the legal profession and the Judiciary and has had an outstanding career in the practice and the teaching of law as well as on the Federal Bench,” President Ford said in his nomination remarks. “I am confident that he will bring both professional and personal qualities of the highest order to the Supreme Court.”

The Senate quickly confirmed Stevens with a vote of 98-0 and he took his seat on the bench on December 19, 1975. Although he was registered as a Republican when he was appointed, over time he became viewed as part of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court. President Ford never regretted nominating Stevens. “He has served his nation well, at all times carrying out his judicial duties with dignity, intellect, and without partisan political concerns. Justice Stevens has made me, and our fellow citizens, proud of my three decade old decision to appoint him to the Supreme Court,” President Ford wrote in a letter honoring Justice Stevens in 2005. Stevens received a copy of the letter, which he reportedly displayed in his Supreme Court chambers.

Read historian Richard Norton Smith’s interview with John Paul Stevens from the Ford Presidential Foundation’s Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project.

Images:  President Gerald Ford, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court Building for the Swearing-in of Stevens as an Associate Justice, 12/19/1975 (National Archives Identifier 6926435)

Letter from President Gerald R. Ford to Dean William Michael Treanor regarding Justice John Paul Stevens, 30 Years on the Supreme Court, 9/21/2005, from the Ford Post Presidential Office Files, Box A544, folder “Correspondence File, 2005 [To-Tu]”

Letter from Justice John Paul Stevens to President Gerald R. Ford, 10/11/2005, from the Gerald and Betty Ford Special Materials, Box A10, folder “Stevens, John Paul”

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day commemorates the signing of the Constitution, and encourages people to learn more about their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States.

The Constitution is on permanent display year round at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, DC. Read the full transcription of it on the National Archives website. Explore additional resources for learning and teaching about the Constitution from the National Archives Education Updates blog.

Image: President Ford’s Citizenship Day and Constitution Week, 1976, Proclamation

The Pare Lorentz Film Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has launched a new animated video on Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Dust Bowl created by Roosevelt great-granddaughter and visual storyteller Perrin Ireland and narrated by CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. The project was funded by a grant from the New York Community Trust.

 “FDR and the Dust Bowl” combines powerful animated visuals with stirring narrative to stimulate viewer engagement with important aspects of the Roosevelt story. This is the second video released as part of the Pare Lorentz Film Center’s “Animate the Roosevelts” project. The first video – focusing on Japanese American Interment – was released in 2017.

Read more about “FDR and the Dust Bowl” in FDR Library Director Paul Sparrow’s blog: https://fdr.blogs.archives.gov/2018/06/20/fdr-and-the-dust-bowl/

“What is important in our lives is not so much what we have in the way of intelligence or talent, but what we do with these gifts.”

Betty Ford shared these words of wisdom with the newest graduates of Grand Rapids’ Central High School at their commencement ceremony on June 7, 1976. Her remarks touched upon her experiences since she herself had graduated from Central 40 years earlier. "You begin with your own hopes and talents and what happens is not always what you plan,” she told the Class of 1976, “but if you follow your heart and discipline yourself to be the very best you can, I believe you will find many rewards.“ 

Read Betty Ford’s full remarks at Central High School Commencement.

Image: Betty Ford congratulates members of Central High School’s Class of 1976 at their commencement ceremony at George Welsh Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6/7/1976 (White House photograph B0138-06)

Cool off while watching this fun video of Eleanor Roosevelt and close friend Marion Dickerman ice skating. This film was donated to the FDR Library by the family of Marguerite LeHand.

#NationalBestFriendsDay #RooseveltsOnFilm

“Former President Harry S. Truman (right) shakes hands with artist Pablo Picasso outside of Picasso’s ceramic studio at Vallauris, France, during Mr. Truman’s 1958 European tour.” 6/11/1958

Pleasantries aside, President Truman was reportedly not a fan of modern art, derisively referring to it as “ham and eggs” art.

Betty’s life changed dramatically once she became Mrs. Gerald Ford. They married on October 15, 1948, and her husband was elected to Congress 18 days later. 

Within weeks they moved to Washington, DC. Betty immersed herself into understanding Capitol Hill. “I saw that I would have to grow with Jerry or be left behind. And I had no intention of being left behind,” she recalled. She met with other Congressional wives, attended sessions of Congress, studied how bills became law, and gave tours to visiting constituents. Betty also did work to benefit various charitable causes such as the Red Cross and the Hospital for Sick Children. 

During the 1950s the Ford family grew and Betty devoted much of her time their four children, Michael, John, Steven, and Susan. She became a Den Mother, Sunday School teacher, PTA member, and managed their household with help from Clara Powell, who worked for the Fords for 20 years. She also remained involved in her husband’s career – attending White House and Congressional events, appearing in newspaper and magazine articles, and occasionally traveling abroad with Jerry. 

All of these activities took a toll. In 1964, a pinched nerve in her neck sent Betty to the hospital. Arthritis soon set in. These health problems combined with the stress of a husband increasingly pulled away from home by his job caused her to seek psychiatric help. “I could talk out my feelings of frustration,” she later wrote. “I no longer believe in suffering in silence over something that’s really bothering you. I think you have to get it out and on the table and discuss it, no matter what it is.” 

Together the family rallied around her and Betty resumed her active schedule. In 1972 Jerry raised the possibility of retiring at the end of his 1974 term. Betty was elated at the prospect of a life not driven by politics, but their lives would go in a much different direction than expected before they left Washington.

Betty Ford and Dance

Betty Bloomer had a passion for dance from an early age. Every day after school she went to class at the Calla Travis School of Dance, and learned every type of dance that she could. 

After graduating from Central High School in 1936, she attended the Bennington School of Dance in Vermont for two summers. While studying there she met choreographer Martha Graham, who would be one of the most influential people in her life. Betty continued her studies with Ms. Graham in New York City, becoming a member of her Auxiliary Performance Troupe and performing at Carnegie Hall.

In 1940 she returned to Michigan and formed her own performance group. She also worked with children with disabilities, helping them experience the joy of rhythm and movement in dance. During the summer she worked as a dance instructor at Camp Bryn Afon in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

Many years later as First Lady, Betty Ford continued to promote programs for children with disabilities and brought public attention to the importance of the performing arts. She encouraged her husband’s decision to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to her mentor Martha Graham, the first dancer so honored. State dinners often ended with dancing that lasted late into the night. Betty never missed an opportunity to learn new steps, even kicking off her shoes to join ballet students in their rehearsal while visiting China!

What was Betty Ford like as a child? 

Elizabeth Anne (Betty) Bloomer was born in Chicago on April 8, 1918, and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her brothers Bill and Bob. “I was a terrible tomboy and the bane of my big brothers’ existence,” she wrote in her book The Times of My Life. “I trailed them around and tried to make them let me play football and ice hockey with the guys, and sometimes they had to babysit me, and I was always interfering in their fights.“

Betty’s father, William, was a factory parts salesman. He often traveled for his work, and passed away when she was 16. Her mother, Hortense, would always be the one of the most important influences in Betty’s life. Hortense was active in the community and served as president of a local home for children with disabilities. Betty would go with her to entertain the kids by playing music and helping them to beat out the rhythms.  

Betty enjoyed school and also had an active social life as part of a high school sorority known as “The Good Cheers.” At an early age, she also developed a passion for dance. Every afternoon she attended class at the Calla Travis studio, where she learned every type of dance that she could. After high school Betty spent two summers at the Bennington School of Dance in Vermont, which introduced her to Martha Graham and led her to a new adventure in New York City.

Celebrate Betty Ford’s story and explore more resources about her life.