I just finished reading Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray. FDR’s Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins (the first woman to serve as cabinet secretary!*) has been following me around everywhere lately.

Perkins:

was in the last presidential book I read.
makes an appearance in the book I’m currently reading as part of a sponsorship, Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum’s forthcoming book.
keeps showing up in my podcast feed.
will be featured at an upcoming FDR Library event
(it’s free; in-person and streaming)
jumped out at me when I popped into the library to find a book in under 5 minutes.

Traditionally, I don’t doodle my way through fiction, but I’ve been making exceptions. This time, I didn’t need to doodle. I’ve read so many books about FDR and Eleanor that a lot of what I read in this book can be found in my sketchbooks already. Those books (listed at the bottom) helped me appreciate Becoming Madame Secretary even more. Conversely, reading this adds vivid color to the other books I’ve read.

*Also our longest-serving secretary of labor, serving all of FDR’s terms!

Many (but certainly not all) of the doodles below were inspired by The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz, which deepened my appreciation for so many characters who frequently pop up in my reading and TV watching.

Let’s get to it.

Here’s random collection of doodles and tidbits, specifically curated to not to spoil this book for you.

Russell Sage Foundation

I learned that Russell Sage was a person. Never in all the years of hearing “Russell Sage” did I ever wonder where the name of the college came from. If I was forced to guess, I might have thought they were two people. Mr. Russell and Mr. Sage and they came together to make a college. In any case, this cements that I need to pull together a blog post about things that were obviously named for people that I didn’t realize were named for people. (Feel free to add suggestions in the comments below!)

In any case, Frances received a fellowship from the Russell Sage Foundation.

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Consider the bad luck of the worm.

In this book, FDR tells Frances “We have an unfortunate tendency to celebrate the early bird, without worrying about the misfortune of the early worm.” And maybe he did say that to her. But I also just read that he said something very similar to NYC Judge Henry M. Heymann, regarding not running too soon.

I accidentally transposed “think” and “sometimes” in the doodle below but we can let that slide, right?

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“Littering body parts at the doorstep of Frank Roosevelt”

Sometimes I start writing stuff in my sketchbook and realize I’ve backed myself into a corner. Such was the case when I talked about how Alice Roosevelt & Nicolas Longworth “headed” over to FDR and Eleanor’s house… where a bomber accidentally blew himself up across the street and a chunk of his scalp ended up on their roof.

Oof.

I didn’t intend that pun. Alice Roosevelt reflected that it was “difficult to avoid stepping on bloody hunks of human being. The man had been torn apart, fairly blown to butcher’s meat.” My jaw was on the floor while I read this section in 1920.

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Al Smith

I got to know Al Smith quite well reading Roosevelt Sweeps Nation. “The Happy Warrior” wanted to be president, but he was too Tammany, too Catholic, and too wet. In fact, his campaign buttons promised “vote for Al Smith and make your wet dreams come true.”

That bear trap in the lower right corner? It represents the book Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, which snapped shut like a steel trap every time I tried to wedge it open so I could draw from it.

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Don’t let your left hand know what your right is doing.

In this book, FDR tells Frances “Oh, Frances, when it comes to politics, I don’t even let my right hand know what my left is doing.”

In Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, FDR says to his Hyde Park neighbor / buddy / Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr.: “Never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

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Harrimans vs. Roosevelts

I first got into the Harrimans when reading The Daughters of Yalta. When Mary Harriman Rumsey, Averell Harriman’s sister, first appeared I was delighted.

A few things:

There was a Roosevelt vs. Harriman beef dating back to the early 1900s, when Theodore Roosevelt clashed with E.H. Harriman, and then unleashed an anti-trust investigation against Harriman’s railway holdings.

Averell Harriman wasn’t into FDR’s New Deal at first. His sister Mary encouraged / gave him a shove.
(I didn’t remember that part while reading about Mary in Becoming Madame Secretary!)

The Harrimans were wealthy. Very, very wealthy.

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Here we go again

My mind is blown yet again by another family tree. (Fun idea: come up with some new first names and stop marrying your cousin. That would make my crude research less baffling.)

Ok, so I knew immediately that Mary was E.H. Harriman’s daughter and Averell Harriman’s sister. Cool cool cool. But then I started poking around and discovered that another sibling was married to Robert Livingston Gerry, Sr.*, which sent me off to find out two things:

How does he tie into all of the other Roberts Livingston?
Is he related to THEE Elbridge Gerry (pronounced GARY), of gerrymandering infamy?

And the answers are as follows:

OMG MY HEAD HURTS
Yes, yes he is! That scrawny little traitor to the British crown was his grandfather!

*Not to be confused with Robert Livingston Beekman, who showed up in my last book.

Here we go…

The Harrimans mentioned in Becoming Madame President are highlighted in blue
Mary and Averell’s sister Cornelia marries Robert Livingston Gerry. You can trace the purple dots to see how he’s related to Founding Fathers Elbridge Gerry and Robert “The Chancellor” Livingston. It’s further complicated because his mom is related both Robert “The Elder” Livingston and Robert “The Nephew” Livingston.
If we take a step back (and erase a bunch of stuff to make room), the green shows how Eleanor Roosevelt also rolls up to Robert “The Elder” Livingston as well. For her, it’s by way of Robert “The Chancellor” Livingston.

Phew.

I’m gonna need to lie down now. That was exhausting.

If you enjoy convoluted family trees, I have more! If you’re only interested in convoluted family trees featuring the Livingstons, check out my embarrassing confession.

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Have you read Becoming Madame Secretary?

Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

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Postscript

While preparing this post, I discovered that Frances Perkins’ grandson died while I read this book. Tomlin Coggeshall shared the story of his grandmother and mother with Stephanie Dray as she wrote this book and was actively preserving his grandmother’s legacy.

A teeny, tiny bibliography

Here are the books I’ve read about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, in the order that I read (or am reading) them. Whether I pulled doodles from my sketchbooks or not, these all deepened my appreciation for Becoming Madame Secretary (and vice versa):

FDR: A Biography
Ted Morgan

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War
Catherine Grace Katz

Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal
David Pietrusza

MORE DOODLES

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back
Shannon McKenna Schmidt

MORE DOODLES

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents
David Pietrusza

MORE DOODLES

Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1963
Forthcoming book from Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

MORE DOODLES