Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in View (2025-09-05)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

View of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and Commandant Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves, USN, at the keel-laying of USS Arizona (BB-39) in 1914.

Roosevelt arrives on board the HMS Prince of Wales, greeted by Churchill for the Atlantic Conference.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board USS Augusta (CA-31), off Argentia, Newfoundland, August 9, 1941. Assisting the President is his son, Army Captain Elliot Roosevelt. Ensign Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., USNR, is at left, with Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles standing behind him.

At divine service on the deck of the Prince of Wales, Roosevelt, Churchill and their staffs sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers.”

Conference leaders during Church services on the after deck of HMS Prince of Wales, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, during the Atlantic Charter Conference. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill are seated in the foreground. Standing directly behind them are Admiral Ernest J. King, USN; General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army; General Sir John Dill, British Army; Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN; and Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, RN. At far left is Harry Hopkins, talking with W. Averell Harriman.

President Roosevelt making a point with Prime Minister Churchill during their momentous Atlantic Charter meeting on 10 August 1941. The Charter was part of America's answer to the Tripartite Pact signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan in September 1940, which threatened combined Axis action against any neutral which should interfere with Axis aggressions. The United States had already challenged that threat by its Lend-Lease aid, its occupation of Iceland to forestall possible German invasion, and its naval patrol of northern hemispheric waters east to Greenland. Standing behind Roosevelt and Churchill are Admiral Ernest J. King, General George C. Marshall, and British general Sir John Dill.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill engage in an informal chat on the HMS Prince of Wales at the historic Atlantic Charter meeting.

Franklin Roosevelt (left) and Winston Churchill discuss wartime goals on board the Augusta. The resulting Atlantic Charter was endorsed by the Soviet Union and fourteen other Allied nations.

Aboard the USS Augusta (CA-31), President Franklin D. Roosevelt bids farewell to Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the historic Atlantic Charter meeting came to an end in August 1941.

After the meeting Churchill watched Roosevelt’s ship depart.

President Roosevelt addresses a joint session of Congress on 16 May 1940.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the declaration of war Dec. 8, 1941, at the White House. Watching from left to right are, Rep. Sol Bloom, D-N.Y.; Rep. Luther Johnson, D-Texas; Rep. Charles A. Eaton, R-N.J.; Rep. Joseph Martin, R-Mass.; Vice President Henry A. Wallace; House Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas; Rep. John McCormack, D-Mass.; Sen. Charles L. McNary, R-Ore.; Sen. Alben W. Barkley, D-Ky.; Sen. Carter Glass, D-Va.; and Sen. Tom Connally, D-Texas.

President Roosevelt tours a war plant. The officer escorting the President is Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, head of the Army Service Forces.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant (j.g.) Edward H. O’Hare, United States Navy, on being presented the Medal of Honor at the White House, Washington, D.C., 21 April 1942. Also present are Secretary of the Navy William Franklin Knox, Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and Mrs. O’Hare. 

Young King Peter II of Yugoslavia confers with President Franklin D. Roosevelt after fleeing Yugoslavia when the Nazis invaded. He never returned again.

The bathtub on the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). It was installed as a convenience for President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Casablanca, Morocco on the first leg of the trip to Tehran, Iran to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. 

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill confer at Casablanca.

Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca, January 1943.

Admiral King, Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt (sitting, left to right). Standing: Maj.-Gen. Ismay (second from left), Lord Mountbatten (third from left), and Field-Marshal Dill (right). Casablanca, January 1943.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill speak on the lawn of the President’s villa in Casablanca, Morocco during the January 1943 conference.

Casablanca Conference between Roosevelt and Churchill. Also shown: Gen. Arnold, Adm. Leahy and Gen. Marshall and their British counterparts.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca.

From left, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at the historic Tehran Conference in Iran on November 28, 1943.

 

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill seated together during the Yalta Conference, February 4-11, 1945.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (front left), U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (front center), and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (front right) sit at the grounds of the Livadia Palace in Crimea, USSR during the Yalta Conference, held to discuss the reorganization of postwar Europe. February 1945.

A special Douglas C-54C became the first presidential aircraft. This was the first transport designed and built to be a presidential airplane. The term Air Force One did not yet exist, and C-54C no. 42-107451 was known at first simply as “Project 51” and later as the Flying White House. Most in Washington referred to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal plane by the informal name it had been given, the “Sacred Cow.” Roosevelt used the Sacred Cow for only one overseas trip, but it was his most important, to attend the Yalta conference in February 1945.

President Roosevelt and his Pacific commanders, General Douglas MacArthur (left) and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, during a presidential visit to Pearl Harbor in July 1944.

General Douglas MacArthur, President Franklin Roosevelt and Adm. Chester Nimitz confer.

President Roosevelt and his chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy (second from right), met in Pearl Harbor in July 1944 with General MacArthur (left) and Admiral Nimitz to discuss the final stages of the Pacific War.

A memorial service in St. Paul’s Cathedral for President Roosevelt on 12 April 1945. The King and Queen, Prime Minister Churchill and his Cabinet, and the Chiefs of the armed forces were among the thousands of mourners. Near the end of the service the notes of “The Last Post” and then “Reveille” rang through the great Cathedral, sounded from the gallery by buglers of the Royal Marines.

FDR’s coffin on the caisson followed by the riderless horse, traditional symbol of the fallen leader.

Commissioning of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City, on Navy Day, October 27, 1945. Crew and visitors crowd her flight deck, as the crews of other ships present man their ship’s rails in her honor. The aircraft carrier on the opposite side of pier is USS Franklin (CV-13), under repair for battle damage received earlier in the year.