First Lady of the World

Black and white picture of Eleanor Roosevelt's smiling face with white text on a blue border

Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 until her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's, death is 1945. While First Lady, she traveled and reported to her husband and his advisers about living and working conditions in the country, something no First Lady had ever done before. She also became an advocate for programs to alleviate the suffering of the Great Depression and for Civil Rights for African Americans, thereby changing the role of the First Lady forever. 

After her husband's death, Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed to the United Nations by President Truman, who called her the "First Lady of the World" because of her lifelong dedication to human rights. As chair of the UN Human Rights Commission she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After she left the UN in 1953 she continued her humanitarian work with the Peace Corps and The President's Commission on the Status of Women in the 1960s and she was re-appointed to the UN by President Kennedy in 1961.