FDR’s Accessibility Designs
The FDR Library was conceived and built under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s direction during 1939-41.
Because a 1921 attack of polio had left Roosevelt paralyzed from the waist down, FDR primarily used personally-designed wheelchairs for daily mobility. Since he intended to personally and regularly use the vast collection of papers and manuscripts housed in the archives at the Library, he made sure the storage area aisles were built wide enough to accommodate his wheelchair.
He also personally designed the document storage boxes initially used to house his papers. To enable his own lap-top style reading while in the storage areas, a special box type was created that could lie flat on the shelf, open in a clam-shell fashion, and act as a sort of paper tray. Read More
Pictured, an archivist in the FDR Library archival stacks, circa 1950. The document boxes were designed by FDR.
Source: fdrlibrary.wordpress.com
163 Notes/ Hide
- prtjnny liked this
- mnemocorp reblogged this from palimpsestghost
- kellymce-blog reblogged this from todaysdocument
- xoxopimpimxoxo liked this
- outtopas liked this
- kaskino-blog-blog reblogged this from nickturse
- nickturse reblogged this from todaysdocument
- nervousmotherfucker liked this
- cometinorbit38-blog reblogged this from ourpresidents
- cometinorbit38-blog liked this
- theredshoes liked this
- disastrocat-moved liked this
- nickbottom reblogged this from todaysdocument
- impuno reblogged this from nothingreallymakesmehappy
- nothingreallymakesmehappy reblogged this from ourpresidents
- jazulay liked this
- w1ttgenstein reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
- mapmakerscolors reblogged this from todaysdocument
- streamsofcontext reblogged this from todaysdocument
- ladykrampus reblogged this from ourpresidents
- per4mancecheck liked this
- kotaline liked this
- halleycomets reblogged this from ourpresidents
- lana-knope liked this
- imelizabethtaylor liked this
- thisisntlisa reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
- nohetero liked this
- nutopiancitizen reblogged this from reagan-was-a-horrible-president
- reagan-was-a-horrible-president reblogged this from truth-has-a-liberal-bias
- reagan-was-a-horrible-president liked this
- lokisasylum liked this
- doinel-e-eu-blog-blog reblogged this from ourpresidents
- scifidork liked this
- specspectacle liked this
- kriszensufi liked this
- ourpresidents posted this
- Show more notes