Franklin D. Roosevelt: Archive of Documents and Photograph Compiled by George Durno.. -1930s -1940s. Various sizes and dates... (Total: 18 Items)

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Franklin D. Roosevelt: Archive of Documents and Photograph Compiled by George Durno.
-1930s -1940s. Various sizes and dates.
-Most near fine or better.

This one of a kind collection includes the following material: (1) Over one hundred original 8 x 10" photographs of FDR's trip to the Casablanca Conference with magnificent candid pictures of FDR reviewing troops, conferring with staff, meeting with Winston S. Churchill, and a rare grouping of FDR reviewing segregated black troops. Other photos include Churchill, Patton, Marshall and other leading figures; (2) original eighty-page manuscript by Durno concerning his history of the Casablanca Conference; (3) the official log book of the Casablanca Conference; (4) the official logbook of FDR's 1943 trip to North Africa and the Middle East; (5) six 8 x 10" photographs of FDR driving his special automobile at Warm Springs, Georgia; (6) a grouping of ten photographs of the Washington, D.C. press corps, including Vice President John Nance Garner; (7) photograph of FDR and Lowell Thomas, signed by Thomas; (8) short snorter notes signed by Eleanor Roosevelt, Admiral William F. Halsey, General Robert Eichelberger and many other personalities from Durno's trip to the Pacific Southwest with ER; (9) signed White House letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Mrs. Durno enclosing a souvenir of their Pacific Southwest trip; (10) autograph draft telegram from ER to FDR initialed "E.R."; (11) an oversized photograph of the 1933 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner with FDR at the head table; (12) signed photograph of Stephen T. Early; (13) signed photograph of Marvin H. McIntyre; (14) signed photograph of James A. Farley; (15) signed photograph of D. Basil "Doc" O'Connor; (16) set of six invitations from the Roosevelt White House and a program for the presentation of the Eleanor Roosevelt Portrait at the White House in 1966; (17) 1933 FDR bronze Inaugural Medal; and, (18) group of miscellaneous letters, including two letters by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. from 1934 from the National Republican Club rallying Republicans against the re-election of his fifth cousin, once removed and Grace G. Tully on Franklin D. Roosevelt Foundation dated October 31, 1949.

During World War II Durno served in the military and was selected to serve as FDR's press secretary during the historic wartime conference at Casablanca, covering for Stephen T. Early, who stayed behind in Washington, D.C. As FDR's long-serving personal secretary Grace G. Tully notes on pages 208 and 209 of her best-selling F.D.R., My Boss: "Marvin McIntyre went over to the White House that Monday for the usual morning conference. He took the elevator on the basement floor and was waiting in the hall on the second floor outside the Boss' bedroom for Steve [Early] to put in an appearance. Pa [Watson], who ordinarily would have accompanied the President, had been away from the office due to illness. FDR had discussed his plans with Steve. The Boss wanted someone to handle the press at Casablanca, but he couldn't spare Steve from Washington because Mac was not well enough to carry the load. They decided that George Durno, who had covered the White House for many years as a reporter for the INS but who was now a Captain in the Army, would be the best man to pinch hit for Steve. George was ordered to report to Washington but to let no one know he was in town. He came in the back way to see the President and was let in on the secret trip and told the part he was to play. I recall asking him on the train going South how he was going to explain his sudden appearance back with the old crowd and he smiled and said, 'I've already told everyone that my job is to look after the baggage so I go around making sure that everything is properly tagged.'"

Durno was also a member of the official Presidential party that traveled with FDR to the wartime conferences at Cairo, Tehran, and finally Yalta. Durno was also a key participant in Eleanor Roosevelt's 1943 tour of the Pacific Southwest on behalf of the President. Durno's wife Ruth White Durno worked at the White House from the Herbert Hoover through the Lyndon B. Johnson Administrations as a stenographer.