Since the Roosevelt family of the 1800's was deeply involved in shipping and trading with countries as far away as China and India, the young Roosevelt was always pestering his relatives to send him mail---and bring him stamps---from around the world. No country was left out, no type of stamp was elminated from his interests. He loved them all. And when he went away to prep school, and later Harvard University, he took his stamp collection with him. In fact, for the rest of his life, no matter where FDR traveled, his collection went with him.
Franklin Roosevelt, when asked about his hobby during his later years, stated several times that, "I owe my life to my hobbies, especially stamp collecting." In this regard, he was very serious. For in the late summer of 1921, after visiting a Boy Scout camp, he contracted infantile paralysis (polio) which struck him down like a falling tree. In deep pain and with little chance of ever being able to walk again, Roosevelt turned to his stamp collection to while away the hours and give him mental strength and diversion.
In Roosevelt's mind his love of stamp collecting was conclusive in helping him return to a virtually normal life. Before his illness he had served as a New York State Senator and then Undersecretary of the Navy. With philately aiding his recovery, he moved vigorously back into politics...and by 1928 he was elected Governor of New York. (At that time he became a life member of the American Philatelic Society.) Four years later, with his stamp collection in tow, he entered the White House. It was a pivotal moment for the hobby of philately.
FDR's fame as a stamp collector spread throughout the world and, during his presidency, the hobby rose to become the world's most popular pastime. And as president he either designed or held influence over every stamp issued by the United States.
In the years of World War II as FDR journeyed to faraway places like Casablanca and Yalta, his stamp collections went with him in a large wooden trunk. Each night before retiring he would spend two or three hours with his stamps. His knowledge of world geography---gained from philately---was so formidable that he often impressed his military aides with his expertise on even the most obscure potential battle site.
As the war was winding down, Roosevelt---exhausted from his recent trip to Yalta---traveled to his retreat at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. On the morning of April 12, 1945, he approved the design for the new "Toward United Nations" commemorative stamp and then spent a quiet hour with his collection. Shortly thereafter, while posing for a portrait, Franklin Roosevelt collapsed and died from a massive cerebral hemmorhage.
It is fitting that this lifelong stamp collector was pursuing his great love of stamps only moments before he passed into history. Today, philatelists of all walks of life salute FDR as the premier American philatelist of all time.
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