Before Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States, he worked as an insurance salesman. The desk that he used still exists, and is being donated to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum.
In the 1920 Presidential election, a man named James Cox was running as the Democratic presidential candidate. Franklin D. Roosevelt was on the ticket, as the running mate of Cox. Roosevelt would have become Vice President of the United States in that election, had they won. They lost.
Shortly after that, in 1921, a man named Van Lear Black hired Roosevelt to work for an insurance company. Van Lear Black was an executive and a Baltimore newspaper publisher. He realized that FDR was a former secretary of the Navy. His hope was that FDR would be able to use his contacts to boost the business of the insurance company.
Those are the circumstances that led to Franklin D. Roosevelt becoming an insurance salesman. He became the vice president in charge of the New York City office for the company, which was called Fidelity and Deposit. A few months after being placed in charge of the Manhattan office, Roosevelt contracted polio. It has been said that working at the office job helped him to deal with his physical challenges.
FDR continued working for Fidelity and Deposit until 1928. He resigned that year after he won the election to become governor of New York. Things have changed over time. Fidelity and Deposit is now owned by Zurich American Insurance Co., (which is based near Chicago). It is a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services Group, (which is based in Switzerland).
The desk that FDR once used while working as an insurance salesman still exists. It weighs 300 pounds, and is made out of walnut. It was made in, or around, 1920, and is definitely an executive desk.
Zurich American Insurance Co. is donating the desk that FDR used to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, which is located in New York’s Hudson Valley. The desk is being donated as part of the insurance company’s commemoration of 100 years of doing business in the United States. The museum sees FDR’s desk as an important representation of what Roosevelt did before he became the 32nd President of the United States.
Image by Jim Bowen on Flickr